Tag Archives: mental health

Review: Light Enough to Float by Lauren Seal

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Light Enough to Float by Lauren Seal

Light Enough to Float
Lauren Seal
Rocky Pond Books
Published October 8, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Light Enough to Float

Deeply moving and authentic, this debut novel-in-verse follows teenage Evie through her eating disorder treatment and recovery―a Wintergirls for a new generation.

Evie has just barely acknowledged that she has an eating disorder when she’s admitted to an inpatient treatment facility. Now her days are filled with calorie loading, therapy sessions, and longing—for home, for control, and for the time before her troubles began. As the winter of her treatment goes on, she gradually begins to face her fears and to love herself again, with the help of caregivers and of peers who are fighting their own disordered-eating battles. This insightful, beautiful novel will touch every reader and offer hope and understanding to those who need it most.

My Review

I love this story’s novel-in-verse format. It really focuses on Evie’s emotions and experiences and keeps us in the present with her. The cover copy compares Light Enough to Float with Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. As I read the book, I thought of some moments in Wintergirls.

Whereas Wintergirls focuses on the relationship between two girls and their harmful impacts on one another, this novel stays more focused on Evie herself. Evie does have a relationship with another girl that leaves readers questioning the helpfulness of the friendship, but her own journey stays front and center.

Light Enough to Float feels as deeply personal as it is. Evie brings readers into the center of her anguish, fear, and shame. But she also draws readers forward into her hope and her journey toward healing. Those moments stay grounded, reminding us that there’s no light-switch fix, but they show what recovery can look like and leave us rooting for Evie every step of her journey.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Evie and other characters in the book have disordered eating. Evie also has dermotillomania, a condition that causes her to pick at her scalp, harming herself.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some swearing, including rare F-bombs, used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Descriptions of disordered eating and self-harm. Reference to a suicide attempt (happens off-scene).

Drug Content
Reference to a drug overdose (off-scene).

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Holy Care for the Whole Self by Laura L. Smith

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Holy Care for the Whole Self
Laura L. Smith
Our Daily Bread Publishing
February 6, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Holy Care for the Whole Self: Biblical Wisdom for Mental and Spiritual Well-Being

Learn how to have a healthy mind and spirit with a biblical approach. Whether you’re carrying emotional wounds from childhood or suffering from daily anxiety, depression, or intrusive thoughts, none of these are God’s intention for you. He lovingly knit you together in your mother’s womb and calls you to a life of abundance. He offers healing and freedom from these feelings of despair, and Laura L. Smith is here to help you receive them. 

Join Laura as she guides you through tangible tools like prayer, healthcare resources, exercise, Bible memorization, setting boundaries, breathing exercises, gratitude, counseling, and so much more. Experience the rest and restoration our God has to offer.

My Review

Laura L. Smith is one of the few Christian authors that I still follow closely, and I am always glad I do. Her books are saturated with her faith but very centered on celebrating God’s love and encouraging others that they are worthy of every bit of that love. It’s always refreshing and grounding to read her books, and this one is no exception.

Not long ago, I left a Christian book award program when it awarded a book that I felt equated depression and suicidal thoughts with demonic possession. I realize the story was fiction, but it really left me with some ick feelings, and I kept thinking of the teens (and adults) I knew who’d been shamed for anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues as if they needed to have more faith or rebuke the devil better or something.

I wish I could say that organization was the only place I encountered that attitude. It’s absolutely not. I hadn’t realized that I still carry with me a guardedness toward books on faith as if I’m continually braced for the shame game when it comes to mental health concerns.

That said, this book is not about shaming anyone. In the early chapters, the author compares depression or anxiety to other illnesses or disorders. Can prayer help? Sure, she says. But if we have a child with a heart problem, we don’t simply pray for it to go away– we can pray, sure– but we also take the kid to a pediatric cardiologist and follow the doctor’s instructions. It doesn’t have to be either/or. We can have both, and in fact, that’s healthier. I love that.

This book gives a lot of practical tips for managing lower daily stress and anxiety, like making sure you’ve eaten or resting when you need to, etc. It’s very therapy-positive, with stories from the author herself as well as other friends she’s interviewed talking about the benefits of seeking professional counseling and medication where it’s needed.

Conclusion

You’ll find lots of encouragement in the pages of this book. It’s very grounded in the Bible, and each concept is connected back to a verse or passage from the Bible. When I have friends who are looking for faith-based help with mental health issues, this is absolutely a book I’ll recommend. (Good Boundaries and Goodbyes by Lysa TerKeurst is also on that list!)

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
The author is white. She shares stories from friends and professionals but doesn’t offer race information about those individuals.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to a person who was unfaithful in their marriage.

Spiritual Content
This faith-based book centered around Christian principles and practices to support mental health contains lots of references to Bible verses and biblical stories.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
References to addiction.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: Diary of a Confused Feminist by Kate Weston

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Diary of a Confused Feminist
Kate Weston
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published January 2, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Diary of a Confused Feminist

Kat wants to do GOOD FEMINISM, although she’s not always sure what that means. She also wants to be a writer, get together with Hot Josh (is this a feminist ambition?), win at her coursework and not make a TOTAL EMBARRASSMENT of herself at all times.

