Challenger Deep by Shusterman, Neal(April 21, 2015) Hardcover

by Neal Shusterman

Hardcover, 1700

Call number

JF SHU

Publication

HarperTeen (1700)

Description

Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML: National Book Award * Golden Kite Award Winner * Six Starred Reviews A captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman. Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior. Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images. Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head. Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny. Caden Bosch is torn. Challenger Deep is a deeply powerful and personal novel from one of today's most admired writers for teens. Laurie Halse Anderson, award-winning author of Speak, calls Challenger Deep "a brilliant journey across the dark sea of the mind; frightening, sensitive, and powerful. Simply extraordinary.".… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member DarkFaerieTales
Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: An incredibly moving story on the progression of a teenage boy’s mental illness and the thinning veil between reality and make believe.

Opening Sentence: There are two things you know. One: You were there. Two: You couldn’t have been there.

The
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Review:

I have probably read more books on mental illnesses in the last few months than I have altogether! It’s not a conscience effort on my part, there just seems to be greater emphasis on such issues of late, and I’m glad of it because it brings to light a taboo subject. The problem with popular themes is that after a few books, they start to sound the same and become easily forgettable. However, I’m glad to note that Challenger Deep stands out from all the other reads, if not for anything else but for the unusual concept of using pirates to explain the story!

The story is told from Caden’s perspective, a smart 15-year old who spends an increasing amount of time in his fantasy world, where he is a crew member of a pirate ship on its way to Challenger Deep; the deepest known part of the earth’s seabed. The progression of his illness and how it affects his life before he is rehabilitated was scary to read. Caden’s condition deteriorates until he can’t tell the difference between what is in his head and what is reality.

They [the voices] linger there on the edge of your consciousness like the things you hear just as you’re walking up, before the dream collapses under the crushing weight of the real world. But what if the dream doesn’t go away when you wake up? And what if you lose the ability to tell the difference?

I particularly enjoyed the eccentricities of the pirate crew, especially since they were based on actual people in Caden’s life. For example, Calliope the mermaid figurehead of the ship is based on Callie, a girl Caden likes in his psychiatric unit. He helps set the mermaid free, just like he helps Callie to get better and leave the hospital. The links between his fantasy life and real life made his journey all the more interesting. Once I realised the crew was based on people Caden knew, it became a guessing game, although truth be told, everyone but the captain was easy to guess.

Challenger Deep is a thought-provoking book without being so intense that it becomes depressing. Despite the serious topic base, there was plenty of humour, especially from events on the pirate ship. The chapters were very short; only 1-2 pages long and I found that made it far easier to read.

Caden’s a fascinating character and surprisingly, I didn’t pity him like I probably should have. In fact, his smart and honest nature was more to be envied. Even in his medicated and drug induced state, his witty comebacks made me chuckle. His take on life opened my eyes, especially with comments like: ‘You don’t so much sleep as borrow eight hours from death.’

Overall, this was an excellently written book, with some bizarre characters and a most interesting take on coping with a mental illness.

Notable Scene:

You know the voices aren’t talking into your ears, but they’re not exactly in your head either. They seem to call to you from another place that you’ve accidentally tapped into, like a cell phone pulling in a conversation in some foreign language – yet somehow you understand it. They linger there on the edge of your consciousness like the things you hear just as you’re walking up, before the dream collapses under the crushing weight of the real world. But what if the dream doesn’t go away when you wake up? And what if you lose the ability to tell the difference?

Additional Notable Scene:

In addition to the occasional shot of Haldol, I now take four pills, twice a day. One to shut down my thoughts, another to shut down my actions. A third to address the side effects of the first two. And a fourth so the third doesn’t feel lonely. The result leaves my brain somewhere in orbit beyond Saturn, where it can’t bother anyone, especially me.

