SuitabookCrossing the line
Dianne Bates
- Reading
- Agree beforehand that your reader can stop or talk, and return to the story when they feel ready.
- Themes
- Therapeutic boundaries: The overview says psychiatrist Helen Marshall and Sophie both cross the patient–therapist line. A boundary crossing is part of the plot, but its nature and treatment are not clear.
- Mental-health struggles and care: Sophie has self-mutilated, has more recently been in therapy, and is admitted to hospital amid increasing depression. These experiences are central to the situation described; whether the story presents them as helpful, harmful or otherwise is unknown.
- Care and belonging: After being orphaned and abandoned by long-term foster carers, Sophie lives with Amy and Matt and tentatively forms relationships with other teenagers. The overview establishes disrupted care and tentative connections, but not how the story evaluates either.
- Worth knowing
- The overview includes self-mutilation, increasing depression, hospital admission and disrupted foster care. Consider whether these subjects might feel difficult for your reader, and whether you would prefer to read alongside them.