Showing posts with label Mental Illness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mental Illness. Show all posts

Friday, December 9, 2016

A World Without You by Beth Revis

A World Without You
Fiction R327w
Beth Revis

Seventeen-year-old Bo has always had delusions that he can travel through time. When he was ten, Bo claimed to have witnessed the Titanic hit an iceberg, and at fifteen, he found himself on a Civil War battlefield, horrified by the bodies surrounding him. So when his concerned parents send him to a school for troubled youth, Bo assumes he knows the truth: that he’s actually attending Berkshire Academy, a school for kids who, like Bo, have "superpowers."

At Berkshire, Bo falls in love with Sofia, a quiet girl with a tragic past and the superpower of invisibility. Sofia helps Bo open up in a way he never has before. In turn, Bo provides comfort to Sofia, who lost her mother and two sisters at a very young age.

But even the strength of their love isn’t enough to help Sofia escape her deep depression. After she commits suicide, Bo is convinced that she's not actually dead. He believes that she's stuck somewhere in time — that he somehow left her in the past, and now it's his job to save her. 

Not since Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story has there been such a heartrending depiction of mental illness. In her first contemporary novel, Beth Revis guides readers through the mind of a young man struggling to process his grief as he fights his way through his delusions. As Bo becomes more and more determined to save Sofia, he has to decide whether to face his demons head-on, or succumb to a psychosis that will let him be with the girl he loves.


(from publisher)

Friday, September 2, 2016

The Asylum Novellas by Madeleine Roux

The Asylum Novellas
Fiction R767an
Madeleine Roux

Three teens are pushed to the edge of their sanity in these chilling novellas set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Asylum series, featuring terrifying found photographs and a sneak peek at a new prequel novel, Escape from Asylum.


Before Dan, Abby, and Jordan ever stepped foot inside the Brookline asylum, its legacy of terror stretched far and deep. Enter the twisted world of the New York Times bestselling Asylum series with these three spine-tingling novellas starring supporting characters from the novels, available in a print bind-up for the first time.

In The Scarlets, Cal is drawn into New Hampshire College’s twisted secret society—one with a deadly initiation.

In The Bone Artists, Oliver tries to make a little extra money for college by working for a seedy organization that traffics in human bones.

In The Warden, a young nurse starts a new job at the Brookline asylum, but soon becomes suspicious of its unorthodox procedures.…

Be careful where you go digging in history. Sometimes the past is better off buried.

This edition also includes a bonus sneak peek at Escape from Asylum, a prequel to the mind-bending novel that started it all.


(from publisher)

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis

On the Edge of Gone
Fiction D958o
Corinne Duyvis
January 29, 2035.

That’s the day the comet is scheduled to hit—the big one. Denise and her mother and sister, Iris, have been assigned to a temporary shelter near their hometown of Amsterdam to wait out the blast, but Iris is nowhere to be found, and at the rate Denise’s drug-addicted mother is going, they’ll never reach the shelter in time.

Then a last-minute encounter leads them to something better than a temporary shelter: a generation ship that’s scheduled to leave Earth behind and colonize new worlds after the comet hits. But each passenger must have a practical skill to contribute. Denise is autistic and fears that she’ll never be allowed to stay. Can she obtain a spot before the ship takes flight? What about her mother and sister?

When the future of the human race is at stake, whose lives matter most?


(from publisher)

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

When We Collided by Emery Lord

When We Collided
Fiction L8842w
Emery Lord

We are seventeen and shattered and still dancing. We have messy, throbbing hearts, and we are stronger than anyone could ever know…

Jonah never thought a girl like Vivi would come along.

Vivi didn’t know Jonah would light up her world.

Neither of them expected a summer like this…a summer that would rewrite their futures.

In an unflinching story about new love, old wounds, and forces beyond our control, two teens find that when you collide with the right person at just the right time, it will change you forever.


(from publisher)

The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork

The Memory of Light
Fiction St747me
Francisco X. Stork

When Vicky Cruz wakes up in the Lakeview Hospital Mental Disorders ward, she knows one thing: After her suicide attempt, she shouldn't be alive. But then she meets Mona, the live wire; Gabriel, the saint; E.M., always angry; and Dr. Desai, a quiet force. With stories and honesty, kindness and hard work, they push her to reconsider her life before Lakeview, and offer her an acceptance she's never had.

But Vicky's newfound peace is as fragile as the roses that grow around the hospital. And when a crisis forces the group to split up, sending Vick back to the life that drove her to suicide, she must try to find her own courage  and strength. She may not have them. She doesn't know.

Inspired in part by the author's own experience with depression, The Memory of Light is the rare young adult novel that focuses not on the events leading up to a suicide attempt, but the recovery from one -- about living when life doesn't seem worth it, and how we go on anyway.


(from publisher)

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

Beside Myself 
Fiction M8211b
Ann Morgan  

Six-year-old Helen and Ellie are identical twins, but Helen is smarter, more popular, and their mother's favorite. Ellie, on the other hand, requires special instruction at school, is friendless, and is punished at every turn.

Until they decide to swap places--just for fun, and just for one day--and Ellie refuses to switch back. Everything of Helen's, from her toys to her friends to her identity, now belongs to her sister. With those around her oblivious to her plight, the girl who used to be Helen loses her sense of self and withdraws into a spiral of behavioral problems, delinquency, and mental illness. In time, she's not even sure of her memory of the switch.

Twenty-five years later, she receives a call that threatens to pull her back into her sister's dangerous orbit. Will she take this chance to face her past?

(from publisher)

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

Mosquitoland 
Fiction Ar643m
David Arnold  
  

After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in northern Ohio to the “wastelands” of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland.
 
So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way. But when her thousand-mile journey takes a few turns she could never see coming, Mim must confront her own demons, redefining her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane.

(from publisher)

Monday, February 22, 2016

Calvin by Martine Leavitt Fiction

Calvin
Martine Leavitt
Fiction L489c


Seventeen-year-old Calvin has always known his fate is linked to the comic book character from Calvin & Hobbes. He was born on the day the last strip was published; his grandpa left a stuffed tiger named Hobbes in his crib; and he even has a best friend named Susie. As a child Calvin played with the toy Hobbes, controlling his every word and action, until Hobbes was washed to death. 

But now Calvin is a teenager who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, Hobbes is back―as a delusion―and Calvin can't control him. Calvin decides that if he can convince Bill Watterson to draw one final comic strip, showing a normal teenaged Calvin, he will be cured. Calvin and Susie (and Hobbes) set out on a dangerous trek across frozen Lake Erie to track him down.

(from publisher)

Monday, October 26, 2015

Fell of Dark by Patrick Downes

Fell of Dark
Patrick Downes
Fiction D7584f

 A book that challenges the word "powerful" and obliterates it

Written in searing prose, this is the story of two boys: Erik, who performs miracles, and Thorn, who hears voices. The book chronicles their lives as their minds devolve into hallucinations, and shows the way their worlds intersect, culminating in a final stand-off.

This debut novel offer a raw, insightful look at the forces that compel us to act against our will. Even more so, it captivates and dares us to look away, knowing full well we can't.

(from publisher)

Monday, May 18, 2015

Fig

Fig
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
Fiction Sch165f

Fig’s world lies somewhere between reality and fantasy.

But as she watches Mama slowly come undone, it becomes hard to tell what is real and what is not, what is fun and what is frightening. To save Mama, Fig begins a fierce battle to bring her back. She knows that her daily sacrifices, like not touching metal one day or avoiding water the next, are the only way to cure Mama.

The problem is that in the process of a daily sacrifice, Fig begins to lose herself as well, increasingly isolating herself from her classmates and engaging in self-destructive behavior that only further sets her apart.

Spanning the course of Fig’s childhood from age six to nineteen, this deeply provocative novel is more than a portrait of a mother, a daughter, and the struggle that comes with all-consuming love. It is an acutely honest and often painful portrayal of life with mental illness and the lengths to which a young woman must go to handle the ordeals—real or imaginary—thrown her way.

