Tuesday, May 18, 2021

TBR - Mental Health Awareness

May is Mental Health Awareness month, so what better time to talk about books with mental health representation? I started my list with books I have read and loved, and I realized pretty quickly that I have gravitated toward books with characters whose mental health experiences mirror mine. Eye-opening! I always enjoy putting book lists together, but I'm particularly glad that this one made me aware of some of my blind spots, and now I have more books with mental health rep outside my own experience to read and learn from. This Tuesday Book Recs post is full of recs for myself!

Photo collage with cover images of "You Asked for Perfect" by Laura Silverman, "The Weight of Our Sky" by Hanna Alkaf, and "The Astonishing Color of After" by Emily X.R. Pan, with the words "Mental Health Awareness Month" in black in the bottom right corner


Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Sáenz 

One of these I have read (and recommended multiple times, so if you're still sleeping on Ari and Dante, I don't know why), the other I haven't. Last Night I Sang to the Monster is about eighteen-year-old Zach who, instead of finishing high school, finds himself in rehab for alcoholism instead. He can't remember how he got there, and he's not sure he wants to find out.


The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

Leigh is grieving the loss of her mother to suicide and is convinced that when her mother died, she became a bird. Her quest to find her mother's bird form takes her to Taiwan for a visit with her maternal grandparents, and it is here that she discovers more than she expected to, including a new relationship with the grandparents she had previously never met.


Clean by Amy Reed

Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva don't want to be in rehab, not only facing sobriety but also some of their darkest fears. After hitting rock bottom, though, they don't have much of a choice. Can they find a way to deal with themselves and with each other in order to find a way to navigate their addictions and live their lives?


Darius the Great is Not Okay and Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

Darius feels different in a lot of ways from his classmates. He's Persian, for one thing, and he has also been diagnosed with clinical depression. It isn't until he travels to Iran to visit his grandparents and meets Sohrab that he feels what it's like to belong, to have a best friend, and that he starts to realize that there may be more to him than he has previously convinced himself. These books are beautiful, funny, and poignant.


Emergency Contact, Permanent Record, and Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi

Well-documented fangirl here, once again recommending that you read anything by Mary H.K. Choi. I've typed and deleted descriptions and explanations for what makes her books so wonderful multiple times, and I just...I don't have the words. Her writing is real and relatable, and reading about Penny in Emergency Contact was one of the first times I felt seen by a fictional character. When presented with an opportunity to read something she's written, always take it!


Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Charlotte Davis's life has been one of loss, and the coping mechanisms she has found to help herself survive are less than healthy. But each new scar helps her feel a little less, and sometimes what you need is not to feel. It's been so long, though, and Charlotte is so shattered - will she ever be able to put the pieces of herself back together?


Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Solomon has agoraphobia and has not left the house in years. Lisa, angling to get into one of the best college psychology programs available, has a plan: "fix" Sol and prove that she's good enough. What neither of them expect is to form a friendship, but they do, growing closer to each other and letting walls down. 


I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sánchez

Julia is navigating both her own grief and that of her parents in the wake of her older sister's unexpected death. Olga was perfect, and all her parents hopes had rested on her...so now that she's gone, what is Julia supposed to do? It's clear that her parents expect her to step in and fill the role, but Julia isn't so sure she can do that, and the more she learns about her sister after her death, the more she realizes that maybe Olga wasn't all that perfect either.


I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver

Ben is nonbinary, and when they come out to their parents, their parents throw them out. Living with their sister and her husband, Ben struggles with anxiety compounded by their parents' rejection as they complete their last semester of high school. This book tugged at my heart, and all I wanted the entire time was to give Ben a hug.


Life Inside My Mind edited by Jessica Burkhart

This is an anthology of thirty-one real-life experiences from authors who have experienced mental illness. Their goal is to end stigma and provide hope, and I am very eager to read this.


Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

In this memoir, Lori Gottlieb weaves together her experiences as a therapist and her experience in therapy. I am not always drawn in by non-fiction, but this is a topic that greatly interests me, and I found her story riveting, vulnerable, and emotional.


The Place Between Breaths by An Na

Ever since Grace's mother, who struggled with schizophrenia, disappeared out of fear that she would hurt her family, her father has worked as a recruiter for a lab studying the disease. Sixteen-year-old Grace interns at the lab, and one day Grace stumbles upon a string of code that could unlock the gene sequence that leads to schizophrenia. But is this discovery the beacon of hope she thinks it is? Or the first sign that schizophrenia may also be taking hold of her?


We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

Marin hasn't spoken to anyone from her former life since the day she left, and no one back home knows the truth of what happened. Still, she feels the pull of her former life, and now that Mabel, her best friend, is coming for a visit, she may finally be forced to confront everything she left behind. 


The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

Music loving sixteen-year-old Melati is in many ways just your average teenager. She also has OCD, which manifests as a belief that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who will kill her mother unless she adheres to her elaborate projection rituals to keep him satisfied. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her hometown boil over into a riot, and when she and her mother become separated, Melati must find and protect her mother before she loses her forever.


You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman

Ariel Stone is a senior bound for Harvard...until a failed calculus quiz derails all his carefully laid plans. His life is one of little sleep and carefully ordered to-do lists, and before he knows it the extra time studying for calculus causes a snowball effect and he is falling further and further behind in areas he never would have expected. 

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