Mental Illness
Mental illnesses are common, yet the stigma of discussions around mental health remains. We hope this compilation inspires conversations about mental health, whether you are a professor looking to round out a syllabus or someone hoping to better understand your own experiences. Read on to discover study guides for fiction and nonfiction titles spanning a variety of important topics, such as suicide, schizophrenia, depression and anxiety, trauma, and bipolar disorder.
John Nash is born and raised in Bluefield, West Virginia. As a child, he is introverted and quiet, preferring reading and performing experiments to playing with other children. He is obsessed with codes and patterns and enjoys playing pranks on his sister and schoolmates. Intending to become an engineer like his father, Nash secures a scholarship to study at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. After a year, he abandons engineering to major in mathematics. He... Read A Beautiful Mind Summary
Hattie Owen’s life changes the summer she turns 12 and meets the young uncle she never knew existed in Ann M. Martin’s middle-grade novel, A Corner of the Universe (2002). Uncle Adam has been kept a secret because of his mental problems. Adults have trouble handling his emotional extremes, but shy Hattie finds a true friend in her exuberant uncle. Adam teaches Hattie to explore life beyond the safety of her front porch. As Hattie... Read A Corner of the Universe Summary
A Heart in a Body in the World is a young adult novel by Deb Caletti, published in 2018. The novel is a work of contemporary realism and is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book.Plot SummaryThe novel follows the story of Annabelle Agnelli, a high school senior living with her mother Gina and her brother Malcolm in Seattle, Washington. Annabelle is a talented cross-country runner, a strong student, and popular at her school. One evening... Read A Heart in a Body in the World Summary
A List of Cages is a 2017 young adult novel by Robin Roe. The story centers on the friendship between two teenagers, Adam Blake and Julian Harlow. Adam and Julian first become friends when Adam is Julian's reading buddy in grammar school. The friendship deepens when Julian's parents die, and he lives in Adam’s house as a foster child. Although they knew each other in grammar school, the main action of this story takes place... Read A List of Cages Summary
Allegedly (2017), a young adult contemporary novel by Tiffany D. Jackson, tells the story of Mary Beth Addison, an African American teenager who has spent the last six of her 15 years in custody for allegedly murdering a white baby, Alyssa Richardson. Currently, Mary lives in a group home in Brooklyn with her foster mother and five roommates, who at times, endanger Mary’s life. Mary’s mother, Dawn Cooper—Momma—struggles with mental illness, but she visits Mary... Read Allegedly Summary
All the Bright Places (2015) is a young adult novel with elements of romance written by Jennifer Niven that deals with the topic of teen suicide. The book was winner of the Goodreads Choice award and has become a popular read among the BookTok community. Niven tells the story from two different voices, those of high school students Theodore Finch (who goes by “Finch”) and Violet Markey. The characters first meet at the top of their... Read All The Bright Places Summary
Bryn Greenwood’s novel All the Ugly and Wonderful Things (2016) acknowledges and inverts the features of fairy tales and romance novels to depict a relationship that challenges accepted social values and questions the definition of love itself. Sunk in the depravity and degradation of her father’s drug-dealing lifestyle, eight-year-old Wavy finds her only solace in a questionable attachment to Kellen, a 24-year-old man who is also isolated and longing for some scrap of beauty in... Read All the Ugly and Wonderful Things Summary
A Long Way Down is a 2005 novel by international best-selling British author Nick Hornby. This dark comedy incorporates themes of existentialism and mental illness, including suicide and depression, in Hornby’s signature upbeat style. The novel follows four characters in a first-person, round-robin style narration in which each character advances the plot in succession. The story takes place in modern-day England. The four main characters—Martin, Maureen, JJ, and Jess—meet each other for the first time... Read A Long Way Down Summary
An Unquiet Mind, written by Kay Redfield Jamison and first published in 1995, is a memoir about a clinical psychologist’s experience living with manic-depressive illness. The book details her life, from her early experiences as a child, through the beginning of her mood swings, her diagnosis of manic-depressive illness, her struggles with the disease, and her eventual management of and control over it, following years of therapy and medication. Aside from having experienced it, Jamison... Read An Unquiet Mind Summary
Ask Again, Yes, a New York Times best seller, is a multigeneration family epic that covers over 40 years in the lives of two Irish American families. A work of domestic realism comparable to works by Anne Tyler and Ann Padgett, the novel was placed on best novel of the year lists by both People magazine and National Public Radio, and it was also optioned to be developed as a limited television series.In 2011, author... Read Ask Again, Yes Summary
Published in 2008, David Sheff’s memoir, Beautiful Boy, explores his experiences of coming to terms with his son’s addiction to methamphetamine. Sheff and his wife Vicki are overjoyed when they have their son, Nic. For the first three years, they live a happy, contented life, providing Nic with everything he needs. However, when Sheff and Vicki's marriage collapses, Nic, now aged three, is deeply affected by the change. This worsens when Sheff and Vicki move... Read Beautiful Boy Summary
Behind Her Eyes, a psychological thriller, was written by Sarah Pinborough and published in 2017. The book has sold over 1 million copies worldwide and was adapted for a TV series by Netflix. While clearly a best seller, there is great divergence of opinion on the book’s very unexpected twist at the end, with the publishers using the hashtag #WTFThatEnding to promote the book.Plot SummaryLouise is a single mother living in London and working as... Read Behind Her Eyes Summary
