Library / Living With Mental Illness
Read this when
Made You Up
When you have to fact-check your own eyes, and still fall for someone. 🎱
Who it's for
Alex narrates her own life, so the reader shares her uncertainty and her reality-testing tools (photographs, a Magic 8-Ball, checking with others).
Feelings it meets
What it is
Francesca Zappia's 2015 debut young adult novel follows Alex, a 17-year-old with paranoid schizophrenia who starts her senior year at a public school in Indiana after being expelled from her private school. She manages her condition with medication but still has hallucinations, and she has to work out what is real as she gets to know classmates, including Tucker and Miles, who leads a community service group.
Where to find it
In print; widely available from libraries (Libby/Hoopla, where held) and as an audiobook. Not public domain.
Before you start
Heads up: Hallucinations, delusions and bullying.
Age: Ages 14+
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.Helen Keller, Optimism: An Essay
