Review: Life Inside My Mind

Life Inside My Mind
Edited by Jessica Burkhart

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: April 10, 2018

LIFE INISDE MY MIND is an essay anthology focused on YA authors’ personal experiences with mental health. Each “chapter” is a story written by a different author, and each has a vastly different focus: the topics ranged from anxiety to depression to OCD to Alzheimer's. While some of the stories were deeply personal, some were more of a reflection on societal issues and the stigma around mental health. This book was different from any I had ever read. At first, it was hard for me to make the constant switch in tone as the authors shifted, but eventually, I was able to adapt to the format, and I’m so glad I did! This book offers some incredible insights, and I really appreciated the fact that so many of the authors emphasized that there is no one “right way” to manage mental illness. 

My personal favorite essay was written in a poetry format called “This Is How You Unravel” by E.K. Anderson, which told the story of a girl living with bipolar disorder. I loved this chapter in particular because of its ability to genuinely portray the negative aspects of mental illness while offering a hopeful message. There were many essays that had a profound impact on me, though, not just this one! Even though I was skeptical about this collection at first, I would highly recommend this collection to anyone, regardless of whether they have personally experienced any of these conditions. Although I personally haven’t, I was still able to relate to all of the authors because of the honest, candid emotions that they shared with readers. Because of frequent references to suicide, addiction, abuse and violence, this book is probably best suited to older teens.

Review: Scan

Scan by Walter Jury and Sarah Fine
Publisher: Putnam Children's
Publication date: May 1, 2014

SCAN is an exciting and fast paced sci-fi thriller that is a quick and fun read. It centers around a teenager named Tate, who is anything but typical. His demanding father requires him to learn more than most professors, but his father's strict schedule and boundaries cause a lot of conflict between the two. It turns out, however, that Tate has a good reason for learning all those things; aliens called H2 have infiltrated the human population and Tate is one of the few humans left on Earth. Tate is entrusted with dangerous technology wanted by the H2 and "The Fifty" -a group of human families (including his) that are combating the invasion- but he is surrounded by suspicious individuals on both sides who have dark ulterior motives. With only the aid of his mother, his girlfriend, and his training, Tate must keep the technology safe from everyone.

I enjoyed this book. It was a fun read with intriguing moral undertones about supremacy, labeling, and perspective. The plot and the protagonist's journey was fairly typical, but the supporting characters were very strong and well-developed, especially the women. It contains moderate violence and likely caters more to boys than girls, but it was quite a good book.