(3) YA In this anthology, authors reflect on their challenges involving mental health--usually their own, sometimes that of people close to them. This candid look at a range of mental health issues also offers some discussion of individuals' management. The inclusion of multiple authors with similar conditions (particularly anxiety) underscores their varying effects. Websites.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) 4-6 North Carolina twelve-year-old Della tries everything to cure her mama's schizophrenia, even asking the Bee Lady for her magic honey that supposedly cures all kinds of problems. Della slowly realizes she can't change Mama's illness, but she can change how she feels about it. The subject matter of this story is heartbreaking, but Baldwin leavens the mood with an affectionately rendered setting, strong female characters, and plenty of hope.

Reviewer: Mariko Turk

(3) YA No one can know that Jetta's necromantic power animates her family's renowned shadow-puppet shows. When she and her parents must flee--amid a rebellion--they make an unlikely ally in Leo, a young man with his own secrets. A heroine whose supernatural ability and bipolar disorder are both significant, but not defining, characteristics; a vivid world inspired by nineteenth-century South Asia; and an epistolary structure make for a particularly compelling fantasy-romance.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher

(3) YA Seventeen-year-old Lizzie Borden is physically and emotionally abused by her cruel father and stepmother in this modern-day reimagining of the historical murder mystery. Painfully shy and suffering from a medical condition that causes blackouts during menstruation, Lizzie leads a miserable life until a charismatic new maid at her parents' bed-and-breakfast sparks hope and possibility. Spoiler alert: things don't end well in this dark, unsettling thriller.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello

(3) YA In Wintersong, Elisabeth (Liesl) miraculously escaped the Goblin King's underground realm alive. Now Liesl travels with her violinist brother to Vienna as his composer. Yet as a painful new distance opens between the siblings, so too does the veil between the Underground and the nineteenth-century world. Fluctuating between mania and melancholy (Liesl, per the author's note, has bipolar disorder), this historical fantasy overflows with beautiful and terrifying emotions.

Reviewer: Jeannie Coutant

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Susan Meyer. Twelve-year-old Scarlet (who's biracial) is powerfully bonded to her (white) autistic half-brother, Red, and constantly strives to keep their bipolar mother functional. When a fire in their London apartment separates the siblings into different foster homes, Scarlet determinedly searches for Red. Much is packed into this little novel, but the depth of emotion carries the day. Full-page framed illustrations appear intermittently.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(2) YA Smart, strong high-school senior Grace tries to hide symptoms of the same schizophrenia that caused her mother to abandon the family. Revelatory motifs help readers discern who and what is real in Grace's world. Told in a cycle of voices corresponding to the seasons and moving among first, second, and third person, this is a harrowing, intricately plotted examination of the toll mental illness can take on a family.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(3) YA Seventeen-year-old Klee, an aspiring artist who loved visiting art museums with his dad, is devastated after his father's suicide and a subsequent move to the suburbs. Narrated in the wake of a mental break that lands Klee in an adolescent psychiatric facility, this thoughtful novel de-stigmatizes mental illness with its sensitive portrait of a memorable young man.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(3) YA Neuro-atypical Alvie Fitz loves routine, hates being touched, and prefers the company of animals. At seventeen she has her own apartment and a full-time job and looks forward to being legally emancipated. Then a romance with Stanley, who has a genetic bone disorder, upends Alvie's world. Steiger's prose is arresting, and the frank depiction of teen sexuality--particularly within a disability framework--is refreshing.

Reviewer: Robyn Bahr

(3) YA Because Rooney's mother truly believes that she'll be departing Earth with the Next World Society this November, it's up to high-school senior Rooney to navigate the pressures of this world for her younger brother and herself. Van Dam thoughtfully considers how mental illness interacts with the scariness of the modern world while simultaneously honoring how hard it is just to get through high school.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) YA When Jack begins having visions of a dangerous world where he is king, his best friend August comes to believe in them, too. The story of the boys' disturbingly intense codependency, quest to save Jack's kingdom, and eventual arrest and institutionalization unfolds in nonlinear micro-chapters interspersed with various mixed-media elements. The effect is appropriately disorienting (is Jack's world an alternate reality, or a hallucination?) but occasionally difficult to parse.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher

(2) YA While researching their origins, Evie and her fellow Diviners (The Diviners; Lair of Dreams) turn up connections between their families and entrepreneur/eugenics proponent Jake Marlowe. Before confronting Marlowe, however, they must stop an army of ravenous ghosts. The supernatural scares are spine-chillingly effective, but it's the depiction of real-life horrors (WWI, the rise of hate groups, systemic mistreatment of the mentally ill) that will haunt readers.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2018

(4) YA After a suicide attempt and subsequent therapy, Brooke tentatively reenters her own life--at least until everyone's guard is down and she can try again. But then she meets equally self-destructive Derek; their relationship simultaneously helps Brooke and threatens to derail her progress. A predictable plot and some clichéd writing notwithstanding, Brewer's latest novel offers a raw and realistic exploration of mental illness and recovery.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(3) YA After a terrifying nightmare, teenage Allison becomes obsessed with protecting herself and her family from the cancer she's sure lurks everywhere. Her dark journey into sudden-onset OCD is terrifying: each page of Britz's raw memoir chronicles her increasingly regimented world, and readers will sigh with relief when she finally seeks help. Deeply affecting, this is an essential addition to collections of books on mental illness. Websites.

Reviewer: Rebecca Kirshenbaum

(2) YA After her stepbrother Lionel's bipolar diagnosis, their parents sent Suzette to boarding school. While Suzette is home in L.A. for the summer, Lionel covertly stops taking his medication and then obliviously pursues a romance with her friend/crush Rafaela. With compelling honesty, Colbert portrays Suzette's evolving understanding of her bisexuality, Lionel's longing for self-sufficiency alongside the challenges of his mental illness, and the difficulty of shifting familial relationships.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2017

(3) YA As Nest, Q's sometimes-girlfriend, lies in a coma following a suicide attempt, Q recalls a long walk they shared years earlier, during which Nest confided in him the beauty and terror of her bipolar disorder. Like the walk, the narrative is meandering and memorable; a heartbreaking novel with a realistic assessment of the limitations of love in redeeming the mentally ill.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) YA Through emails and text messages, best friends Gen and Ava share their freshman-year experiences--including Gen coming out and Ava losing her virginity--while attending colleges on opposite coasts. The epistolary style moves the story along at a brisk pace, but it's heavy on exposition and light on action. This new-adult novel will be most appreciated by fans of the YouTube-comedienne authors.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(4) YA After Janie's parents die, she's sent to live with the Rochester family in San Francisco. Excessive wealth can't mask the many disturbances in the family, and Janie exposes new secrets at every turn. Financial corruption, mental illness, crime, and a misunderstood ghost contribute to this Jane Eyre retelling that is rich in details borrowed from Brontë but is never as subtle or emotionally taut.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) K-3 "I don't know when it began. Perhaps it drifted in at night like fog." For the length of this fierce, fearless picture book aimed at teen readers, an older child describes living with depression. The largely black-and-white art features a stalker-like dragon representing depression's tenacity. Gliori, who explains in an author's note that she writes from experience, leaves the narrator--and, hopefully, the reader--feeling optimistic.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) YA Norah, who has debilitating OCD, anxiety, and agoraphobia, unexpectedly meets handsome new neighbor Luke. As a sweet romance (begun through passed notes) blossoms, Norah begins to re-evaluate her negative self-perception and sets previously unimaginable goals. Norah's sharp wit and honest pain make her a compelling narrator, and the portrayal of a love that matter-of-factly acknowledges and accommodates mental-health challenges is welcome.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher