One in six Kiwis has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder at some time in their lives. If you want to learn more about the thoughts and emotions of people with mental health issues or you need a reminder that you’re not alone in this battle, these books, in our opinion, are doing a great job in picturing life with a mental disorder.
All The Bright Places, Jennifer Niven
Phenomenal, heartbreaking story of first love, depression and the irreversible consequences of not being diagnosed with a mental disorder in time.
Violet and Finch are both in a dark place when they first meet. Violet is grieving the loss of her sister and Finch is bipolar and is recovering after his latest depressive episode, though he doesn’t really know that’s exactly what’s going on. He doesn’t want to admit something is not right with him.
They feel a strong pull to each other. A school project that sets them on a mission to find something special in their region brings them closer and their relationships evolve from tentative friendship to fierce love. Both Violet and Finch believe they can save each other with the power of their love.
Their dialogues, their thoughts, their fights – it’s all so beautiful, innocent, real. And to avoid further spoilers, I’ll just mention that I definitely wasn’t crying in my pillow like a little baby for months after reading it. Nope. Wasn’t me.
Carry The Ocean, Heidi Cullinan
This is a very romantic, very sweet story. Not without dark episodes but definitely with a guiding light always shining through the darkness.
Emmet Washington is a double major in math and computer science, he’s smart, attentive, persistent. Yet no one knows that. Because Emmet is autistic and struggles with direct eye contact, reading people’s emotions and expressing his own, so other people are quick to label him ‘stupid’ and ‘idiot’.
But not Jeremey Samson, a quiet, lonely boy living across the railroad from Emmet. Once they start getting to know each other, Jeremey finds all the right words and ways to make Emmet open up to him and Emmet somehow knows exactly how to deal with Jeremey’s social anxiety and depression. That is until Jeremey attempts suicide.
In spite of many obstacles, there is nothing these two boys can’t overcome together. From being isolated and sad they go all the way to a happy life, surrounded by friends.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
This is one of those books that doesn’t put a label on a person from the first page. Rather than being told that Eleanor suffers from PTSD or depression, we’re allowed to see it through her thoughts and actions.
Eleanor spends her weekends drinking vodka, skips showering and doesn’t leave the house on bad days and even attempts suicide. But she also has positive and good days, she works nine to five and overall appears to be… fine.
Eleanor’s struggles are depicted very realistically, there is no ‘glamourising’ of her mental health issues. And dividing the book into three different parts according to her inner state adds to the better understanding of what our heroine is going through.
Just like Carry The Ocean, this book shows how important it is to accept that we don’t know for sure what the person beside us is going through and how important it is not to judge without giving that person a chance to be understood.
Girl in Pieces, Kathleen Glasgow
‘Cathartic’ and ‘cleansing’ are just a few words often used to describe this book. Though falling into the YA (Young Adult) genre, this book is definitely more suitable for older teens and adults, as it becomes really dark and the heroes don’t always make the best choices.
Charlotte Davis has lost her father and her best friend and the only way she can forget about her constant pain and emptiness is through self harm. Charlotte has no one to help her. She leaves home and a mother who has nothing left to give and ends up homeless and in the company of drug addicts.
But help comes and Charlotte slowly finds her way back to the light.
Kissing Doorknobs, Terry Spencer Hesser
Tara Sullivan has severe OCD. From counting every crack on the sidewalk to keep her mother safe to lining up her food in specific ways and kissing her fingers to touch doorknobs – these are the rituals that are important to her to keep her sanity. Of course, it’s also something other school kids and, even worse, her mother can’t understand.
Tara’s OCD is undiagnosed and her separation from the rest of the world and constant misunderstanding makes it even harder for her to function properly.
A lot of readers of Kissing Doorknobs say they can rarely relate to a book heroine to the extent they do with Tara. Her thoughts and actions are a very accurate depiction of what they’re going through on a daily basis.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Ned Vizzini
Sadly, a lot of books with heroes who have mental health disorders tend to romanticise them and make them look like no big deal, just this little quirk to make the hero more interesting. This is not the case with Vizzini’s novel.
Here, ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner gets help in a mental hospital after he stops eating and sleeping and attempts suicide due to the unbearably high pressure of high school.
The best part about this story is that Craig calls the suicide line and even checks into hospital himself. A lot of people, struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, are afraid to ask for help but it’s ok to admit that something is wrong, it’s ok to not be strong enough sometimes to deal with it on your own. There is nothing wrong with seeking help.
Trials of Fear, Nicky James
Trials of Fear is a really educational and interesting series about rare and overwhelming phobias. A phobia is a type of severe anxiety disorder and is often developed after a traumatising life experience. While many of us are afraid of heights or insects, the phobias Nicky James is talking about are so bad, they become life-threatening.
Though explaining that phobias never completely go away, all books in the series follow the heroes on their complicated paths to healing and live as normal a life as they’re able to achieve with these conditions.
In the first book, Owl’s Slumber, Finnley Hollins has been exposed to death since childhood – his father owns a funeral home. After hearing for years that ‘death is just a long sleep’, Finnley is now terrified of dying in his sleep and every night is a battle with human nature, that includes panic attacks, energy drinks, meds and gallons of coffee. He hardly ever sleeps more than 20 hours per week and even that only happens when his body just collapses from exhaustion.
A gingerhead with sensitive skin, Rory Gallagher from Shades of Darkness feels like he’s burning whenever he’s out in the sun. He can smell the burning flesh. He can’t move and loses his senses. That’s why he’s been living in the darkness for six years. He sleeps during the day, wears sunglasses at night, never turns on the lights at home, even his fridge light is covered with a special dark-blue tape.
In Touch of Love, Ireland Hayes is terrified of, well, touch! Touching someone is something he is OK with on good days but being touched has always been the bigger issue. Unlike the rest of the heroes in the series, he’s already in therapy when we meet him, has a job, a girlfriend. His life looks as good as it gets. Unfortunately, a row of events triggers his phobia and he slides into one of the worst episodes ever, when it’s not only touch he can’t tolerate but even the proximity of other people.
Grayson Brooks from Lost in The Moment develops a fear of time after being trapped in a dark basement for several days. He obsessively writes down minutes on a piece of paper for hours in order not to miss them and often feels like everything around him runs too fast or slows down too much. How can you deal with something so ephemeral? Something we don’t even notice?
Cravings of the Heart is probably the most heartbreaking of the series. Young Arden McMillan develops a food phobia after losing his twin sister to botulism. They were poisoned together but he survived, with the damaged nerves in his left cheek as a constant reminder of a tragedy. Now, Arden’s menu consists of only six products which means he’s extremely malnourished and almost dies yet again – this time of heart failure. The scenes in which Arden is forced to eat through panic attacks, vomiting and crying, when drinking one bottle of protein shake takes him the whole night and he spends another day convinced he’s poisoned again, are so raw and emotional, it makes you re-think everything you knew about severe phobias.
