Music journalist, self-professed creep and former winner of the coveted 'Fittest Girl in Year 11' award, Harriet Gibsone lives in fear of her internet searches being leaked. Harriet spent much of her young life feeding neuroses and insecurities with obsessive internet searching (including compulsive googling of exes, prospective partners, and their exes), and indulging in whirlwind 'parasocial relationships' (translation: one-sided affairs with celebrities she has never met). Suddenly, with a diagnosis of early menopause in her late twenties, her relationship with the internet takes a darker turn, as her online addictions are thrown into sharp relief by the corporeal realities of illness and motherhood.
An outrageously funny, raw and painfully honest account of trying to find connection in the age of the internet, Is This Ok? is the launch of an exciting new comic voice.
ISBN 9781035000999
Dear Reader,
Checking into a mental clinic wasn't exactly on my radar in 2022. Writing about it wasn't either. But here we are. I spent a lifetime trying to create a 'front' to give everyone the illusion that all is well. It wasn't, and it isn't. Now I look back and I think, 'what the f*ck was that all about?' I began the book trying to find meaning by going on various, life-changing journeys, I ended up in a mental clinic; obviously things didn't work out the way I expected. This is the story of what happened after the mental car crash . . . From then on, the journey had to turn inward. It turns out I wasn't looking for meaning, I was looking for home. I'm not a fiction writer. I can't fake it. I could say I rode into the sunset, but life isn't like that unless you're a cowboy. Truth is I'm not as well as I thought I was. These days, trying to stay sane in a completely chaotic world makes life incredibly difficult. For those readers who are deep in the darkness of mental illness, I hope my book makes you feel less alone.
Take care, love, Ruby x
'A true tour de force. We're all a little messed up in our own ways, but we should all strive to be as fabulously fearless as Ruby' Fearne Cotton
'Nobody can make the serious funny and the funny serious quite like Ruby.' - Alastair Campbell