How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness by Jessica Bell [pre-order]

Author: Jessica Bell

Title: How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness

Published: 2021

Publisher: Ingram 

Pages: 240

Genre: Science Fiction 

     In a Globe controlled by a trusted yet elusive leader who has granted immortality to those who live by The Book, misfit Icasia Bloom is doomed to die young for the crime of her child's unhappiness. Like all 'Tatters' she gets food by bartering, and when she brings customers to the new local bakery, she meets another borderline outcast, Selma Beyett, whose plight touches her. Selma’s husband Jerome must die in six months if his quest for perpetual happiness is not successful. What starts as a desperate attempt to save Jerome takes the two women on a profoundly enlightening search for happiness. Icasia questions the Globe's judgment on its people and on the nature of happiness itself.

     I would like to start out by stating I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. Now it is not often that I delve into the world of science fiction or dystopian futures. Frankly, this last year has given me my fill of living in one. But with that said this author holds a special place in my heart having read her autobiography Dear Reflection: I Never Meant to be a Rebel. A book that I saw more than just a little of myself in. So I was hardly going to turn her down when she offered me the chance to read her latest work of fiction. The second reason was that having read the blurb it reminded me a little of those seventies SciFi film I watched on late-night reruns back in the day. Those worlds that could so easily be ours if things went a little of the rails. I was always left wondering how I would cope if they ever happened to me. So as someone always willing to give almost any book a fighting chance I jumped in to see what it was all about. 

     I think now more than ever within our lifetimes we are starting to question what it takes to make us truly happy. We are surrounded by the fake versions of it from our tv screens to our insta feeds. But would happen if you had to prove that the version you showed the world was in fact real. Can happiness in fact be a long-lasting emotion or do we aim for a balance hoping that those good days outweigh the bad. All of this is somewhat of a hefty subject to try and wrap up into the pages of a book. But it is a feat Bell handles skillfully, I feel in part this is down to her ability to bring it to us at a very personal level. Whilst science fiction brings up ideas of grand space battles and epic operas. the very best of it gives us very human stories that just so happen to take place in worlds of the future.  In the case of this one a world not to distance from our own, we can see ourselves in the characters she has created here. This need and longing to take care of those we hold dear. I mean how far would any of you go to protect those we choose to call family.  

     Icasia is one of those beautifully crafted characters that we can see the best of ourselves in. The person we think we could be if put in this situation. This is not to say that she does carry with her, her own set of flaws. It is after all impossible to live a very real and human life without ending up a bit battered and broken around the edges. And that is what bell brings to her lead hero someone that we can not only relate to but also hope to have her strength and bravery if put to the test. But as with all great journeys, she is not alone and in meeting Selma it gives her the catalyst to start on a path she could never have foreseen before. Within these pages, we see a remarkable friendship bloom out of hardship and need. It is from a place of complete government control that they from a small world of their own a place that whilst still towing the party line is unique to them a family built of choice rather than blood.  Something in part I feel we can all relate to, after all we all build our own family units one way or another.  

     As with all such stories, these women must face a crucible of great hardship. It is the driving force needed to get the message of the story across to us the readers. we must take on their journey beside them and witness the hard decisions they have to make like they were our own. It is as you would imagine a tricky line to walk too much one way and we stop caring about them it all seems too easy. Too much the other way and we lose hope that they will ever make it to the other side. But here Bell showed me that she can with great finesse and elegance guide us by the hand through the lives of these little families. We are as ever with such works of literary fiction taught a few humbling life lessons along the way. That whilst life is never easy we can make it worth it if we are willing to fight for those things and people we hold dear. It just might in some cases just take a great deal of sacrifice to do so. But after all, is this not what our scars are there to remind us of.  That we have lived, and whilst the many may never know us or the things we have down those we care about have and in the grand scheme of things for me, that is what really matters. 

     How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness was a book that took me a little by surprise. On the one hand, you have those elements you would expect to get in a book the skirts the edges of those great dystopian works of fiction that have come before. The overpowering government control of one's entire life from birth to death and in some cases beyond. It is a staple of the genre but here it only works as the bones of the story. When we going looking for its heart it is to be found in the bond of these two women and their desire to help those they love at any cost. It is within these very real emotions that the story finds its footing and elevates it to something much ganders. For me at least when it comes to Science Fiction I want to find the human spark the thing I can relate to and make me care about the people I'm reading about. It is something Bell gave me by the buck load and made me truly care about what happened to these people. I can highly recommend you to go grab a copy when it hits shelves on September the 21st.