An impressive effort for a Australian debut novel. Twenty-something Caitlin struggles with anxiety and depression. She is a credible character and this book is an easy, engaging read. Recommended. ( )

The Morbids begins in a very striking way:

There was glitter in my hair. When I moved it sparkled, fell, onto my hand, my lap. Stung.

There was glitter and silence—so loud it hurt my ears. And I smell I knew but couldn't place. Hot. Rusty. Sour.

'Hey,' I said. 'Are you okay?'

Nobody answered.

I looked down. My neck hurt and at the corner of my eye, I saw my hair. Pink, like fairy floss, full of glitter.

'Hey,' I said again, louder. Still nobody answered.

There was just silence. And glitter.

So much glitter.

So bloody quiet.

So, right from the start the reader knows that something traumatic has happened to Caitlin, and that is why she attends a weekly support group with people suffering profound, disabling anxiety about the fear of imminent death. They are nicknamed 'The Morbids' because what they talk about each week is all the multiple ways in which they might die. So subtly you might miss it, author Ewa Ramsey lets the reader know that at first this group had proper professional help, but that help has been downgraded from psychiatrist, to psychologist, to counsellor, to a passing parade of nurses who never do anything other than take notes. It's one of the participants who leads the group.

(This is what happens when there are budget cuts to a state's health system. All these people needing help and not getting it. Victoria, I am pleased to say, has just held a Royal Commission into mental health services and big changes are afoot. If the other states have any sense, they'll pick up and run with the recommendations that are made, without the expense of holding their own Royal Commissions.)

Some might characterise The Morbids as a novel on the theme of being your own worst enemy. Caitlin's life has been derailed and she self-sabotages anything that might help her. But Caitlin is beyond having the agency to make such decisions, about this or anything else. In careful dialogue that seems so authentic that it might have emerged from fly-on-the-wall observations, Ramsey shows Caitlin building a protective wall around herself. She is smart, she is funny, she is droll about the circumstances of her life but she is powerless to change it. She tells no one what her problem is, not even in the support group. She does not hear most of what is said to her. She fends off friendship and concern. She absents herself from family occasions, and she uses the routines of her work as a waitress to steady herself and keep her anxiety at bay.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/03/07/the-morbids-by-ewa-ramsey/ ( )