FTC Advisory: HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Challenger Deep. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
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LibraryThing member Jessie_Bear
Caden Bosch struggles as his life disintegrates into compulsive walking for hours, seeing signs everywhere, believing something terrible is about to happen to those he loves, feeling outside of himself, and journeying on a nautical quest to the deepest part of the earth. Caden Bosch suffers from
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schizophrenia, but Shusterman’s masterful novel transcends the use of a neat label, providing an unflinching descent into the realm of mental illness. At first it is difficult to gather one’s bearings in the jumpy, disorienting exposition but this complicated beginning reads authentically and never loses a reader’s interest. Shusterman describes Caden’s journey using a wide range of metaphors and experiences, successfully conveying the essence and feeling of what Caden is going through, paired hauntingly with illustrations by Brendan Shusterman drawn during his own illness. Challenger Deep deftly avoids the tropes often used in young adult literature and isn’t neatly wrapped up into a tidy ending. Rather, Challenger Deep analyses the issues explored further than just about any other novel in its genre, especially on the subjects of Caden’s family and his future. This immersive reading experience is full of beauty, heartbreak, horror, and hope, and will stay with the reader long after they have finished the novel. Challenger Deep is a true work of literature, and is very highly recommended for readers ages thirteen and up. (Reviewed from e-ARC provided by Edelweiss)
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LibraryThing member ewyatt
This is one of those books that I'd want to read again as I'd like to see how the chapters are woven together.
Caden Bosch has problems. He is unable to tell the difference between what is real in the world around him and the world that is happening in his mind where he is on a journey toward the
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deepest spot in the world.
A look at treatment, hospitalization, and the toll mental illness takes on family.
The book is peppered with drawings created by Shusterman's son done while he was dealing with his own bouts of schizophrenia.
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LibraryThing member brandileigh2003
Karen at For What It's Worth and Mary at The Book Swarm occasionally post twitter-style reviews. Karen calls hers Short and Tweet, and I am going to borrow that review style here.

Tweet Review: (okay, okay, it would really be two tweets, forgive me?)
Intense dive into one young man's battle with
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mental illness. Through our unreliable narrator we journey on a vessel called Challenger, into the hospital and on his journey to decipher what is reality and what are delusions. Though I was a bit confused at times and skimmed a bit.
My question to
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LibraryThing member bell7
Caden narrates this story about his descent into mental illness, and what happens when his parents realize something is very wrong. He has moments of lucidity and times where his story has a dreamlike quality and you're not quite sure reading where reality falls.

The author has personally known
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people with mental illnesses, and he writes about it with compassion and authenticity. His son Brendan drew the illustrations included. Caden's story is often sad and unsettling. I thought about abandoning the book because it was difficult to read at times, but in the end I cared too much about what happened to him and had to read through the end.
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LibraryThing member Debra_Armbruster
A fascinating look at mental illness, glimpsed through the eyes and experience of an adolescent boy as he first manifests symptoms. Contains helpful contacts and sources for help and additional reading.
LibraryThing member klack128
This book was an interesting one for me. I had a hard time getting into it. The jumping around between the "real" world and Caden's experience on the ship was kind of hard to follow, and the ways they tied together were not immediately obvious.

however, as the story went on, things became more
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clear, and also less...Caden's struggle with mental illness, his progress followed by falling back, and realization that this will also be a part of him was really eye-opening.

This book is a must read for anyone who is suffering from or has a loved one who struggles with mental illness. Being someone who does have loved ones struggling with mental illness, I felt that this book really gave me a better way to understand them and what they are going through, though it never really gets less scary for them or the people who care about them.
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LibraryThing member lilibrarian
Caden Bosch is losing control of reality. His worried family eventually gets him hospitalized. We share his visions, ups and downs. Artwork drawn by the author's son during his fight with mental illness as a teen accompanies the chapters.
LibraryThing member kimpiddington
Stunning ship ride through madness.
LibraryThing member mamzel
Shusterman wrote this book based on the experiences of his own son who battles with schizophrenia. In fact, the art featured in the book was drawn by his son.

We listen to Caden's story as he falls deeper and deeper into psychosis. He hallucinates a world on a pirate ship and experiences paranoia
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fearing people are out to kill him. His parents and teachers come to the realization that he needs serious help and he is hospitalized while undergoing therapy and trying to discover which drugs at what dosages will allow him to reenter the world.

