The following review appeared yesterday in the Kitchener Waterloo Herald. We thought we’d share the good news.

By Jon Fear, Record staff
A Subtle Thing
by Alicia Hendley
(Five Rivers, 200 pages, $25 softcover)
Depression can be a painful, soul-destroying burden. And one of the ironies, says Beth, the young woman who tells her own story in this often instructive novel, is that as you wind your way deeper and deeper into self-destructive behaviour, your best friends and family can be oblivious to what’s happening.
“The funny thing, hilarious really, is that no one seems to know,” Beth observes as she begins to tell how subtle transitions made her sad, made her angry, made her a cutter, made her want to end it all. “You’re walking through your life with parts falling off and no one notices the leper among them.”
Alicia Hendley’s wonderfully written first novel is certainly not light reading and there’s not much to like about Beth in the early going. But a compelling story gradually emerges about her return from the depths, a climb made more difficult by the attitudes of others who refuse to let her move on, long after the dark days are over.
Hendley is a Guelph resident who grew up in Waterloo. She has a PhD in clinical psychology and works as a psychologist in a University of Waterloo counselling centre.
A mother of four, she wrote the initial draft of this novel while on a maternity leave. Let’s hope she can find time to keep writing, another baby or not.
The publisher, Five Rivers Chapmanry, is based in Neustadt, Ont. You can buy A Subtle Thing at area bookstores, online at http://www.5rivers.org/,  or through the Espresso Book Machine at the University of Waterloo bookstore.

Publisher’s Note: A Subtle Thing, like all Five Rivers’ publications, is available through online booksellers globally in both digital and print format, and through select bookstores.