Title: Challenger Deep
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: YA fiction
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This book messed me up in the best possible way. I make no secret that I suffer from mental illness, and this... this book spoke to me in ways that I can't even begin to understand. My mind connected immediately to the characters Real and Not, and ran with them. God I've never had something hang tight to all of my demons.
How to explain, Caden Bosch is torn between two worlds. They both are just as real. Caden is a brilliant kid seeing kids in the hall that want to kill him. Caden is on a copper ship heading to the deepest point in the world. Challenger Deep. Caden joins the track team, only to spend hours walking following signs that speak to him.
No one else sees the patterns. The lines and the patterns don't speak to the others like they speak to him.
Once I picked it up, I saw myself. See, on my bad days I spend hours sitting alone in a dark room, counting. I count breaths, fan rotations, vent patterns, heartbeats, anything. Once I've started I cannot stand touch, talking, or any noises that conflict. That includes overlapping conversations, discordance in songs, and the like. In fact, from that point it only takes a single poorly placed hand for me to spiral down and down. Into Challenger Deep.
This is why Caden spoke to me, This is why I hold this book in such high esteem. Everyone that has a mental illness or knows someone with one needs to read this.
This book will take you to your own deep and back again.
Cheers,
Lexi
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