Caden is a brilliant, funny young man and it was a real treat to follow his progress through this ordeal.
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LibraryThing member suesbooks
I loved the parts of this book that explained what caden was experiencing during his psychiatric hospitalization, and before and after the experience. i was bored by the metaphoric naval experiences. i think this book serves a valuable purpose by letting the reader know what it is like to live with
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a brain disorder. i believe the descriptions to be very accurate.
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LibraryThing member KamGeb
At the beginning the book is very confusing. There are a lot of boat scenes and its hard to figure out what is going on. It isn't until later on that you realize the boat scenes are the way his psychotic mind is making sense of what is going on in his life at the moment. I thought the book gave a
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good sense of what mental illness must feel like. I would recommend the book.
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LibraryThing member TeachrBkMom
The strange story of a young man slowly moving into schizophrenia and the people in his life watching it happen. There is also his parallel journey on a pirate ship that is his delusion. The characters who inhabit the ship have counterparts in his real world that are slowly revealed as the book
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goes on. Based on Shusterman's son's experiences with mental illness and including his son's drawings from that time in his life, this book is honest and lyric and beautifully told.
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LibraryThing member EllsbethB
When you first start this book, it is a bit unclear what's happening (for a good reason). However, the writing is compelling and gets you to stick with it. This is an important read on the experience of mental illness. I'll be recommending this book often. It would be a great read for individual
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students or a class.
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LibraryThing member mjspear
A harrowing look at one teen's struggle with schizophrenia; told in alternate tales of reality and fantasy of a voyage to the depths of the Marianas Trench. Beautiful writing -- funny, touching (made me cry several times), concise, and real. Transcends the YA genre entirely into being a must-read
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for anyone who wants to understand the fragility of sanity. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member fromthecomfychair
The first time I tried to read this book I was working through my own illness, and I found the shift between the real and imagined worlds of Caden Bosch to be confusing. I decided to give it another try, since Shusterman is one of my favorite YA authors and the book had won the National Book Award.
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I'm glad I did--as always, Shusterman is brilliant. He manages to write YA that adults can also enjoy. And he elucidates the mindset of people suffering with schizophrenia, using his own son's perceptions of the experience. I'll admit, at first the shift between Caden's everyday world and imagined world are confusing; but as I read on, it began to make sense. After awhile, I was trying to match the characters in his imaginary world to the ones in his real world. This book isn't funny; yet there is humor in it, and hopefulness. It doesn't wrap wellness in a neat bow; the possibility of relapse is there and it's acknowledged. Reading it has given me a greater understanding of the illness and with it, more compassion for anyone suffering from it. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand the experience of schizophrenia, even though no two cases are alike, as Shusterman says. It is accessible to teens, but will not disappoint adult readers either.
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LibraryThing member Lindsay_W
This is a gut wrenching story detailing a teen’s decent into the darkest depths of mental illness. Marianas trench depths, where psychosis and delusions overtake his mind and where there is no light. Shusterman tells Caden’s story from that first point where he had a feeling that something was
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wrong, to being hospitalized for psychosis and paranoid delusions, through to his treatments and release. Because Shusterman has been on this journey with his own son he is uniquely able to portray his character’s journey and the impact on family and friends. Though in the end (Spoiler) Caden finds his piece of blue sky, his glimmer of hope that brings him up from the deep, Shusterman is realistic in acknowledging that sometimes you are not able to steer your ship out of the storm and clear of the beasts. For those times he has included links to mental health supports for his readers.
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LibraryThing member scatlett
What a fantastic book! When Caden's two worlds began to collide, just WOW! Shusterman's treatment of mental illness is deftly done.
LibraryThing member SaraEllen
I completely devoured this book. While it took a little bit to get me really into the story, once I understood what was happening I couldn't put it down. The story of Caden Bosch is fascinating, sad and intense. As he tumbles into mental illness you get to see the world from his point of view. The
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author did a fabulous job at making you feel as though you were going through what Caden was going through as well as creating parallels between the real world and Caden's imaginary world. This book is wonderfully written and a really puts mental illness into perspective. I definitely recommend it, and I recommend it for a book club! We loved talking about it!
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LibraryThing member benuathanasia
A slow start, especially if you don't know what it's about. It became rather fascinating, but I could still do without the pirate (delusion? daydream? side-story?). It does nothing to add to my understanding of Caden's psychology.
LibraryThing member novelcommentary
Winner of a National Book Award, Challenger Deep depicts the alternating stories of a 15 year old boy. In one story he is part of a family of four, with a little sister named Mackenzie; he has a few friends in high school, but is often socially awkward though certainly intelligent. His existence
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starts to slide as he lies about joining the track team and starts following the street signs on long walking journeys. The other alternating chapters tells of a ship with a Captain and a talking Parrot, a ship that is on its way to Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the ocean and part of the Mariana Trench. It takes about half of the book to realize the connection of these two stores to the mental state of Caden while in the hospital. As the author says in his afterward, "This is by no means a work of fiction" "I watched as someone I loved journeyed to the deep, and I felt powerless in the descent.
With the help of my son, I've tried to capture what that descent was like...."
Caden's experience, his humor, his relationships with the other patients, his fears, are all wonderfully captured by Mr. Shusterman. It's a father's tell to tell, but the inclusion of his son's drawings make it even more personal. I appreciate the effort taken by these two to bring to light one person's struggle through mental illness.
Some good lines:
There are times I feel like I’m the kid screaming at the bottom of the well, and my dog runs off to pee on trees instead of getting help.

