Mental Illness in YA Month Wrap Up

So Mental Illness in YA Month has come to a close! I hope you have enjoyed the event as much as I have in putting it together! If there are some posts you think you've missed, you can find links to all posts  in the Mental Illness in YA Month Schedule. There's still a few hours left to enter the giveaways if you haven't yet, and can do so here: Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman giveaway, White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock proof giveaway, and Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles proof giveaway.

There are a lot of people I have to thank. Thank you to Akemi Dawn Bowman, Tom Pollock, Ashley Woodfolk, Eric Smith, Mike Schlossberg, and Lydia Ruffles for contributing to the event either by interview or guest post. Thank you to Hannah of A Cup of Wonderland, Hannah of Sprinkled With Words, and Georgia of Georgia's Bookish Thoughts for contributing with guest posts.

Thank you to Dahlia Adler, Katherine Locke, C. G. Drews, @EmmmaBooks, Kari Hagen, Aisha Bushby, Jessica Walton, Becky, Barker & Jones, Nass, Kate Mallinder, Lydia Ruffles, Becca Allen, Christina Banach, and Becca for all the amazing book recommendations that led to either me reading those books, or putting them in reading lists.

And thank you to you for reading my posts throughout the month, commenting, and contributing to the conversation. I feel so strongly about the importance of talking about mental illness to combat stigma, and I think books are such are safe way of having those conversations. I've really enjoyed reading all the very different books I've read, and the different experiences, struggles, views and opinions shown through those books. It's been a great month, and I'm very looking forward to reading the YA novels featuring mental illness that are published in the future.

Thank you for joining me along for this ride!

--
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Mental Illness in YA Month Reading List: YA Novels Featuring Mental Illness Wishlist

Mental Illness in YA Month is coming to an end, so I thought my penultimate post should highlight YA novels and teen non-fic featuring/about mental illness that are yet to come out that I'm highly anticipating! These are the books on my wishlist, in order of publication.

Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles
Published on 8th August 2018

Nineteen-year-old actor Arlo likes nothing more than howling across the skyline with best friend Luke from the roof of their apartment.

But when something irreparable happens and familiar black weeds start to crawl inside him, Arlo flees to the other side of the world, taking only a sketchbook full of maps.

With its steaming soup and neon lights, this new place is both comforting and isolating.

There, Arlo meets fellow traveller Mizuki. Something about her feels more like home than he's felt in a while. But what is Mizuki searching for?

HOW FAR CAN YOU OUTRUN YOURSELF . . .
BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR WAY BACK? From Goodreads.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Reading List: YA Novels Featuring Mental Illness Wishlist

Mental Illness in YA Month Discussion: What Do We Want to See More & Less of in YA Novels Featuring Mental Illness?

This is the final discussion post inspired by young adult podcast YA Oughta's Mental Health episode, which featured Lydia Ruffles and Tom Pollock in conversation with Chloe Seager and Katherine Dunn, in which they talked about writing about mental illness, representation, and many other things. Towards the end of the episode, they discussed what they want to see more or less of in YA novels featuring mental illness, and I thought that would be an interesting discussion to have.

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: All the Ways the World Can End by Abby Sher

All the Ways the World Can End by Abby Sher (Review Copy) - Lenny is preparing for the apocalypse. Every night, she researches vacuum decay, designer pathogens, that inexplicable sleeping sickness knocking people out in Kazakhstan. Not many sixteen-year-olds are this consumed with the end of the world. But Lenny needs to have some sense of control. Her dad is dying of cancer. Her best friend Julian is graduating early and moving three states away. She's having to rehearse for a toe-curling interpretive dance show at school, and deal with her mum's indefatigable jolliness and smoothie-making in the face of the disaster they are confronting. The one thing keeping her hopeful is Dr Rad Ganesh - her father's oncologist. Surely Lenny can win him round to her charms - and he can save her father? From Goodreads.

I was sent this ARC for free by Hot Key Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger Warning: This book features self-harm, homophobic language (overheard on a train), and the protagonist using ableist language.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: All the Ways the World Can End by Abby Sher

Mental Illness in YA Month Reading List: YA Novels Featuring Boys With Eating Disorders

Yesterday, I reviewed The Art of Starving by Sam J. Smith, about Matt, a guy with an eating disorder. I want to share a quote with you from the book again, because I think it's important to think about.

'Thanks to the magic of Afterschool Specials, I know that a disconnect between what I see and what others see is a very banal aspect of eating disorders. Here is the thing--what I have is not an eating disorder. I'm pretty sure boys can't even get eating disorders. Lord knows there aren't any afterschool specials about it.' (p12)

Just let that sink in for a second. 'I'm pretty sure boys can't even get eating disorders.' Of course boys can, it's just that society doesn't talk about it. To quote the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA):

"Despite the stereotype that eating disorders only occur in women, about one in three people struggling with an eating disorder is male. [...] In the United States alone, eating disorders will affect 10 million males at some point in their lives. But due in large part to cultural bias, they are much less likely to seek treatment for their eating disorder. The good news is that once a man finds help, they show similar responses to treatment as women. Several factors lead to men and boys being under- and undiagnosed for an eating disorder. Men can face a double stigma, for having a disorder characterized as feminine or gay and for seeking psychological help. Additionally, assessment tests with language geared to women and girls have led to misconceptions about the nature of disordered eating in men." From NEDA's website.

