The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
arytia's review against another edition
dark
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Bullying, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Addiction, Blood, and Self harm
breedawnwriter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Sometimes there are moments when we objectively face the never, and it overwhelms us.”
When I read this book for the first time, I literally didn’t know what to do with myself. Neal Shusterman’s words had touched me so deeply, so honestly, that I didn’t know how to step back into a world that pretends mental illness is a myth. This book made me feel so understood, even though I only struggle with an anxiety disorder and not something as heartbreaking as schizophrenia.
That’s really the only way to describe why I love this book so much: it makes me feel SEEN. It makes me feel like mental illness is SEEN. It reminds me that there are still people out there who get it and understand and care.
“I know I have been a victim of many things beyond my control—but in this moment, in this place, here is something I have the power to choose. There are no miracles here, the parrot had said—but neither is there hopelessness, no matter what the serpent wants me to believe. Nothing is inevitable.”
Reading it a second time, especially aloud, only emphasized my feelings. It sounds cheesy, but there really is something truly powerful about this novel. Caden is such a beautifully written character because not only is he incredibly – INCREDIBLY – flawed, he allows the reader to explore how devastatingly, how painfully, human he is.
How devastatingly, how painfully, human we all are.
And how possible it is to crawl back toward the light and the blue sky when Hopelessness and the Abyssal Serpent watch inches away, ready to devour you the second you give in and whisper that you can’t go on.
Caden Bosch is a fictional representation of the battles fought every day by those with mental illness.
I’m not going to lie, there are times when this book would be far too painful to read. It’s dark, gritty, and dives straight to the murky depths of the ocean that is Mental Illness. But in that murky depth there is power. There is meaning to be found. There is healing and the strength to move forward in the darkening trenches of Challenger Deep.
There is the acknowledgement that just because you’ve won a battle, doesn’t mean you’ve won the war. Neal makes it painfully obvious that this is a battle Caden will fight long after the final page is written.
But there is a lingering hope that resonates in the cracks long after you’ve closed the book and returned it to your bookshelf.
When I read this book for the first time, I literally didn’t know what to do with myself. Neal Shusterman’s words had touched me so deeply, so honestly, that I didn’t know how to step back into a world that pretends mental illness is a myth. This book made me feel so understood, even though I only struggle with an anxiety disorder and not something as heartbreaking as schizophrenia.
That’s really the only way to describe why I love this book so much: it makes me feel SEEN. It makes me feel like mental illness is SEEN. It reminds me that there are still people out there who get it and understand and care.
“I know I have been a victim of many things beyond my control—but in this moment, in this place, here is something I have the power to choose. There are no miracles here, the parrot had said—but neither is there hopelessness, no matter what the serpent wants me to believe. Nothing is inevitable.”
Reading it a second time, especially aloud, only emphasized my feelings. It sounds cheesy, but there really is something truly powerful about this novel. Caden is such a beautifully written character because not only is he incredibly – INCREDIBLY – flawed, he allows the reader to explore how devastatingly, how painfully, human he is.
How devastatingly, how painfully, human we all are.
And how possible it is to crawl back toward the light and the blue sky when Hopelessness and the Abyssal Serpent watch inches away, ready to devour you the second you give in and whisper that you can’t go on.
Caden Bosch is a fictional representation of the battles fought every day by those with mental illness.
I’m not going to lie, there are times when this book would be far too painful to read. It’s dark, gritty, and dives straight to the murky depths of the ocean that is Mental Illness. But in that murky depth there is power. There is meaning to be found. There is healing and the strength to move forward in the darkening trenches of Challenger Deep.
There is the acknowledgement that just because you’ve won a battle, doesn’t mean you’ve won the war. Neal makes it painfully obvious that this is a battle Caden will fight long after the final page is written.
But there is a lingering hope that resonates in the cracks long after you’ve closed the book and returned it to your bookshelf.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Cursing, Bullying, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Alcohol
tezariah's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Death, Suicide, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Mental illness
criticalgayze's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
February has caused a major rut in my reading, and I am really thankful that grad school obligations forced me to finally get a book read. And I'm definitely not mad that it got to be this book to break my dry spell.
With the recent "developmentally appropriate" discourse surrounding book bans, one of the pieces that has risen above the noise is the conversation on curation versus censorship. Defined in pieces like this one from critic and author Roxane Gay, curation is that books should not be "banned" but that a library should be curated to fit both the interests and accessibility of the clientele while still pushing diversity.
When it comes to a topic like mental illness, curation of a middle grades or young adult shelf can be tough. While heavy-hitting books on race, gender, or sexuality can be removed if the demographic facing harm in the text is represented in your space, curating for genuine and earnest mental and physical health depictions that don't trigger a young reader can be tough as illness can be assured to impact at least one person in the room, no matter what the room looks like.
Challenger Deep is a great piece to include in your curation process in answer to this problem. What makes this book a good piece for any library is its ability to keep triggers at a distance. One of the ways in which the main character, Caden, copes with trauma is the creation of a fantastical world aboard a pirate ship that creates an extreme metaphor for situations he encounters. This coping mechanism also works for the reader as we get metaphorical representations of the moments of trauma, like suicide attempts, that reduce the need for bracing for young readers when approaching the text. The book accomplishes all this, however, without rendering the text fangless, as seen in the quotes below.
The one thing that dinged this book for me a little is that I found its heteronormativity a little unnecessarily present at times, especially one joke about Shakespeare that I'm still trying to decide if it was a bit of dated homophobic humor.