But the path to true feminism is filled with mortifying incidents, and when everything at school starts to get a bit too much, Kat knows she’s lost her way, and the only way forward is to ask for help . . .

Join Kat, AKA the Confused Feminist, as she navigates EVERYTHING from menstrual cups and mental health to Instagram likes and #TimesUp in her HILARIOUS, OUTRAGEOUS, and VERY EMBARRASSING diary.

My Review

I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard at a book since FINDING AUDREY by Sophie Kinsella. Seriously, this absolutely cracked me up. Kat is full of frank questions and sometimes irreverent observations. Her exploration of what feminism means and how to be a feminist felt so genuine and organic. She asks a lot of reasonable questions about her body, her period, and sex in pretty straightforward, often funny, ways.

The book is written in diary entries, as the title suggests, and I loved that, too, because it made this a pretty quick read. The scenes are generally pretty short and there’s a fair amount of white space on the pages.

I also enjoyed Kat’s relationships with her parents and brother. It’s always funny reading parents in YA novels as an actual parent. I think I may more attention to those characters than I would have as a teen, and I definitely appreciate it when they read like fully developed characters and believable parents. In this book, they’re not perfect parents by any means, but it’s clear that despite Kat wanting her privacy and rolling her eyes plenty, she loves her family members and has good relationships with them.

Not only did I laugh an absolute ton reading this book, but I cried quite a bit, too. Kat wrestles with some hard things, and one scene in particular broke my heart for her. I think the combination of the humor and the heart make this an incredible story (and a debut! Amazing!) and one that a lot of readers are going to connect with.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Two characters describe difficult experiences with anxiety. One character is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently. Also uses some crude language for body parts.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two boys. A girl accidentally walks in on a couple having sex in a bathroom and describes their disorganized state of undress.

Spiritual Content
A couple of jokes about how God must be a man because women endure so many biological trials.

Violent Content
A girl at school bullies Kat and says some very harsh things to her. It’s pretty cruel and upsetting.

Drug Content
Kat and her friends attend two parties where teens drink. At the second one, Kat mentions there being a cloud of marijuana smoke.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog.

Review: Gone Wolf by Amber McBride

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Gone Wolf
Amber McBride
Feiwel & Friends
Published October 3, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Gone Wolf

Award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, in this middle-grade novel that has been compared to the work of Jordan Peele and praised as ” brilliantly inventive storytelling” by Publishers Weekly.

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined — to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue — the color of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often – he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too―she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room.

In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington DC. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers used to help her, but now she’s on her own, until a college student helps her see the difference between being Blue and sad, and Black and empowered.

In this symphony of a novel, award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, and empowers readers to remember their voices and stories are important, especially when they feel the need to go wolf.

My Review

The first book I read by Amber McBride was ME: MOTH, which is a novel in verse. I loved the twisty storytelling. It’s one of those books where you reach a point where everything changes, and you look back at everything you’ve read with a new perspective. I loved that about the book.

GONE WOLF is prose rather than poetry. It also has some twisty storytelling, and I felt like there was the same kind of turning-point moment where I looked back at everything through a different lens. (This is hinted at in the cover copy, so I don’t think I’m spoiling anything.)

The book definitely delves into some tough topics in a pretty unflinching way. The juxtaposition of the Civil Rights Movement, slavery, and a futuristic setting was really thought-provoking. It was interesting to see familiar pieces of history alongside dystopian elements. Somehow, it made them resonate more sharply, maybe because it had that awful ring of the worst kinds of history repeating themselves.

I found it easy to get lost in the story and in trying to figure out how the two narratives connected. Future Imogen’s horror at her discoveries about the world she lives in and the ways she tries to break out of that world hit hard. I rooted for her from the beginning to end.

On the whole, I found this to be a truly captivating story. It’s got a young narrator– I think Imogen is twelve– but I would not call this middle grade. I think it’s actually a coming-of-age story.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Imogen is Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some brief strong violence, including violence against an animal.

Imogen witnesses a woman being beaten. She sees someone execute a dog. Imogen and a friend offer ice to people who’ve been attacked as part of a Civil Rights protest.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything but help support this blog. I received a free copy of GONE WOLF in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Best Friends by Shannon Hale

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Best Friends (Friends #2)
Shannon Hale
Illustrated by LeUyen Pham
MacMillan Audio
Published August 8, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Best Friends

The creators of Real Friends Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham are back with a true story about popularity, first crushes, and finding your own path in the graphic novel, Best Friends.

Follow your heart. Find your people.

Sixth grade is supposed to be perfect. Shannon’s got a sure spot in the in-crowd called The Group, and her best friend is their leader, Jen, the most popular girl in school.

But the rules are always changing, and Shannon has to scramble to keep up. She never knows which TV shows are cool, what songs to listen to, and who she’s allowed to talk to. Who makes these rules, anyway? And does Shannon have to follow them?