We need to have more conversations around eating disorders in men and boys, and so we need more YA novels featuring teen boys who have eating disorders. As well as The Art of Starving and Four Weeks, Five People by Jennifer Yu, here are a some more novels featuring boys with eating disorders I discovered when doing research.

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller

The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller (Bought) - Matt hasn’t eaten in days.

His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal. But Matt won’t give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp—and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he’s going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away.

Matt’s hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have . . . powers. The ability to see things he shouldn’t be able to see. The knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people’s heads. Maybe even the authority to bend time and space.

So what is lunch, really, compared to the secrets of the universe?

Matt decides to infiltrate Tariq’s life, then use his powers to uncover what happened to Maya. All he needs to do is keep the hunger and longing at bay. No problem. But Matt doesn’t realize there are many kinds of hunger… and he isn’t in control of all of them.

A darkly funny, moving story of body image, addiction, friendship, and love, Sam J. Miller’s debut novel will resonate with any reader who’s ever craved the power that comes with self-acceptance. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features suicidal ideation, self-harm and homophobia.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller

Mental Illness in YA Month Discussion: The Responsibilities of Authors With and/or Writing About Mental Illness

This is the third post which was inspired by young adult podcast YA Oughta's Mental Health episode, which featured Lydia Ruffles and Tom Pollock in conversation with Chloe Seager and Katherine Dunn, in which they talked about writing about mental illness, representation, and many other things. One of the things they talked about that I'd like to discuss is, is there any responsibility for the author

1. Who has a mental illness to write about it?
2. Who writes about a character who has a mental illness to name the diagnosis?

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Are We All Lemmings & Snowflakes? by Holly Bourne (#Ad)

Are We All Lemmings & Snowflakes? by Holly Bourne

I was sent this proof for free by Usborne for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Welcome to Camp Reset, a summer camp with a difference. A place offering a shot at "normality" for Olive, a girl on the edge, and for the new friends she never expected to make – who each have their own reasons for being there. Luckily Olive has a plan to solve all their problems. But how do you fix the world when you can’t fix yourself? From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features suicide ideation, and discussion of sexual child abuse and selfharm.

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Mental Illness in YA Month: Georgia of Georgia's Bookish Thoughts - On Seeing My Mental Illness in a YA Novel

Back in June, I went to a launch party where I met Georgia of Georgia's Bookish Thoughts, and it turned out to be a very serendipitous and fortuitous meeting. We got talking about YA books and book blogging, and I mentioned I was holding Mental Illness in YA Month. She asked what I had been reading for the event, and when I mentioned Pointe by Brandy Colbert, she asked me if I had read Little & Lion, and told me how important it was to her. Fortunately, she agreed to write a last-minute guest post to tell you what she told me about why Little & Lion is just so important.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month: Georgia of Georgia's Bookish Thoughts - On Seeing My Mental Illness in a YA Novel

Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Pointe by Brandy Colbert

Pointe by Brandy Colbert (Bought) - Theo is better now.

She's eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor.

Donovan isn't talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn't do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she's been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features paedophilia, rape, grooming, anorexia and self-harm.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Pointe by Brandy Colbert

Mental Illness in YA Month Reading List: Teen Non-Fiction on Mental Illness and Mental Health

Having representation of teens with mental illness is important, but it's also important to understand our mental health and how to look after ourselves, and also to hear from those who have made it through. So today for Mental Illness in YA Month, I'm sharing with you teen non-fiction titles that cover mental illness/health.

Mind Your Head by Juno Dawson

We all have a mind, so we all need to take care of our mental health as much as we need to take care of our physical health. And the first step is being able to talk about our mental health. Juno Dawson leads the way with this frank, factual and funny book, with added information and support from clinical psychologist Dr Olivia Hewitt. Covering topics from anxiety and depression to addiction, self-harm and personality disorders, Juno and Olivia talk clearly and supportively about a range of issues facing young people's mental health - whether fleeting or long-term - and how to manage them, with real-life stories from young people around the world.

With witty illustrations from Gemma Correll. From Goodreads.

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: The Art of Feeling by Laura Tims

Review: The Art of Feeling by Laura Tims (Bought) - Perfect for fans of Jennifer Niven’s New York Times bestseller All the Bright Places, this contemporary YA novel explores the friendship between a girl in constant pain and a boy who feels nothing at all.

Since the car accident, Samantha Herring has been in pain, not only from her leg injury, but also from her mother’s death, which has devastated her family. After pushing away her friends, Sam has receded into a fog of depression.