“Big Blonde” is a short story written by Dorothy Parker. It was first published in 1929 in The Bookman (a prestigious New York City literary magazine) and won the O. Henry competition for the best story that same year. It was later published in Parker’s 1930 short-story collection Laments for the Living.This study guide refers to the online flipbook version of “Big Blonde.”Content Warning: The source text contains references to domestic violence, alcohol addiction, and... Read Big Blonde Summary
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant is Daniel Tammet’s memoir and his first published book. In it, he recalls his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood leading up to the point in his life when he became independent with a partner and a career. Born on a Blue Day was a New York Times best seller following its publication in 2006.Tammet is, as identified in the subtitle, an autistic savant... Read Born on a Blue Day Summary
Brain on Fire (2012) is a memoir by New York Post writer Susannah Cahalan that details her struggle with a rare autoimmune disease, anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis. Cahalan recollects the journey through illness that took her from a normal, 24-year-old journalist to a misdiagnosed psychotic patient, and back again. In 2018, Netflix released a film based on Cahalan’s story, produced by Cahalan and Charlize Theron.Plot SummaryCahalan wakes in a hospital with no understanding of how she... Read Brain On Fire Summary
Published in 2017, Brené Brown’s Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone presents insights and strategies for finding what Brown refers to as true belonging in a time of increasing cultural polarization in America. Based on Brown’s grounded theory research, true belonging is a practice that involves believing in and belonging to oneself so fully that one can share one’s innermost, authentic self with the rest of the... Read Braving the Wilderness Summary
Breathing Underwater is a 2001 young adult novel by author Alex Flinn that tells the story of Nick Andreas, a wealthy teenage boy who struggles with his abusive father and abuses his girlfriend, Caitlin. When she files a restraining order and he must take a court-ordered family violence class, Nick begins to reevaluate his behavior and troubled past. As Nick is forced to face his emotional damage, he learns that change and growth are possible. Flinn’s... Read Breathing Underwater Summary
Challenger Deep, a 2015 novel by Neal Shusterman, offers an account of mental illness as experienced by a teenage boy. Shusterman’s son Brendan was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder at age 16. His experience with the illness influenced Neal to write Challenger Deep. Brendan’s drawings appear throughout the book as Caden’s artwork. The book garnered the 2015 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.Plot SummaryWhen the novel begins, Caden is 15 years old. He is a... Read Challenger Deep Summary
Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness, published in 2006, is a blend of memoir and journalism by author and Washington Post journalist Pete Earley. The book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 and recounts the struggles of Earley’s son, Mike, to receive treatment for his mental illness, which results in Mike’s arrest. Earley juxtaposes Mike’s story with the stories of Miami residents with mental illnesses as they navigate life in... Read Crazy Summary
Darius the Great Is Not Okay is a coming-of-age novel by Iranian American writer Adib Khorram. Originally published in 2018 by Dial Books, the novel echoes Khorram’s experiences growing up in a multiethnic family with a history of mental illnesses. The book, which is Khorram’s first, won the William C. Morris YA Debut Award in 2019 and is a popular BookTok read. A sequel entitled Darius the Great Deserves Better was published in August 2020. Content... Read Darius the Great Is Not Okay Summary
In December 1985, prominent novelist William Styron, in the depths of severe depression, found himself at a crossroads. Prepared to commit suicide, Styron opted instead to seek treatment. After seven weeks in a psychiatric ward, Styron reentered the world with a renewed sense of self and a will to live. When Primo Levi, a prominent Italian scientist, writer, and Holocaust survivor, killed himself in 1987, Styron responded to the widespread criticism of Levi’s suicide with... Read Darkness Visible Summary
Dear Evan Hansen is a novel published in 2018. It was written by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul. The authors adapted the novel from the original Broadway musical of the same name, which they also wrote. The musical premiered in July 2015 in Washington, DC, debuted on Broadway in 2016, and later won six Tony Awards in 2017, including Best Musical. This guide refers to the Poppy/Little, Brown, and Company edition... Read Dear Evan Hansen Summary
Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman" was first published in China in 1918, during a period of significant cultural and political upheaval in the country. The Qin dynasty, in power since 1644, had recently collapsed from internal and external pressures in the 1912 Xinhai Revolution, marking a dramatic break from the past. New ideas about government, philosophy, and science prompted many Chinese intellectuals to reflect on long-held traditions and look toward a rebirth of the... Read Diary of a Madman Summary
Don Quixote is a novel in two parts by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes published between 1605 and 1615. The novel portrays the life of a middle-aged Spanish man who decides to become a knight, just like the characters in the works of fiction he loves. Considered to be a foundational work of Western literature and one of the first modern novels, Don Quixote is one of the most translated books of all time. It... Read Don Quixote Summary