My Review

This book was originally published in 2019 as a graphic memoir, and now it’s available as an audiobook. I have never read a graphic novel or memoir converted to an audiobook, so I was curious how the story would translate. I hadn’t read the original, so I went into my reading without any reference for the story.

The recording features a full cast and some setting effects, such as footsteps and other sounds to help anchor the reader in the scene. I thought that worked really well to preserve the feeling of reading spare text, the way you would in a graphic memoir.

Shannon Hale narrates the book herself, which is really cool. I feel like the voices of the characters fit pretty well for the most part. At first, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep all the characters of Shannon’s friends straight, but the narration or dialogue helped label who was talking, so it was pretty easy.

The story follows a sixth-grade Shannon as she tries to figure out the changing rules of friendship and relationships between boys and girls in her grade. I absolutely identified with some of the challenges she related and the heartbreak of friends leaving her out or excluding her.

She also includes passages from a story she was writing at twelve, which I loved! It shows how writing helps her process what’s happening and becomes a safe space for her to be proud of who she is.

A short interview with the author and her twelve-year-old twin girls follows the book. A lot of what they talked about was how things changed between the 1980s, when their mom was in middle school, and now. They brought up a lot of interesting points, and listening to them talk to one another was fun.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Shannon, the main character, is white. She has undiagnosed anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (which the author mentions in the interview following the book).

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A girl kisses a boy on the cheek. A boy and girl kiss for a long time in front of another girl (to try to hurt her).

Spiritual Content
Shannon prays for her family and home to be safe. She thinks about how Jesus would want her to stand up for kids who were excluded or bullied.

Violent Content
A boy accidentally drops another boy, leaving him with a concussion. Girls gossip about one another and say hurtful things.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything but help support this blog. I received a free copy of BEST FRIENDS in exchange for my honest review.

All Alone With You by Amelia Diane Coombs

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All Alone with You
Amelia Diane Coombs
Simon & Schuster
Published July 25, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About All Alone with You

HBO Max’s Hacks gets a romantic twist in the vein of Jenn Bennett in this swoon-worthy novel about a standoffish teen girl whose loner status gets challenged by a dynamic elderly woman and a perpetually cheerful boy.

Eloise Deane is the worst and doesn’t care who knows it. She’s grumpy, prefers to be alone, and is just slogging through senior year with one goal: get accepted to USC and move to California. So when her guidance counselor drops the bombshell that to score a scholarship she’ll desperately need, her applications require volunteer hours, Eloise is up for the challenge. Until she’s paired with LifeCare, a volunteer agency that offers social support to lonely seniors through phone calls and visits. Basically, it’s a total nightmare for Eloise’s anxiety.

Eloise realizes she’s made a huge mistake—especially when she’s paired with Austin, the fellow volunteer who’s the sunshine to her cloudy day. But as Eloise and Austin work together to keep Marianne Landis—the mysterious former frontwoman of the 1970s band the Laundromats—company, something strange happens. She actually…likes Marianne and Austin? Eloise isn’t sure what to do with that, especially when her feelings toward Austin begin to blur into more-than-friends territory.

And when ex-girlfriends, long-buried wounds, and insecurities reappear, Eloise will have a choice to make: go all in with Marianne and Austin or get out before she gets hurt.

My Review

I can see the comparison to Jenn Bennett in the marketing copy– I felt like the vibes between Eloise and Austin were a little like the relationship between Bailey and Alex in ALEX, APPROXIMATELY. There’s not a rivalry, but there’s definitely a vested interest in dislike on Eloise’s part, especially at the beginning of the book. The romance blooms slowly, and everyone sees it coming before Eloise herself. In fact, sometimes she’s willfully blind to the signs that it’s there.

I really liked the exploration of friendship in the book, too. Eloise was burned pretty badly by her former friends during a personal crisis, so she’s got her defenses up sky-high when she’s introduced to Austin and Marianne. Her prickliness and Marianne’s take-no-prisoners attitude make for some really fun banter.

Between Marianne’s past and Austin’s present role as bass player in a local band, there’s quite a bit of focus on music in the book, too. Each chapter begins with a quote from a song by the Laundromats. One scene shows Austin’s band rehearsing for a gig. Another shows them playing the gig. I enjoyed the way those scenes played out and how they added a lot to Austin’s character beyond the goofy, Mr. Sunshine character we’d gotten to know.

All in all, I think if you’re looking for a prickly, slow-burn romance, with cross-generational friendship, ALL ALONE WITH YOU is a perfect fit and definitely worth checking out for Jenn Bennett or Jennifer E. Smith fans.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Eloise has depression and anxiety. Austin is Korean American and lost his dad. Marianne is a lesbian and struggles with alcoholism.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Very brief reference to the fact that Eloise struggled with suicidal ideation. She refers to Austin’s white van without windows as a “murder van”.

Drug Content
Marianne smokes cigarettes and drinks vodka in several scenes. Eloise notices a bong among Marianne’s things.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of ALL ALONE WITH YOU in exchange for my honest review.