Let Down Your Hair: Bryony Gordon

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Barb’s complex personal struggles — guilt that she’s ruined her loved ones’ lives, loneliness, lack of self-esteem, depression — are evoked with impactful, empathetic intensity. With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. And if they won't look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way. One who isn’t confined to her bedroom on the 12th floor of the tower-block flat she shares with her aunt making content.

The YA fiction debut from bestselling author Bryony Gordon, Let Down Your Hair is a modern twist on Rapunzel featuring a hair influencer who develops alopecia – and her quest for a different sort of happy ever after. There is a lot to really enjoy in this story and there is great energy to the writing, as well as some fine characterization' - Peter James, award-winning and no. In 2017, she won the MIND Making A Difference Award for her work in changing the perception of mental health in the media. She is the presenter of the Mad World podcast and in 2016 she founded Mental Health Mates, now a global peer support network which encourages people with mental health issues to connect and get out of the house.

Since the day she was born, Barb’s glorious hair has defined her existence, and the same is true as she turns sixteen.

They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe. After surviving a mental health rollercoaster, after truths come to light, Let Down Your Hair comes to a jubilant, life-affirming climax that will have readers weeping with joy. Holly Bourne is a great advocate of young teens reading about difficult issues as a 'safe space' to consider and discuss those issues, this book does a great job in that sphere.This is the first novel not aimed at children with alopecia representation, so I was interested to read it. And I very much enjoyed attempting to solve the case with Pip (who I now want to be my best friend). She gets out her mirrors and combs for a video and sees it … a bald patch the size of a ten pence coin, slap bang in the middle of her head.

A note from Bryony Gordon: ‘Let Down Your Hair is my very first novel and is based on my own experiences – of desperately attempting to develop self-esteem, of getting lost in the madness of social media and of losing my hair. In this stunning retelling of Rapunzel, Barb must learn that she is so much more than her hair and that there is no such thing as a happy ending … just lots of complicated new beginnings. In this stunning retelling of Rapunzel, Barb must learn that she is so much more than her hair and that there is no such thing as a happy ending . Bryony Gordon is a British journalist, award-winning mental health campaigner and the bestselling author of various books on mental health, including Mad Girl and Glorious Rock Bottom. It just spends so much time talking about the world of social media influencers that the alopecia elements get shoved in at the end.

Perfectly plaiting the brutal world of content creation, family tragedy and alopecia to create an ingeniously inspiring re-telling of Rapunzel, Bryony Gordon’s Let Down Your Hair is simply incredible. Friendless and lonely, living on the upper floors of a tower block with her aunt, thanks to her hair - the fetishized focus of her social media channel - Barb has hundreds of thousands of online “friends”. Becky Chambers's new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter? This story skillfully and sensitively manages the emotional debate over the pro's and con's of babies and abortions, not always predictable, and very relatable. Exploring depression, anxiety, the generational impact of addiction, and bereavement with honesty and remarkable empathy, it also presents the glory of self-determination and friendship with life-affirming power.

I’ve since learnt that this is a very common reaction to stress, but at the time I just thought I was a freak. A first introduction into the YA fiction realm and Bryony is throwing off the deep end, not starting with something more straightforward, but trying to tackle social media and alopecia through a beloved fairy tale. It’s not that the way alopecia is discussed here is bad, which makes sense given Bryony Gordon’s own experiences. When their relationship starts to fall apart under all the pressure, Mel finds herself feeling alone with the impossible dilemma of the Little Bang growing inside her. In this stunning retelling of Rapunzel, Barb must learn that she is so much more than her hair and that there is no such thing as a happy ending.One who isn't confined to her bedroom on the 12th floor of the tower-block flat she shares with her aunt making content. She is the author of the bestselling The Wrong Knickers plus The Sunday Times Number One bestsellers You Got This and Mad Girl which were both nominated for British Book Awards. Like the main character of Bryony Gordon’s novel, my hair was something that people always commented on.