The follow up to the critically acclaimed Wired Up Wrong, this latest series of diary comics continues Rachael’s painfully honest look at her own mental health and the way she copes with life’s ups and downs.

Publisher: Rachael Smith
Writer/Artist: Rachael Smith
Price: £10 from www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlimsyKitten

While Wired Up Wrong mixed personal moments with humourous looks at her own mental health, Stand In Your Power has evolved into a much more revealing account of her day to day life. The book begins with the break up of her relationship with a long term boyfriend and follows the way she copes with this situation and begins to rebuild her life. Along the way she must also manage the manifestations of her mental anguish, which she represents as two black dogs.

While it is a shame to see some of the more quirky elements of Wired Up Wrong disappear (such as the wheel of emotions), instead we get a brutally honest and though provoking look at Rachael’s world. Along with strips that see her move into a new flat, find love and rekindle friendships, Rachael also explores the issue of self harm, in a dedicated section which accounts her own experiences. You can’t help but be affected by the openness of these scenes as it feels like a close friend is opening their heart to you in the most personal way possible. And this honesty is what makes the book so readable and relate-able.

Throughout the book Rachael is so open that it makes Stand In your Power more than ‘just another mental health book’. It has now become a look at 21st century life and love, told through the pen of one of comics most open and honest story-tellers.