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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 4/5
Pages: 367
Started: 4 November 2023
Finished: 4 November 2023
Summary:
Sarah Taylor knows she's the odd one out at the start of the year at the St. Ambrose School for Girls. The new kid, dressed in all black, with a bottle of lithium to manage her bipolar symptoms hidden in her underwear drawer. But she's intelligent, driven, and determined to make the most of her opportunity. Except there's Greta, the quintessential high school bully making Sarah's life hell. And Nick the Hot TA, complicating social dynamics further. And, as always, there's Sarah's brain, her rapid swings from elation to suicidal ideation.
And then there's the murder.
Thoughts:
This book did an excellent job in walking the line between pure YA murder mystery and a raw and complex depiction of the reality of living with mental illness. Though the YA side of the plot wasn't anything groundbreaking, it was a perfectly adequate iteration of the classic plot, which is exactly what it was meant to be, and it acted as an excellent backdrop to the book's exploration of Sarah's character, relationships, and mental illness. The vibrancy of the writing brought Sarah's illness to life in a way that was available to the reader, and that was very impactful. I felt a bit torn to learn that Jessica Ward has no personal experience with bipolar disorder, but it seems that her research was well done, and I did not find any reviews criticizing her work for inaccuracy.
The violence and struggle in the book felt very real; the scenes involving attempted suicides were especially heartbreaking. I would not recommend this book to anyone already struggling with depression or suicidal ideation, but it was an immersive and impactful book that I'm very glad I read.
Words:
Foci (pl. n) plural of focus
Psychotropic (adj) relating to or denoting drugs that affect a person's mental state
Opined (v, past tense) to hold and state as one's opinion
Avoirdupois (adj) weight; heaviness
Sartorial (adj) relating to tailoring, clothes, or elegance of style
Declension (n) a condition of decline or moral deterioration
Morass (n) an area of muddy or boggy ground