In a Thousand Different Ways: the gripping, unforgettable new novel from the Sunday Times number 1 bestselling author

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Finding your way is never a simple journey…Alice sees the worst in people.She also sees the best.She sees a thousand different emotions and knows exactly what everyone around her is feeling.Every. Single. Day.But it’s the dark thoughts.The sadness. The rage.These are the things she can’t get out of her head. The things that overwhelm her.Where will the journey to find herself begin? In a Thousand Different Ways by Cecelia Ahern – eBook Details The story follows Alice with her gift, and the people in her life – her disturbing and difficult relationship with her Mother and Brother Ollie, her elder Brother Hugh and then later her first boyfriend, husband, children and grandchildren. Alice Kelly has a gift (or curse, depending on your perspective). She sees an aura around people, sensing their emotions and moods, owing to a condition called synaesthesia. She grows up in an unhappy home with a bipolar mother who neglects Alice and her brothers. This is the story of Alice’s life and ultimately, it’s a rather odd, humdrum and depressing one.

I have heard of synaesthesia where people see music as colours, but limited on those who see people's auras. It certainly makes you think on how it would affect you if this happened to you. It was one of those books that I became totally absorbed in, not light hearted as I normally enjoy, but contemplative especially towards the end. One to read when you want something a bit heavier, but not depressing, and totally different. Highly recommended.

Featured Reviews

A gorgeous cover, alas the book did not live up to it. This was pretty poor and one for diehard Cecelia Ahern fans only. Furthermore, I liked how the relationship between Alice and Lily progresses throughout the book, and I think it was handled brilliantly. For the love story, I felt the connection between Alice and Andy was a bit forced for one reason, but I am likely to understand that love and marriage are not perfect. This confusing discovery is a lot for a child to take in, and it impacts her behaviours, as well as her relationships. She does manage to live a life of her own, with the urging of her older brother, and moves away from the toxic environment that is her childhood home.

Original thinkers (when they use their powers for good.) You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish? Wie kann man ein Leben meistern, wenn Ablenkung ein fester Bestandteil im Alltag ist? Wie kann man sich angstfrei in einer Gesellschaft bewegen, wenn man zum Beispiel auf einem Kinderspielplatz die dunkelsten Absichten mancher Menschen sieht und spürt? Und was passiert, wenn jemand mit Synästhesie auf jemanden trifft, der keinerlei Farbe widerspiegelt?Her older brother Hugh tries to protect Alice and their younger brother Ollie from their volatile mother but leaves as soon as he’s able, which coincides with Alice being sent away to a school for troublesome children. In reality it’s a lifesaver for her and for the first time she’s accepted despite her idiosyncrasies. Der neueste Roman von Cecilia Ahern ist kein Wohlfühlbuch. Und trotzdem war ich ziemlich gefesselt von Alice' Geschichte. An mehreren Stellen hab ich mitgelitten mit ihr - schlussendlich aber hat Alice ihr Leben ziemlich gut gemeistert. Ein tapferes Mädchen und eine starke Frau. Und jeder neue Abschnitt in ihrem Leben hat sich dann ja auch meistens als Verbesserung herausgestellt.

This is both a complex and simple story about relationships and family and about love and friendship. I felt perhaps the pacing was a bit inconsistent though at the same time recognise Ahern slowed to focus on certain moments in Alice’s life… fast forwarding through others. An interesting fictional recount of how someone with synesthesia may see life and the world around them. I found all of the characters well rounded. We get to know them well through their impact on Alice. Her meeting with Naomi is a turning point, where she learns that her life can be different. Her relationship with Andy, after an idyllic start, becomes troubled at times, but they learn to deal with each other's idiosyncrasies. Her love of being out in nature and her growing understanding of plants through seeing their moods and colours was fascinating and and, for her, life-changing.From her extraordinarily difficult childhood, we follow Alice throughout her life, dealing with her strange gift which she cannot describe, therefore nobody can understand, and consequently has her labelled a troublemaker. Relationships with her siblings and her mother are complicated. Her school days are fraught with problems due to her condition preventing her from making friends, until she finds people she can relate to in a special school, just one of many breakthrough moments in the story. Their personalities come to life. It was like watching a movie or listening to a radio play with multiple narrators. Seriously folks, it’s utter genius and it’s what makes the audiobook just pop. I would of enjoyed the novel reading it also but this is THE best audiobook ever. A bad or boring Narrator can kill an audiobook, so choosing one carefully is a must. Kudos! It’s about a character named Alice who has the ability to see people’s emotions in the form of colours around their bodies; she sees auras. She can instantly know just by looking at someone exactly how they’re feeling, and if the colour travels to her, then she can also feel exactly as they are feeling. Alice feels that this skill is a burden, not a gift, and we follow her as she tries to navigate her own life, carve out her own path despite feeling overwhelmed by everyone around her. If you asked me to describe this book in a colour, I would call it the blue of a mist - pretty to look at but not very discernable. If you asked me how I felt reading it, I'd say it tugged at my heartstrings but it also left me a bit confused - what was the point? Is it a sort of bildungsroman? Just a story of a woman with Synesthesia? If you asked me whether I would recommend the book to others, I'd say it depends on whether you would like to spend an evening reading about a woman, her struggles with her undiagnosed condition, beautiful relationship with her older brother, complicated relationship with her mother and a romance that just didn't seem right. The audiobook narrated by Amy McAllister was good, especially the distinction she provides to different characters. A beautiful cover – very apt for the story.