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Hello everyone, how are you today?
Fancy a little reading? If so, you're in luck! Because today, a review from this category is showing up on the blog. I hope it helps you decide whether or not you'll like the title.
For some people, it is difficult to take control of their lives when they can no longer recognize themselves in their own body.
Alyssa is a nurse in an intensive care unit, and a few years ago, she was a patient herself. In a tragic car accident, she suffered bodily changes that she can't come to terms with.
That's without counting on her meeting with Naël, a seductive pastry chef with a devastating smile.
Come discover this duo full of sweetness and complexity. What if self-acceptance was the key to happiness?
From the very beginning of Our Souls in Pocket, we are plunged into a daily life that is both ordinary and disrupted: Alyssa, an intensive care nurse, is confronted with her own image, altered after a serious accident. This gap between her role as a caregiver and her view of herself immediately poses a powerful paradox.
What I found very powerful was this constant tension between the need to help others and the difficulty of reconnecting with oneself. The story touched me with its sincerity: we feel the physical and mental exhaustion, the suffering of no longer being oneself, and yet the will to continue, to hold on.
The theme of the altered body resonates powerfully: Alyssa embodies this woman who must relearn how to exist, how to move, how to be looked at differently. It's beautifully symbolic, this "elsewhere" in her own body. The scenes in the hospital, the interactions with patients and colleagues are described with realism, sincerity, and sometimes pain. But also this element of resilience that slowly sets in.
What I was less convinced by was that some passages seemed a little too focused on Alyssa's introspection, to the detriment of the dynamic side of her professional environment in terms of her department, her patients, her protocols. There is a lightness of construction around these elements, as if they were offered in a cursory manner. I would have liked more depth in the medical or relational scenes linked to her profession.
And then, sometimes, the pace struggles to find its splendor: the highlights are powerful, but interspersed with narrative gaps where the progression seems suspended. This can slow down the reading for those who like everything to move forward a little.
Yet Amélie Roland's writing is touching: natural, without artifice, with a balance between modesty and gravity. There is a real gentleness in the treatment of the subject, despite the harshness of the situation. And this sensitivity carried me throughout the story, even when the tension diminished.
In summary, Our Souls in My Pocket is a poignant read about a woman's recovery from physical trauma, self-acceptance, and connection to her body. A beautiful reflection on fragility and adaptability. A must-read if you enjoy sensitive and introspective stories, even if the sometimes slow pace may put some people off.
And you? Will the title touch you?
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