Category: book review

Book review: Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

Delacorte Press, 2015

Fourteen-year-old British teen Audrey is making slow but steady progress dealing with her anxiety disorder, which she developed after a car accident and tremendously difficult bullying. This mysterious altercation(s) with the mean girls at her school has sent her deep into an anxiety spiral so her life has changed dramatically since she has been battling depression and anxiety disorders. She is now always wearing dark sunglasses, unable to leave the house, doesn’t attend school, and has an attack if she talks to anyone besides her family. Audrey records what goes on in her house since she has a very hard time going outside and the drama of her family. Her brother Linus’ friend comes into the picture, and her recovery gains momentum.

This YA romance novel with excellent dialogue was a witty and sassy quick read. It showed us the recovery from mental illness as opposed to the descent into it that many others reveal. Her dysfunctional family provided some comic relief, even though the author kept the mental illness topic gentler and more lightweight than other books on the same subject.

It was a lighthearted, limited angst, ofttimes humorous story about teen life, anxiety, first love, and family love that discussed mental health therapy techniques, but I’d have loved to hear more of the backstory that caused her the issues the book talks about.

Book review: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Alfred A. Knopf, 2015

Violet and Finch both attend the same high school, and their first encounter takes place atop the Bell Tower, where Violet attempts suicide after surviving a car accident that kills her sister. Finch, a troubled kid with an abusive father, arrives there with the same intention but he saves her. This heartfelt YA fiction is about Violet and Finch’s friendship, love and mental illness. She’s the popular kid and an online blogger; he is the high school weirdo.

Violet struggles with survivor’s guilt and her parents refuse to acknowledge her trauma. Finch is quirky, fun, tortured, misunderstood, poor, easy to pity child bursting with originality, vigor, and enthusiasm. 

Violet and Finch are forced together to work on a school project where they must explore Indiana. Finch, with his carefree, spontaneous attitude, takes the assignment to heart and they set out to find all of the bright places in Indiana. In doing so they explore their relationship.

The book, similar in tone to The Fault in Our Stars, explores falling in love and that same love but fading some months later. The two characters try to fix each other but Violet is filled with regret and Finch is obsessed with death which the novel continuously explores. Ultimately, I agree with one of the reviewer’s blurbs at the front of the book that said something to the effect of this book isn’t meant for those suffering with mental illness but instead their friends.

Book review: A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard

Simon Pulse, 2018

This heartwarming, challenging novel about a girl, without her best friend, that can’t speak and a boy that can’t hear. Steffi has selective mutism and Rhys is deaf; but then the principal puts them together and Steffi crushes deeply. This novel is full of British Sign Language, which appears similar to ASL, starting with the inside of the cover we have the alphabet and the numbers, then every chapter number has its equivalent in the sign language. Even during the story there are lines that explain how to signs specific words in BSL like “thank you” or “I am sorry”. 

The backstory is full of complex families and relationships. She can express herself at 100% only to people she knows pretty well, and she is comfortable with her family or best friends. Tem, a daughter of refugees, who is the opposite of Steffi, is chatty and able to fill all the silence of Steffi. Tem never judges her best friend and never forces her to talk.

Steffi’s brain can pass from a good thing to a disaster quickly. No matter if she has any reason to think about something terrible, which leads to depression, and sometimes it’s really impossible to get out of it. “Panic attacks are a lot like being drunk in some ways, you lose self-control. You cry for seemingly no reason. You deal with the hangover long into the next day.”

Steffi comes from a loving, supportive family, has access to a good therapist, and has a trusted friend at work where Steffi communicates sometimes. This romantic character portrayal with racial diversity is a quick issue driven read. and is a relatable, perfect depiction of anxiety.

