*I received a free copy of this book, with thanks to the author and his friend Mark. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Blurb: The Light of Love pours down on Frilly. It shines so brightly that she quails and runs away.
Upset with herself for feeling scared, she wakes her good friend Mawson and pours out her confusions. She wants to learn how to be bold and is convinced that she can do this by going on a quest.
With muddled help from Mawson she sets off into the great Out There. But is a quest to find oneself really the answer?
As with Mawson’s previous book, It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In, this book is quite tricky to easily categorise.
On the one hand, the cute bear-posed pictures and short, simple sentences evoke a typical children’s picture book. In fact, I shared the book with Minishine (7) and she found plenty to enjoy in the adventures of Frilly the bear and her quest to find happiness. However, she also rather sagely observed that she ‘didn’t really get what was going on’.
Which is unsurprising, as when you read the book focusing more on the words, you find that that ‘simple picture book’ is actually presenting and exploring complex adult ideas about identity, the pursuit of happiness and finding oneself.
There is also a religious subtext in the idea of Frilly running away from ‘love’ and needing to reconcile herself to ‘the light’ in order to find what she is looking for. As a non-religious reader though, I didn’t find this aspect intrusive, as the author leaves the interpretations to the reader.
These little Mawson books are very short, but pack lots of positivity and food for thought into such a small page count. I find myself returning to the ideas again and again, as a starting point for my own thoughts about the struggles of life. Plus the cute illustrations are a fun bonus!
You can find more from Mawson at his blog here, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads.
She Ran Away From Love is available on Amazon right now, and you can find my review of It’s a Bright World to Feel Lost In here.
Bookshine And Readbows 
Reblogged this on Mawson Bear and commented:
“When you read the book focusing more on the words, you find that that ‘simple picture book’ is actually presenting and exploring complex adult ideas about identity, the pursuit of happiness and finding oneself.”
A thoughtful review by Bookshine and Readbows (isn’t that a lovely name for a book review blog) about ‘She Ran Away From Love’ by Mawson.
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