How does a doctor examine a person’s brain? They won’t use any knives on me, will they?

Rowan the Strange takes place during the Second World War, but inside a lunatic asylum Rowan Scrivener is fighting his own battle. Rowan is suffering from the mental illness schizophrenia and away from the chaos and worry of the war Rowan and Doctor Von Metzer, Rowan‘s German doctor, try and resolve the problems that occur. Rowan and the other patients on his ward receive electroconvulsive therapy to try and destroy their mental illnesses. 

I thought this novel was rather sad in many parts of the story. The most emotional part of this novel was to do with one of the patients on the ward called Dorothea. I liked her character and got attached to her and so I found it very upsetting when the electroconvulsive therapy took away her vision of angels.

‘"She’s gone,” she croaked, the tears rolling faster and faster. “I can’t see her any more. I can’t hear her. Joan’s gone. She’s really, really gone.”’

Also when she committed suicide and wasn’t there any more, it made me feel quite sad. Another sad thing about Dorothea in the novel was , unlike Rowan: when the therapy managed to destroy the voice in his head he was still the same boy and personality because the voice inside his head didn’t reflect himself, she was not the same person when her sight for angels went as that was a huge part of her.

‘Rowan found himself hoping, more than anything, for a nice ripe insult; for something truly scathing to show that Dorothea had come back from her treatment with all the old fight still in her.’

Therefore I think Julie Hearn managed to create quite a moving novel which was helped by the detail she writes about the electroconvulsive therapy and the after-effects on the patients.

I like the way Hearn has put a German character into the novel as I think it makes his character more interesting because he gets judged and ridiculed just because of his nationality when really he is a good honest man trying to help and cure people. When the British see or hear doctor Von all they think is ‘Jerry’.

‘Nobody’s supposed to LIKE the baddie, exactly, but it was more than that... [...] sourness in their expressions that had nothing to do with the character von Metzer was struggling to portray, and everything to do with the man himself.’

I also like how the novel was written. It is in the first person but it varies from Rowan Scrivener and Doctor Von Metzer, which I enjoyed.

The end of the novel leaves us with a few possibilities and lets us form our own ending. You never find out if Rowan can adapt back to normal life with his family or if things are awkward and never the same again. Some people will not like this kind of uncertainty but I rather enjoy thinking what could happen and finishing the novel myself.

Hearn put a lot of detail into electroconvulsive therapy and schizophrenia. I think some people would not enjoy this novel as much as I did because of the detail put in and it may not be the best book for children as they might find it a little disturbing.

Rowan the Strange is a gripping and exciting novel. The story line never bored me and most of the time I wanted to read on and find out what happened. I think Hearn was successful in creating in page-turner especially at the end of chapters.

‘”There’s a patient missing […] move now, or there’ll be trouble.”’ 

I enjoyed this novel, and for that and the points I have stated I am giving it eight out of ten.