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Bella's Choice by Regine Dubono Lulu
book review by Karolina Blaha-Black
"I am refusing to accept the finality of her condition. By cultivating my hopes high. By believing that she will overcome."
Young Bella Hunt is abducted from her home planet called Debonnaire by the evil scientists from the planet Terrorista who want to test neuroleptic drugs on her. They have given Bella a new identity and renamed her Brazillia. Her mother Hyacinth, desperate to find her, enlists the help of Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective, who tracks Bella down and finds a way for her mother to visit her daughter in a virtual form of a butterfly. Thus begins a struggle for Hyacinth to get her daughter back. In the meantime, her daughter has developed mental illness as a result of the neuroleptic drugs. When Hyacinth finally finds her daughter, she's forced to let her be treated by mental institutions on Debonnaire. In the end, in true science-fiction fashion, time shifts back and tortured Bella regresses back to her six-month old self. Hyacinth, freshly divorced, starts a new life with her daughter and her new partner, Sherlock Holmes, on the planet Terrorista.
Bella's Choice might seem like a science-fiction at first, since the plot takes place on two different planets. However, the gist of the book mostly deals with mental illness that Bella is experiencing and the challenges her mother has to go through to help her failing marriage, affair with Sherlock Holmes, trouble at the art gallery where shes employed as a curator, and most of all, her daughter, who is aggressive toward her and often runs away from home.
Dubono feels that not much is known about mental illness, and the book highlights various ways to help, heal, and cope with those affected. This story has an interesting premise and setting. However, grammatical and stylistic errors litter the page, and constant point-of-view changes make the plot difficult to follow. Otherwise, it's an interesting and insightful book that sheds light on mental illness.