Review: OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu

Title: OCD Love Story
Author: Corey Ann Haydu
Published: July 23rd 2013
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*An ARC was provided in excange for an honest review*

In this raw and relatable romance, Bea learns that some things just can’t be controlled.

When Bea meets Beck, she knows instantly that he’s her kind of crazy. Sweet, strong, kinda-messed-up Beck understands her like no one else can. He makes her feel almost normal. He makes her feel like she could fall in love again.

But despite her feelings for Beck, Bea can’t stop thinking about someone else: a guy who is gorgeous and magnetic... and has no idea Bea even exists. But Bea knows a lot about him. She spends a lot of time watching him. She has a journal full of notes. Some might even say she’s obsessed.

Bea tells herself she’s got it all under control. But this isn’t a choice, it’s a compulsion. The truth is, she’s breaking down...and she might end up breaking her own heart.

In addition to it being one of my most anticipated books of 2013, it was my first request on Edelweiss and I got approved. Whohoo!! (Thank you, Simon Pulse.) I was super stoked to get my hand dirty so to speak and dive into the unknown since I have heard of OCD and I know the basics, but not the details and to be inside someone's head who has obsessive compulsive disorder was a truly intirguing idea.

I can't trap the words before they come out. If I didn't know any better, I'd think I suffer from some sort of Tourette's-autism hybrid, but Dr. Pat insists I can control the impulse to say whatever pops into my head. That it's, like, a defensive mechanism, not a biological imperative. Therapists think everyone is a defence mechanism. Just me thinking that in my head, right now, is a defence mechanism. (page 30 of the arc.)

The story. Bea is our main character and she attends this dance between two schools and suddenly the power goes out. She hears a guy having a panic attack and goes to help him since she's familiar with the case. They kind of bond through that experience and Bea does something a little reckless. A little later on in the novel they meet in group therapy and it turnes out that Beck isn't that normal either. Bea has serious issues, which she doesn't realize at first. She has OCD and this is her story.

My thoughts. I liked Bea as a character. She's such a conflict for me as a peronality since I could not decide if I really loved her or was completely disturbed by her. I think it was a little bit of both. Her thoughts were all over the place to the point where these tiny little details meant  everything to her and she really did suffer under these compulsions that Dr. Pat--her therapist--talked about in their group sessions. At first I didn't realize that the other kids who attended these group therapy sessions had just as strong if not stronger compulsions themselves, but as the novel progressed, we got to see different sides of obsessive compulsion disorder and it was kind of an eye-opening experience for me.

I really enjoyed the love story between Beck and Bea. While Bea is more under the compulsion of people and dreaming, Beck is a guy who is obsessed with the number 8. For instance, there was this one part where he needed to take a shower, he wanted to pull it off with 8 minutes, but didn't make it, so 88 minutes it was. He is a gym-a-holic and an obsessive hand washer. These two shouldn't really work, but they do. The attraction between the two is there from page one as you can imagine.

It wasn't only about the romance though. OCD Love Story was also a book that shows us how this disease affects family relationships, friendships, one's life in general and even strangers. I enjoyed all of the characters in this book. It wasn't a light read by any means, it gives you this disturbed feeling throughout the entire book and that's okay because it is meant to portray the hard parts of a person suffering from OCD. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, no. I think these people are interesting and if they want, they can take on any task they set themselves up for and this novel portrays it beautifully.

The final verdict is that I adored this book even if being in Bea's head was at times awkward and really disturbing. She was also a fun character to spend time with and she cracked me up quite a bit. I have never read anything like this and I enjoyed that it was written from first person point of view since it gave us an intimate relationship with Bea and we saw firsthand how OCD affects a person and the people surrounding one. I definitely recommend this book to all of you who are the tiniest bit interested. Even if you end up disliking it, it's a book you will most certainly not forget.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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