There are many ways in which the “check brain” light illuminates, but here’s the screwed-up part: the driver can’t see it. It’s like the light is positioned in the backseat cup holder, beneath an empty can of soda that’s been there for a month. No one sees it but the passengers—and only if they’re really looking for it, or when the light gets so bright and so hot that it melts the can, and sets the whole car on fire.

The deal with the devil is done. The lady with the cheeks and small glasses looks at you with a gaze of false but practiced kindness.

Then the poison they put in your ass reaches your brain, and your mind spreads thin like an oil slick on the surface of an ocean.
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LibraryThing member bookandsword
3.5/5 stars (rounded down)

​“I used to be afraid of dying. Now I’m afraid of not living. There’s a difference. We go through life planning for a future, but sometimes that future never comes.”

This was one of the hardest books I've ever read. I spent about three weeks on it, because I had
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to keep putting it down - the emotions of this book kept drowning me. I will be honest - if I didn't read other, more light hearted books while I was also reading this, I'd be plunged into the pits of the deepest depression by now.

"Schizophrenia, schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, major depression, psychotic depression, obsessive/compulsive, and on, and on. The labels mean nothing, because no two cases are ever exactly alike. Everyone presents differently, and responds to meds differently, and no prognosis can truly be predicted."

The premise of the book, the idea and the message were fantastic. I also really recommend reading the footnote by the author, Neil Shusterman, as he explains how the topic of his book and his family are intimately related. That brought a whole new level of depth to the book.

So why only 3.5 stars? The book was great - there were so many amazing and quotable moments, if this wasn't a library copy, I'd have been highlighting the crap out of it. But where it was full of emotions it lacked in plot (for me at least). I found myself losing attention at the metaphoric parts and wanting to get to the real life parts. Later on in the book they merge and connect, but prior to that I have to admit, it was a bit confusing.

“You see demons in the eyes of the world, and the world sees a bottomless pit in yours.”

The book also deals with prejudice and wrong accusations. How people see somebody who is different and immediately assume that person is a drug addict. And when they realize what's happening it is often way too late.

​I believe that this book will help many people - it will show them that they are not alone, that no matter what they might be feeling, no matter how ludicrous it may be, there is somebody out there who had felt the same way, or still is.

But I also believe that this book might trigger many others. The emotions in the book were so real you can feel them dripping off the pages. Caden's fears and his paranoia are contagious, and if you are not careful enough it will get you. It didn't help that I am already a hypochondriac and an ocd (self diagnosed, of course, but these things you just know). I kept thinking - am I going to spiral down one day? I have some symptoms, so is it a challenger deep for me too?

Nobody ever likes to feel powerless, but when I read Challenger Deep I felt it - inability to help Caden, or others like Caiden - because only they can help themselves. Sure, doctors and nurses and medicine stabilize people, but in the end the journey is only that person's to take.

Challenger Deep also gave me a new perspective on brain altering medicine. I still don't exactly know how I feel about it, but I do realize now that sometimes that is all doctors have - their best is just a guess, and sometimes that guess works and sometimes it doesn't.

“The fear of not living is a deep, abiding dread of watching your own potential decompose into irredeemable disappointment when 'should be' gets crushed by what is. Sometimes I think it would be easier to die than to face that, because 'what could have been' is much more highly regarded than 'what should have been.' Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug.”

​I'd definitely recommend this book, but I will also say - be ready, this is not the easiest journey you will ever read through. And it will stay with you forever.
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LibraryThing member SBoren
I purchased this book from Half Priced Books to read with @diversebookclub in May. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman. In the beginning this book was all over the place and I didn't quite understand but the thoughts begin to tie up and become the "not
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so neat" package of mental illness. I love how the patient gets to tell the story from his point of view in this book. It isn't a lot of diagnosis and medicine. It's based o feelings and the way the patient perceives those feelings. It is very different. Alternating between a world on a ship and real life puts the ups and downs in places no one would imagine your mind could take you. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Go Read, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie and my blog at readsbystacie.com
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LibraryThing member thelibraryladies
I first read “Challenger Deep” a couple of years ago when it was getting a lot of press and hype for its themes of mental illness. Given that I went through some nasty battles with depression in high school and college, I was very interested to see what Neal Shusterman was going to do with it,
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especially since I knew that his own son was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was a teen (and therein inspired this book). Reading it the first time was a very rewarding and somewhat personal experience, but reading it a second time gave me the chance to read it knowing what was coming and how all the symbolism was going to come together.