But then Sam meets Eliot, a reckless loner with an attitude and an amazing secret—he can’t feel any pain. At first, Sam is jealous. But then she learns more about his medical condition…and his self-destructive tendencies. In fact, Eliot doesn’t seem to care about anything at all—except maybe Sam. As they grow closer, they begin to confront Sam’s painful memories of the accident—memories that may hold a startling truth about what really happened that day. From Goodreads.

Trigger warning: This book features sexual harassment, violence animal death, and discussion of suicide and self-harm.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: The Art of Feeling by Laura Tims

Mental Illness in YA Month Discussion: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman and How Your Mental Illness Affects Loved Ones

This discussion links to my discussion on The Astonishing Colour of After by Emily X. R. Pan and Living With a Depressed Parent - I am the child of depressed parents. But I'm also my parents' daughter who has anxiety.

When reading Challenger Deep, something I really loved was how Caden's parents really care and try to get him the help he needs. When I read the following quote, it really struck a chord with me.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Discussion: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman and How Your Mental Illness Affects Loved Ones

Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (Bought) - 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. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features a suicide attempt, and problematic language when discussing suicide.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Mental Illness in YA Month: Lydia Ruffles with A Tale of Two Lists + Giveaway

I'm so excited to have Lydia Ruffles, UKYA author of The Taste of Blue Light and upcoming Colour Me In, stopping by today to talk about why she writes about mental health in her novels.

A Tale of Two Lists

I said an enthusiastic and, as it turns out, complacent 'yes, please' when Jo invited me to do a guest blog on why I write about mental health for her Mental Illness in YA month. It seemed like the question was made for me. This'lll be easy, I thought.

(Spoiler alert: it wasn't.)

The main characters in my two books - 17-year-old art student Lux Langley in The Taste of Blue Light and 19-year-old actor Arlo Thomas in Colour Me In – both have a mental illness. (They also have friends, family, first love, adventures, goals, agency, etc – more on this later.)

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles

Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles (eProof) - Nineteen-year-old actor Arlo likes nothing more than howling across the skyline with best friend Luke from the roof of their apartment.

But when something irreparable happens and familiar black weeds start to crawl inside him, Arlo flees to the other side of the world, taking only a sketchbook full of maps.

With its steaming soup and neon lights, this new place is both comforting and isolating.

There, Arlo meets fellow traveller Mizuki. Something about her feels more like home than he's felt in a while. But what is Mizuki searching for?

HOW FAR CAN YOU OUTRUN YOURSELF . . .
BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR WAY BACK? From Goodreads.

I received this eProof for free from Hodder Chlildren's Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Colour Me In by Lydia Ruffles

Mental Illness in YA Month: Other Discussions Surrounding Mental Illness in YA

There are many people who have also been talking about the importance mental illness representation in YA, and discussion around it. I wanted to share some of the other important discussions and posts that have covered the subject.

• Shannon of It Starts at Midnight, Kayla of The Thousand Lives (no longer running), and Inge of Bookshelf Reflections (no longer running) held Shattering Stigmas, a blog event to discuss mental illness in YA, in 2015.

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn (Bought) - When you've been kept caged in the dark, it's impossible to see the forest for the trees. It's impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

In Stephanie Kuehn's brilliant debut Charm & Strange, Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He's part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He's part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.

Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.
Before the sun rises, he'll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths-that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features child sexual abuse, violence, and suicide.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

Mental Illness in YA Month: Mike Schlossberg on Fighting Mental Illness Stigma Through Writing

Today, I'm glad to have Mike Schlossberg, author of Redemption, stopping by the blog for Mental Illness in YA Month, with a wonderful guest post about fighting the stigma surrounding mental illness by writing about it.

Let me start with a bit of a confession: When it comes to ensuring that mental illness is adequately discussed in society, I’m biased as hell. one in five American adults actively suffer from mental illness, and I’m one of them.

That being said, hiya! My name is Mike Schlossberg. My full-time job is to serve as a State Representative for the 132nd District of Pennsylvania, serving the people off Allentown and South Whitehall Township. I also write, and recently completed Redemption, my Young Adult, science fiction thriller about depression, anxiety and the end of the world.

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: On a Scale of One to Ten by Ceylan Scott

On a Scale of One to Ten by Ceylan Scott (Review Copy) - Tamar is admitted to Lime Grove, a psychiatric ward for teenagers, where the psychologists ask her endless questions. But there's one question Tamar can't - won't - answer: What happened to her friend Iris? A uniquely powerful, devastating novel of friendship, fragility and forgiveness. From Goodreads.

I was sent this ARC for free by Chicken House for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger Warning: This book features mental illness stigma, self-harm, several suicide attempts, and suicide. This review discusses the self-harm and attempted suicide in this book.

Continue reading Mental Illness in YA Month Review: On a Scale of One to Ten by Ceylan Scott