Shalina Casey discusses how love inspired her latest novel
BY SHALINA CASEY, IMAGE PROVIDED
Have you ever loved so deeply that it reshaped the way you saw the world? So fiercely that when it ended, the entire architecture of your life seemed to collapse around you?
For a long time, that was the story of my life, and of the women I loved.
When you’re a queer woman, you learn early on that love never enters quietly. It arrives like a storm, full of colour, full of promise, full of the kind of intensity that makes you believe you’re finally home. And yet, when those relationships break apart, the silence that follows can feel deafening. We don’t just mourn a partner, we mourn the version of ourselves we built with them.
I’ve lived through long-term relationships with women, even a marriage. I’ve experienced the kind of heartbreak that makes you think, “I can’t do this again.” The kind that convinces you shutting the door is safer than opening your heart one more time.
For a while, I really believed love was something I had outgrown, or something that had outgrown me.
But when I began writing Amie And The Diseased Mind, something unexpected happened. As I shaped my characters, they began shaping me back. Their story, two women trying to love each other through trauma, fear and emotional disintegration, made me confront truths I’d buried under my own heartbreak.
Writing them forced me to ask: What if love isn’t supposed to be safe? What if it’s supposed to challenge us enough to change us?
Amie and Louise’s relationship isn’t soft and tidy. It’s messy, complicated, beautiful. It’s a reminder that love doesn’t erase our darkness, it illuminates it. It asks us to look at the wounds we’ve hidden, the ways we sabotage our own happiness, the fears we carry from relationships past.
And sometimes, it shows us the uncomfortable truth; love isn’t always enough to save someone.
Many queer women know that heartbreak hits harder for us. Not because we’re dramatic, but because our connections are often built on emotional depth that we were once told we weren’t allowed to have. We grew up fighting for the right to love who we love, so when those relationships fall apart, it can feel like a personal failure.
But here’s what writing this book taught me:
Love doesn’t always stay.
Sometimes it arrives to teach.
Sometimes it breaks to rebuild.
Sometimes it leaves because the person we’re becoming can no longer survive inside the version of us we were.
And sometimes, heartbreak is the exact force that pushes us into the women we were meant to become.
Amie And The Diseased Mind explores the kind of love that rebuilds you without permission. Louise isn’t a saviour, she’s a mirror. She reflects the version of Amie that fear and manipulation tried to destroy. She reminds Amie of her worth in the moments she can’t find it herself.
That, to me, is the most powerful form of queer love: not rescuing each other, but recognising each other.
If I’ve learned anything from my own heartbreak, and from writing Amie and Louise, it’s that love is not something you “win” by holding on tightly enough. Sometimes, letting go is the victory. Sometimes survival is the proof.
And sometimes, the women we’ve loved leave fingerprints on our souls that become maps back to ourselves.
I didn’t write this book to tell people what love should look like. I wrote it because I was still learning. Because queer love is not just romance, it’s identity, it’s defiance, it’s healing, it’s heartbreak, it’s discovery.
If this story does anything, I hope it helps someone feel less alone in the contradictions of queer love: how it lifts us, how it breaks us, and how, often, it’s the thing that finally makes us whole.
It’s a romantic thriller brimming with surprises and unexpected twists, crafted to keep you captivated at the edge of your seat while immersing you in every heartfelt moment.
The book is published by Spectrum Books, a well-known LGBTQIA+ book publisher based in London, United Kingdom.
The first 30 buyers of Shalina’s new novel Amie and the Diseased Mind will be entered into a £100 prize draw. If you’re among the first 30 purchasers, simply take a photo of you with the book and send it to Shalina via Instagram direct message. One lucky reader will win £100. Shalina Casey will be giving away her first 10 copies.
To get a chance to receive a free copy, simply like and follow her Instagram page. Shalina will then select 10 lucky readers to contact personally. Please remember not to share any personal information publicly on Instagram, if you’re selected, she will reach out to you directly through Instagram.
Amie and the Diseased Mind launches on 20 February 2026.
Stay updated on Shalina Casey’s latest work, releases, and upcoming competitions by subscribing at shalinacasey.com
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