Book review: Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Dial Books, 2016

Agoraphobic sixteen-year-old Solomon Reed has not left his house in three years due to acute anxiety, crippling panic attacks, and agoraphobia, but Lisa Praytor is determined to change that by beating his illness and saving Solomon from himself—and to write a scholarship-winning essay based on the results, which Solomon knows nothing of the sort. Lisa remembers the day in eighth grade when Solomon stripped to his underwear and got into a fountain as a result of a panic attack. But he isn’t depressed, strange, angry, excessively shy, or any of the other negative qualities characters with mental illnesses receive in literature. Instead, Solomon is a funny and compassionate young man who loves his family and friends

So, with the help of her boyfriend Clark, who Solomon ends up crushing on, Lisa enters Solomon’s world in order to observe him for her essay which will get her to university on scholarship and out of suburban California. Soon, all three teens are far closer than they thought they’d be, and when their facades fall down, their friendships threaten to collapse, as well.  This story shines with how the characters handle the aftermath of such a ludicrous intention as armchair psychology to cure mental illness.

This book provides a human look at mental illness and how we need to treat those who have mental illness as people first. The hilarious, heartwarming, skillfully told coming of age story alternates between Lisa and Solomon’s witty, bantering voices. Solomon’s grandmother who’s his best friend, is portrayed with youthfulness and quirkiness which adds a fresh tone to the novel. It’s a quirky and endearing character portrayal that explores the intricacies of friendship, trust, and identity, in addition to mental health issues.

Book review: Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

Usborne Publishing, 2015

Is it a good idea to go off medication? Probably not. Would about when you’re trying something new? Especially not. For the sixteen-year-old protagonist in this YA novel, Evie, like most of us, just wants to be normal as she’s starting off new at school. Left behind is the label of the “girl who went crazy.” Nobody at her new school knows about her diagnosis of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). So she’s making friends, going to parties, and thinking about a relationship. But if she can’t even open up to her friends about her diagnosis, how can she be in a relationship?

As an OCD sufferer myself, I found this YA novel comforting and relatable in the fact that I’m not alone. But the downside is my obsessions and compulsions got intertwined with those Evie experiences. So, this book has a trigger warning. All in all, it should help non-sufferers to experience what people like Evie and I go through daily. It’s openness about mental health issues is refreshing but with this illness in particular society has gone too far in taking it on as a typical characteristic by saying things like “I’m so OCD because I have to have my desk a certain way.” Doing so minimizes how severe and debilitating OCD actually is.

This tearjerker of a book takes you into the character’s mind at her most difficult times. We get to experience if only momentarily, the “bad thoughts” that Evie dwells on as well as the occasional “good thought.” We know what Evie really thinks about a situation and how she deals with it, which really makes one ruminate. And lastly, this book doesn’t play up mental illness or relationships as the be all end all well of happiness and jubilation. It is more realistic.

Book review: Essential Maps for the Lost by Deb Caletti

Publisher: Simon Pulse, 2016

How do you go about getting lost? Answer: “There are many ways to be lost.”

The protagonist in Essential Maps for the Lost wants to escape herself. Why? It’s summer, one last summer in Seattle, away from her mom, a realtor, who expects more from her daughter, Mads (Madison) Murray, that she can give. Mads future has been planned for her, it’s a real estate career with her mother unlike the college path that Mads so desires. In order to make her mom happy, Mads stays with her aunt, uncle, and cousin during the summer while taking real estate classes. Then after the brief real estate curriculum at the local college Mads will go home and sign the paperwork making her a partner with her mom.

Do you think you’re having a bad day? Well, Mads, out for a morning swim collides with a dead body. The shocking discovery is of another lost soul who did the imaginable on one traumatic morning. The body of the woman was the mom to Billy Youngwolf Floyd, a grieving young man struggling to bypass the shadow of grief that encapsulates him as he carries a map in his pocket. It’s from his favorite children’s book: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Mads is obsessed with the dead woman and sets about to stalk her son: Googling the deceased, finding out from where she came, her home, and her family. That is the junction where questions, coincidences, and secrets come into play. Billy, who moves in with his grandmother, is full of questions. He is lost and confused. Billy, who works for an animal shelter, focuses on the only things that makes him feel better: that map from the book.