One of the most striking things about “Challenger Deep” is how Shusterman frames it, in that it’s a very disorienting read for the reader, giving him or her a sense of what constant disorientation may feel like for those who are struggling with mental illness. Shusterman is careful to not put any kind of mental disorder into a box, and does take care to mention that this one experience that Caden is having is not necessarily universal to all people who suffer from schizophrenia. The story is all from Caden’s perspective, but you do kind of get insight into what those who are around him may be feeling based on their reactions and the decisions that they make. The parallels between what is going on in Caden’s ‘reality’ and what is going on on ‘the ship’ was very interesting to see, and it was powerful to be able to see the glimpses of reality within the hallucinations (the captain, the figurehead, etc).

I also liked that Shusterman never felt condescending or cloying in his storytelling, and never got preachy about what Caden should or shouldn’t do, or should or shouldn’t feel. He presents a situation and lets the reader decide for themselves what conclusions to draw. He also doesn’t wrap everything up in a neat little bow; you get the sense that things aren’t over for Caden and that he will always have these struggles. As hard as that is to accept, it’s also very realistic, as mental illness is for many people something they are going to have their entire lives, degrees of seriousness changing all the time. It’s a realistic take, but it doesn’t feel bleak or nihilistic. Given that this book is so personal for Shusterman and his family, I’m not surprised that he didn’t approach it with easy answers or cut and dry solutions. I think that it’s very important that teens can see this kind of story, so that they can either see themselves in a book, or they can gain some insight into something that those close to them may be dealing with.

“Challenger Deep” is a poignant and powerful novel, and I’m pleased that we kicked off our B-Sides Book Club Theme with it!

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I had never read anything by Shusterman until I picked up “Scythe” last summer. So all I knew was that I liked him as a dystopian, YA author. Tackling a tough subject like mental illness is another thing all together! But I should have had faith, as Shusterman once again blew me away with his sensitive, unflinching yet compassionate, tale.

As Kate already touched on, one of the strongest aspects of this story is the subtle manner in which Shusterman depicts the slow, almost unnoticeable, descent into confusion and paranoia that Caden slips into. The reader, too, is unsure of what is happening, not only with the events on the ship, but the timeline between one section and another. It isn’t until halfway through the story that I was able to begin to piece together these two disparate storylines. This perfectly aligns with the point at which Caden, too, begins to gain a bit of clarity, though he is by no means out of the woods.

The ship itself, obviously, is an extensive metaphorical look into the world that Caden has projected around himself. However, for readers looking to gain more insight into what loved ones experiencing mental health challenges are going through, the author also sprinkles in some shockingly simple but apt comparisons that I found incredibly insightful and helpful. In this way, the book speaks not only to an “own experience” reader looking to see themselves and their challenges on the page, but also as a perfect portal for friends and family to understand a bit better what could be going on. As Kate said, Shusterman is careful to never imply that this is by any means a road map for all mental health experiences and that even any given diagnosis is not the same for every individual experiencing it.

It is clear that Shusterman was writing from a very real place, having been the parent of a teenage boy who struggled with mental health. His son not only provided insights to help direct the creation of this story, but there are also images sprinkled throughout the story that Shusterman’s son drew in the midst of his own crisis. Every time a new image appeared, I found myself taking quite a bit of time looking at it. Most were unclear, scribble-like creations that, while not clearly depicting a scene or object, spoke quite strongly to the swirl of emotions that its creator felt. Caden’s own art and his use of it to not only express himself but what he sees in others was also a great lens through which to read his experiences. His family and friends first begin to note changes in him by the changes in his art, and Caden uses his artistic ability to get at deep truths of the other teens he meets who have their own struggles.

I absolutely adored this story, and it was a great start to our new season of bookclub!
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LibraryThing member aratiel
The first third of this book is so strange that I almost put it down...I'm so glad that I stuck with it! All of the puzzle pieces come together to form a brutally honest yet beautifully written story about mental illness.

Awards

National Book Award (Finalist — Young People's Literature — 2015)
Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (Honor — Nonfiction — 2015)
Commonwealth Club of California Book Awards (Finalist — Young Adult — 2015)
Sequoyah Book Award (Nominee — High School — 2017)
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