Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall
"You have all these fears, your body endures all this pain and heartache, but you keep going. I think that's really brave."
 | Life is anything but rosy for Norah Dean. Louise Gornall paints a portrait of a teen suffering with a mental illness which is both heart-wrenching and acerbic. Full disclosure. In this book:
Life goes on. Illness goes on. Coping goes on. The reality is that Norah Dean's life is a struggle. Each moment of each day she bravely fights to live an authentic life as a person with agoraphobia and OCD. Readers will empathize with her and cheer for her as she constantly confronts hundreds of tiny battles. With regards to the ending, you'll get no spoilers from me. Starting with Chapter 35, Gornall weaves together all details (which initially appear to be extraneous) to create a climax that left me breathless, frantically reading to find out what would happen. What a story. What a life. What a book. |
Life was never this complicated before life got involved
"Why can't I think the way normal people do?" Norah asks herself. Her head is filled with masses of detailed information which she must constantly juggle before doing anything. The contortions her brain must go through to process information and determine a course of action is exhausting. Below are some examples of the way that Norah thinks.
 | "This is probably dumb, but no one remembers Charles Darwin as the guy who suffered from panic attacks. Ludwig van Beethoven isn't the bipolar composer, he's the composer who was bipolar." |
 | "The beyond-your-control speech is my least favorite of all the pep talks...It's the hardest one to corrupt. It's immortal, the adamantium of arguments." |
 | "Another new/scary/terrifying thing to add to my list. Before long, I'm going to need a wheelbarrow to lug this list around." |
 | "Everything seems so complicated, like a Rubic's Cube with twenty-six sides. No matter how much my mind turns it over, my explanations won't make any sense. It's too much; there are too many facts." |
 | "It would be so easy to tighten the gap between us and press my mouth against his. Except: petri dishes, full of little alien life forms that live on the human tongue." |
 | "...blackbird jumping around on my windowsill. Your mind adapts to what worse is. Suddenly, that thing that seemed so terrifying at first is dwarfed by the next challenge that comes your way. but you adapt again and again and again..." |
Companion Books
Three excellent YA novels chronicling teen struggles with mental illness.
 The Memory of Light by Francisco X Stork |  One Thing Stolen by Beth Kephart |  Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman |
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