Quotes:
There are two things you know. One: You were there. Two: You couldn't have been there. (Page 1)
My emotions are talking in tongues. Joy spins into anger spins into fear then into amused irony, like leaping from a plane, arms wide, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can fly, then discovering you can't, and not only don't you have a parachute, but you don't have any clothes on, and the people below all have binoculars and are laughing as you plummet to a highly embarrassing doom. (Page 6)
Forget solar energy - if you could harness denial, it would power the world for generations. (Page 53)
"You said the ship was too old-fashioned for the mission, and what you say makes a difference around here," he tells me. (Page 83)
I didn't get it at the time, but that feeling - knowing something is wrong, but not being able to pinpoint what it is - is a feeling I've come to know intimately. The difference is, I've never been able to find something as easy and as obvious as a rearview mirror lying at my feet. (Page 93)
"The moral of the story is that we must not free ourselves from our beasts. Nay - we must abandon all else in this world but our beasts. We must feed them as much as we fight them, submitting to loneliness and misery with no hope of escape." (Page 141)
"Your mind is in a cast now," he says. "Think of it that way. It was broken and now it's in a cast." (Page 148)
Don Quixote - the famous literary madman - fought windmills. People think he saw giants when he looked at them, but those of us who've been there know the truth. He saw windmills, just like everyone else - but the believed they were giants. The scariest thing of all is never knowing what you're suddenly going to believe. (Page 163)
Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug. (Page 168)
He grins. "As time goes on, you'll find more and more flukes." (Page 213)
Still, if you've got to bring yourself within inches of your life just to cry for help, something's wrong somewhere. Either you weren't yelling loud enough to begin with, or the people around you are deaf, dumb, and blind. Which makes me think it isn't just a cry for help - it's more a cry to be taken seriously. A cry that says "I'm hurting so badly, the world must, for once, come to a grinding halt for me." (Page 262)
The stars will go dark and the universe will end before I get this year back. (Page 287)
"Yes, you have achieved the bottom," he says. "But the bottom gets deeper with each trip; you know that, don't you?" (Page 290)
Schizophrenia, schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, major depression, psychotic depression, obsessive/compulsive, and on and on. The labels mean nothing, because no two cases are ever exactly alike. Everyone presents differently, and responds to meds differently, and no prognosis can truly be predicted. (Page 298)
With the recent "developmentally appropriate" discourse surrounding book bans, one of the pieces that has risen above the noise is the conversation on curation versus censorship. Defined in pieces like this one from critic and author Roxane Gay, curation is that books should not be "banned" but that a library should be curated to fit both the interests and accessibility of the clientele while still pushing diversity.
When it comes to a topic like mental illness, curation of a middle grades or young adult shelf can be tough. While heavy-hitting books on race, gender, or sexuality can be removed if the demographic facing harm in the text is represented in your space, curating for genuine and earnest mental and physical health depictions that don't trigger a young reader can be tough as illness can be assured to impact at least one person in the room, no matter what the room looks like.
Challenger Deep is a great piece to include in your curation process in answer to this problem. What makes this book a good piece for any library is its ability to keep triggers at a distance. One of the ways in which the main character, Caden, copes with trauma is the creation of a fantastical world aboard a pirate ship that creates an extreme metaphor for situations he encounters. This coping mechanism also works for the reader as we get metaphorical representations of the moments of trauma, like suicide attempts, that reduce the need for bracing for young readers when approaching the text. The book accomplishes all this, however, without rendering the text fangless, as seen in the quotes below.
The one thing that dinged this book for me a little is that I found its heteronormativity a little unnecessarily present at times, especially one joke about Shakespeare that I'm still trying to decide if it was a bit of dated homophobic humor.
Quotes:
There are two things you know. One: You were there. Two: You couldn't have been there. (Page 1)
My emotions are talking in tongues. Joy spins into anger spins into fear then into amused irony, like leaping from a plane, arms wide, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can fly, then discovering you can't, and not only don't you have a parachute, but you don't have any clothes on, and the people below all have binoculars and are laughing as you plummet to a highly embarrassing doom. (Page 6)
Forget solar energy - if you could harness denial, it would power the world for generations. (Page 53)
"You said the ship was too old-fashioned for the mission, and what you say makes a difference around here," he tells me. (Page 83)
I didn't get it at the time, but that feeling - knowing something is wrong, but not being able to pinpoint what it is - is a feeling I've come to know intimately. The difference is, I've never been able to find something as easy and as obvious as a rearview mirror lying at my feet. (Page 93)
"The moral of the story is that we must not free ourselves from our beasts. Nay - we must abandon all else in this world but our beasts. We must feed them as much as we fight them, submitting to loneliness and misery with no hope of escape." (Page 141)
"Your mind is in a cast now," he says. "Think of it that way. It was broken and now it's in a cast." (Page 148)
Don Quixote - the famous literary madman - fought windmills. People think he saw giants when he looked at them, but those of us who've been there know the truth. He saw windmills, just like everyone else - but the believed they were giants. The scariest thing of all is never knowing what you're suddenly going to believe. (Page 163)
Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug. (Page 168)
He grins. "As time goes on, you'll find more and more flukes." (Page 213)
Still, if you've got to bring yourself within inches of your life just to cry for help, something's wrong somewhere. Either you weren't yelling loud enough to begin with, or the people around you are deaf, dumb, and blind. Which makes me think it isn't just a cry for help - it's more a cry to be taken seriously. A cry that says "I'm hurting so badly, the world must, for once, come to a grinding halt for me." (Page 262)
The stars will go dark and the universe will end before I get this year back. (Page 287)
"Yes, you have achieved the bottom," he says. "But the bottom gets deeper with each trip; you know that, don't you?" (Page 290)
Schizophrenia, schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, major depression, psychotic depression, obsessive/compulsive, and on and on. The labels mean nothing, because no two cases are ever exactly alike. Everyone presents differently, and responds to meds differently, and no prognosis can truly be predicted. (Page 298)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Rape, and Drug abuse
More...