(From publisher.)

Friday, December 5, 2014

Splintered

Splintered
A.G. Howard
Fiction H831s

Alyssa Gardner hears the thoughts of plants and insects. She hides her delusions for now, but she knows her fate: she will end up like her mother, in an institution. Madness has run in her family ever since her great-great-great-grandmother Alice Liddell told Lewis Carroll her strange dreams, inspiring his classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

But perhaps she’s not mad. And perhaps Carroll’s stories aren’t as whimsical as they first seem.

To break the curse of insanity, Alyssa must go down the rabbit hole and right the wrongs of Wonderland, a place full of strange beings with dark agendas. Alyssa brings her real-world crush — the protective Jeb — with her, but once her journey begins, she’s torn between his solidity and the enchanting dangerous magic of Morpheus, her guide to Wonderland.

But no one in Wonderland is who they seem to be — not even Alyssa herself…


(From publisher.)

Friday, August 22, 2014

Complicit

Complicit
Stephanie Kuehn
Fiction K95c

Two years ago, fifteen-year-old Jamie Henry breathed a sigh of relief when a judge sentenced his older sister to juvenile detention for burning down their neighbor’s fancy horse barn. The whole town did. Because Crazy Cate Henry used to be a nice girl. Until she did a lot of bad things. Like drinking. And stealing. And lying. Like playing weird mind games in the woods with other children. Like making sure she always got her way. Or else.

But today Cate got out. And now she’s coming back for Jamie. 
Because more than anything, Cate Henry needs her little brother to know the truth about their past. A truth she’s kept hidden for years. A truth she’s not supposed to tell.

Trust nothing and no one as you race toward the explosive conclusion of the gripping psychological thriller Complicit from Stephanie Kuehn, the William C. Morris Award--winning author of Charm & Strange. 

(From publisher.)

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Crash and Burn

Crash and Burn
Michael Hassan 
Fiction H275c

On April 21, 2008, Steven "Crash" Crashinsky saved more than a thousand people when he stopped his classmate David Burnett from taking their high school hostage armed with assault weapons and high-powered explosives. You likely already know what came after for Crash: the nationwide notoriety, the college recruitment, and, of course, the book deal. What you might not know is what came before: a story of two teens whose lives have been inextricably linked since grade school, who were destined, some say, to meet that day in the teachers' lounge of Meadows High. And what you definitely don't know are the words that Burn whispered to Crash right as the siege was ending, a secret that Crash has never revealed.

Until now.

Michael Hassan's shattering novel is a tale of first love and first hate, the story of two high school seniors and the morning that changed their lives forever. It's a portrait of the modern American teenage male, in all his brash, disillusioned, oversexed, schizophrenic, drunk, nihilistic, hopeful, ADHD-diagnosed glory. And it's a powerful meditation on how normal it is to be screwed up, and how screwed up it is to be normal

Freaks Like Us

Freaks Like Us
Susan Vaught
Fiction V465f

Sunshine is missing. 
This much Jason knows. 
And she told him something. 
But what? 
What was it she told him? 
He can't quite remember. 
He can almost here her voice. 
But not quiet... 
The other voices drown her out. 
They don't tell him why. 
And Jason is looking more and more guilty. 
But of what, exactly? 
If only the voices would explain.
 If only anyone every listened to kids like Jason.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

King of the Pygmies
















King of the Pygmies
Jonathon Scott Fuqua
Fiction F965k

When fifteen-year-old Penn starts to hear voices, he is terrified. He can hear his parents’ unspoken gripes, his retarded brother’s anxieties, and his neighbor’s desperation. His mother wants him to get treated for schizophrenia, but his similarly gifted uncle tells him that hearing others’ thoughts doesn’t make him sick; it makes him special. This compelling novel of a young man’s struggle to come to terms with his disability is a tale of courage, determination, and hope. (Publisher description)

Read a review!
School Library Journal (scroll down to Fugua to read the review): "Pygmies is a gentle story with a satisfying ending; the book will appeal to those who enjoy a quiet read."