This is a emotional read, full of heart and feelings.

Xavier has depression, which he visualizes as a black dog that’s always around him. He has his best friend, Aster, and the group he does weekly therapy with, and his supportive parents, but the black dog is always still there. When he has the idea to try turning his family’s hogget farm into a place for hugging sheep instead, suddenly maybe this is The Thing that will finally free him from the black dog.

This was a quick read, but it packed a hefty emotional punch. I loved the characters and their interactions, especially Aster and Xavier. His feelings were extremely relatable and I loved that this showed how times can be better, but that doesn’t mean being healed or cured. His mother also has Chron’s and talks about being a spoonie, so in some ways she’s able to understand Xavier’s invisible illness.

If you’re in the mood for an emotional story of coping with mental illness and great friendships, I highly encourage picking up Xavier in the Meantime.

Short books are always a hit or miss with me. I like well fleshed out characters and a story like that, and I know it takes practice to master such craft, especially when you as an author don’t have that many pages. Nevertheless, I think it helped I was familiar with the author’s writing style, genre, and characters. Aster still plays a big role in Xavier’s story, but Xavier and his mental health struggles were still the main focus, complete with his parent’s relationship. In the end, this book is all about relationships of all sorts, which was nice to read about. The mental health aspect also felt realistic, and even though sometimes it gets hidden behind metaphors and repeated writing, it didn’t bother me too much. Since part of this book is also about poetry and finding a way to describe one’s feelings, the writing style fits that vibe.
In the end, it was definitely a fun but hitting middle-grade novella that gave more insight into characters and their relationships, but also showed everyone has their own struggles going on in life, and while it is good to help these people, your own health should come first and you cant always do enough, which is okay. It was a message that was greatly delivered in simple but poetry-like writing.

Xavier’s parents are on a break and his dad wants help with the sheep farm, but Xavier says he’s not into farming. Xavier likes writing especially poetry and his therapist says it can clear the mind especially when Xavier sees the “black dog.” His friend Aster has a rabbit and tells him hugging animals makes anyone feel better. Xavier has many dark days (the black dog) and he tells himself I’ve survived days like this before and I will survive this one. One day Xavier comes up with the idea of turning the sheep farm into a retreat for his therapy group if his dad allows it. Everyone loves the idea because couldn’t hugging sheep heal a soul? Will the sheep thing banish Xavier’s depression forever?

I received an advance copy of, Xavier in the Meantime, by Kate Gordon. This is a great book about depression and anxiety. This book does not sugar coat depression.

I love the relationship between Xavier and Aster. Stories of true friendships make for great basis of a story. It’s a very good look at physical and mental disorders. You see Xavier trying his best to make sense of the world around him and understand the relationships. In the end there was an acceptance that I didn’t know was needed.
Love the affirmations in each chapter because they are great takeaways. It feels like when you go to an event and you get a goodie bag of wise words to take home. Also a reminder to do kindnesses.