Billy and Mads, as well as Billy’s grandma, are full of depth, with wonderful personalities, and tangled emotions, albeit the grandma is a bit cranky. Despite the tragedy these characters work really well together and even the minor characters feel real.

So, Billy runs into Mads, who is standing outside his old house. What’s weird is he keeps running into her at random times, like on a bridge, where Billy thinks Mads might be thinking about jumping. They both wonder if they were supposed to meet? Fall in love? Madison wakes up to the world around her and she starts to notice other coincidences, like witnessing Billy commit a crime.

Mads obsession with the dead body, Billy’s deceased mom continues. But she can’t tell Billy that she’s the one that found the body. This book is really about how life can be unfair and cruel, how what you say and how you treat people (and animals) can be the difference between life and death, and how the opinions and hopes of your family members can be hard to deal with and how you can find hope in unexpected places.

This YA novel had a lot of substance to it such as self-discovery and finding out what you really want out of life. With beautiful, lyrical, sometimes witty writing, and pacing on the slower side, you’ll find it a touching read where love needs no reasons. Essential Maps for the Lost is an emotionally significant exploration of grief, mental illness, and hope, as well as the redemptive power of storytelling.

Book review: More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

Soho Teen, 2020

More Happy Than Not, by Adam Silvera is a powerful and authentic Young Adult contemporary novel that follows a teenage boy, Aaron, and his struggles with sexuality, suicide, and family starting with summer break with his girlfriend Genevieve in a small, poor environment, and his desire to straighten himself out. He begins moving on from his father’s suicide as well as his own attempt.

A happy change for Aaron is befriending Thomas, another teen, because this friendship feels more genuine than his others. Now though this is a realistic novel, what’s different about Aaron’s world is an organization called Leteo, which helps people suppress their memories.

This book tackles difficult issues and relies on its strong cast of fully fleshed out main characters with issues and vulnerabilities to pull it through. The protagonist and his problems with mental health, as well as his quest to find happiness came across as realistic. The plot of this book itself is very much rooted in the actions and wants of the characters, and full of brain-wracking plot twists, themes of happiness/unhappiness, and bittersweet endings.

The author is great at weaving in the sci-fi elements of the story with a realistic portrayal of growing up gay in the Bronx with a twist that I didn’t see coming, while all the while being incredibly engrossing, thoughtful, devastating, and interesting with wonderful teenage character voices.

Book review: Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Greenwillow Books, 2017

Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk straddles two worlds: in real life, she’s a shy and friendless high school student, but online, she is known as LadyConstellation, anonymous creator of the highly popular webcomic: Monstrous Sea. Eliza finds so much joy online that there’s hardly any joy left for her life offline. She lost herself in the world and characters she created, and it was so much easier for her to remain cocooned in her imaginary world than challenge herself to make real-life connections. But when Wallace Warland transfers to Eliza’s school, he reveals himself to be Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, rainmaker. Though Wallace and Eliza grow close and bond over their love for Monstrous Sea, Eliza struggles with revealing her own identity as the creator of the webcomic.

Wallace even begins to draw Eliza out of her shell. After a series of strange events threaten to expose everything, she’s worked to keep hidden, Eliza finds that her world has begun to crumble around her. She deals with anxiety, depression, and overwhelming pressure as she tries to learn how to reconcile the two halves of her life that seem so far apart. She lives in her comics and her dedication to her creation and her fandom borders on an unhealthy obsession as she treads the boundaries between her online presence and reality.

Shyness, escapism, obsession, and low self-worth were all very relatable in this story. It’s a great look at the messiness of love when depression and low self-esteem get in the way of communication. This heartbreaking, quick read is also worth reading for parents that are wondering, no, struggling to understand why your teen is a part of a fandom. The book has little drawings and stories from her webcomic throughout, making it more interactive and engaging. It’s delving into PTSD, anxiety, and depression is a trigger warning for this near tearjerker about teen angst and romance.