I don't normally read memoirs, but I was drawn to Tuppence Middleton's Scorpions due to familiarity with her acting career and wasn't disappointed. In it she talks candidly, and with great humour, about her lifetime struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). An affliction she's been faced with on a daily basis since a childhood illness and visualises as a nest of scorpions that resides within her mind.

It's an ailment that's much misunderstood and often the butt of jokes and it's to be hoped that Middleton's candour about her personal experience leads to more open discussion and understanding of it.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Random House UK and the author for an advance copy.

Everyone calls it something different but I found myself really liking scorpions.

This is a necessary book, all too often those with OCD find ourselves explaining what it isn’t, and what it means to be terrified. It’s not always possible to take ‘jokes’ well.

The author is talented and certainly shows the reality whilst also showing how outrageously the effect can hit.

Excellent.

I knew immediately when I saw it that I wanted to read this book. I read it as soon as I got it, in one go, and I absolutely loved it. I don't think I've ever felt as seen by a book as this one, and it was really lovely to read about OCD in the form of a memoir.

The writing style is beautiful whilst still being simple and colloquial and easy to read. I loved the use of the scorpion metaphor. I think that this is an incredible book for anyone to read, and that it humanises and brings light to a condition that there's not a lot of true information about in popular culture and media.

4.5 stars, rounded down to 4