There was so much loveliness surrounding Jocelyn Patten as she grew up in Canada. Having moved to the country from her birthplace of Massachusetts at the age of two, Patten was surrounded by relatives and family friends who supported and loved her. And, yet, despite all this, she fell through the cracks into a world of both numbness and agitation. Family support did not protect her from a life of mental illness. It may have softened it a bit, her landing, but it didn’t prevent any of it, or dictate its course. There are many factors in the development of mental illness, family support being just one of them. Schooling at first seemed to be okay, but Patten was teased and taunted by the kids around her. And, we realize through the chapters of her memoir, her illness was starting to poke through as a teenager. She barely finished high school. By the time she reached her twenties, there was no denying that she was walking a different path than those around her. Patten’s family was filled with highly successful people, including her two brothers who moved through university and shone in their chosen professions. It took a long time for Patten to shine her own light—decades, even—but she is figuring out how to work that ‘on’ button. It doesn’t always work, but that light definitely stays on longer than she ever thought possible. Jocelyn Patten lives in Ottawa, Canada in a neighbourhood alongside the moody Ottawa River. In the warmer months, her two cats Maggie and Birdy hang out on the screened-in porch, chasing squirrels from the comfort of rattan furniture. Patten is drawn to stories that explore identity through the lens of mental illness. She is working on a novel with a heroine who lives with bipolar disorder.