BLOG TOUR | 'Under Rose-Tainted Skies' by Louise Gornall | Introduction to Norah

Hello readers, and happy Tuesday! I am so excited to be participating today in the Under Rose-Tainted Skies blog tour - URTS is a beautiful book written by Louise Gornall about mental health, friendship and being brave in the face of your greatest fears. URTS is a story for everyone, because every one of us has struggled with our mental health at one point or other, and Gornall writes with gorgeous intricacy of the day-to-day struggles of living with a mental health problem. I know you will all love this book as much as I did :)

Under Rose-Tainted Skies follows the story of Norah, a teenager dealing with agoraphobia and OCD, which prevents her from living like other teenagers; Norah's fears and relentless battles with her own mind keep her confined to her house and unable to attend school or make friends. So when a boy moves in next door, Norah has to make a decision - if she can't bring herself to go outside, can she at least let someone in?

Sounds like a great story, right? Check out the blurb here...

Norah has agoraphobia and OCD. When groceries are left on the porch, she can’t step out to get them. Struggling to snag the bags with a stick, she meets Luke. He’s sweet and funny, and he just caught her fishing for groceries. Because of course he did.

Norah can’t leave the house, but can she let someone in? As their friendship grows deeper, Norah realizes Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can lie on the front lawn and look up at the stars. One who isn’t so screwed up.

And today I am excited to have none other than Louise Gornall on my blog, to give us a deeper insight into the mind of Norah and the world that she lives in. Hopefully this will make you want to grab a copy of URTS and devour it as quickly and determinedly as I did!

Hi guys! My name is Louise Gornall. I wrote a young adult contemporary novel called Under Rose-Tainted Skies, and I’m here to tell you a little bit about my main character, Norah, and the world she lives in. 

It’s so hard to capture Norah in a few hundred words. Initially, she seems dull. (Stick with me). The only reason I’d never tried telling this story before is because I didn't realise there was a story to tell.

Anyways, we’ll start with the basics. Norah lives with her Mom in California, surrounded by old people. She’s homeschooled, doesn't have any friends, her favourite food is anything colourless, and she can recite, verbatim, almost any daytime show on t.v. But she’s a contradiction. See, while the world around her is so plain, still, safe, inside her head there are fireworks happening.

Norah is an agoraphobic with OCD, anxiety, and depression. I don't think these are who she is, but they play a massive role in how her life is unraveling. And this is what Norah’s story is about, how she’s had to shape her life around her mental health, how she deals with relationships, how she handles change. It’s about insurmountable odds, frustration, upset, coping, hating, loving, and discovering. 

I like to think I wrote Norah as honest, unflinching, strong, weak, pretty, and imperfect -- with impeccable taste in horror movies and a killer sense of humour. 

She’s changed very little since the first draft. What you see is pretty much how she’s been since day one. My editor was very conscious about keeping her voice authentic. Major props to Anne Hoppe at HMH for being honest and upfront about her knowledge of mental health, and for letting me take the wheel with this one.

Norah is different, intense, quirky, but I’m really hoping that, by the end of the book, you’ll want to hangout with her as much as I do.


Thank you for appearing on my blog, Louise! 

Guys, make sure you check out the other posts on the URTS blog tour, they are too good to be missed!

Check out Louise Gornall here: http://louisegornall.tumblr.com

Buy Under Rose-Tainted Skies here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/under-rose-tainted-skies/louise-gornall/9781910655863


Until next time :)