Dark Humour in Depression

It's Kind of a Funny Story

I can’t eat and I can’t sleep. I’m not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?
Author: Ned Vizzini

Publisher: Topeka Bindery
Date: 2006

Craig Gilner thought that getting into Executive Pre-Professional High School was difficult, but it turns out staying in is a whole lot harder. The pressure he puts on himself to succeed and fear of failure spiral into extreme anxiety and clinical depression, until he decides to commit suicide. After calling a suicide helpline he admits himself into a psychiatric hospital instead, where he has to spend five days in the Adult Psychiatric Unit with people who will change his life. Honest and hopeful with a number of believable, relatable characters, It’s Kind of a Funny Story is really quite a funny story.

Recommended for: 14-20 years

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Source: LibraryThing

It’s Kind of a Funny Story has also been made into a film starring Keir Gilchrist, Emma Roberts and Zach Galifianakis.

Unstable Parenting

A Blue So Dark

Sanity is a sonnet with a strict meter and rhyme scheme - and my mind is free verse.

Author: Holly Schindler

Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Date: 2010

When talented artist Grace Ambrose decides to stop taking her medication, it falls to her fifteen year old daughter Aura to care for her as schizophrenia takes hold of her mind. A promise to keep the illness secret, an absent father and that the fear that creativity equals crazy – therefore her own art could someday drive her mad – all complicate Aura’s situation further in this tightly wound novel. With a short time frame, fast pace and almost overpowering atmosphere, A Blue So Dark shows the deterioration of an unwell, unmedicated mind and the fears held by the children of a mentally ill parent.

Recommended for: 14-18 years

If you like this, try: Breathless by Jessica Warman

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Source: NoveList

Lasting Effects of Love & Grief

Skinny

Heart lesson #4: The unrequited heart. You can’t make anyone love you back.

Author: Ibi Kaslik
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date: 2004

Giselle and Holly, the two narrators of Skinny, are sisters still haunted by the death of their father. Giselle believes he never loved her as much as he did Holly, and this helps to fuel her deterioration from beautiful med student to struggling anorexic. Teenage Holly is a track and field star with demons of her own. With a non-linear style and two distinct voices, Skinny follows the sisters as they attempt to deal with their grief and save each other – and themselves – from self-destruction.

Recommended for: 14-17 years

If you liked this book, try: Perfect by Natasha Friend

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Source: NoveList

A Survivor's Story

Scars

I’m the one who wants to run screaming from my own head.

Author: Cheryl Rainfield
Publisher: WestSide Books
Date: 2010

Kendra is defined by her secrets – one: the identity of the person who sexually abused her as a child, and two: the fact that she cuts herself to cope with the trauma of her past. A deeply emotional book dealing with complex themes, Scars mixes psychological drama with mystery. Semi-autobiographical with a realistic portrayal of therapy, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the compulsive, destructive nature of self-injury, Scars is a harrowing read with a handful of supportive characters to give light and hope.

Recommended for: 18+ years

If you like this book, try: Willow by Julia Hoban

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Source: FictonConnection

Consumed by a Disorder

Kissing Doorknobs

Author: Terry Spencer Hesser

Publisher: Laurel-Leaf Books

Date: 1998

I felt like roadkill that was still alive. A human car wreck.

When Tara Sullivan was eleven, she heard the rhyme ‘Step on a crack, break your mother’s back’. It invaded her mind, filling her with the fear and certainty that if she didn’t step over and count every crack in the sidewalk, she would break her mother’s back. Tara knows it isn’t rational, but she can’t control it, and as time goes on her “quirks” multiply and begin to take over her life. Told from now 14 year old Tara’s viewpoint, Kissing Doorknobs shows the effects Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has on both the sufferer and their family.

Recommended for: 12-15 years
If you like this book, try: Total Constant Order by Chrissa-Jean Chappell

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Source: LibraryThing

Straight-Talking Self Help

Welcome to the Jungle: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bipolar But Were Too Freaked Out to Ask

Author: Hilary Smith
Publisher: Conari Press
Date: 2010

Frank, witty and realistic, Welcome to the Jungle is a self-help book written for young people. Smith provides a mix of facts, personal stories and advice, infused with humour. No topic is overlooked, from suicide to choosing to stop medication, and all is addressed in layman’s terms. Welcome to the Jungle is an excellent starting point for young people recently diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder because of its fast pace, conversational tone, and the way it provides more than simply information, but the hope that a relatively normal, fulfilling life is possible, even with mental illness.

Recommended for: 15+ years
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Grief After a Suicide

Hold Still

Maybe there is no right thing to say. Maybe the right thing is just a myth, not really out there at all.

Author: Nina LaCour
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date: 2009

Caitlin’s best friend Ingrid is dead. She committed suicide, and now Caitlin has to work out who she is without her best friend, and how to keep going. She finds the journal Ingrid’s left for her and reads it one entry at a time, trying to hold on to her friend and understand why she chose suicide. Both voices come through strongly, their pain and love giving the novel a raw emotional tone as it follows one girl to her grave and the other back into life. A poignant story of grief and hope.

Recommended for: 15-20 years

If you like this book, try: 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
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Source: NoveList

Silenced by Pain

So Much To Tell You
Author: John Marsden
Publisher: Walter McVitty Books
Date: 1987

If you add up all the really significant episodes in your life they’d probably come to less than sixty minutes.

Marina hasn’t spoken in months, not since the Bad Thing happened. Her mother can’t – or doesn’t want to – deal with her anymore, and sends her to an all-girl’s boarding school. She’s given a journal to write in for English class, and slowly begins to find a voice. Filled with observations about her roommates and hints about her own past, So Much To Tell You looks at the lives of all the girls in the dorm, their complexities and the masks they wear to face the world. Despite its sombre themes, the novel has a fresh, thoughtful tone, and is equal parts mystery and coming-of-age story.

Recommended for: 12-16 years

If you like this book, try: Take My Word For It by John Marsden (sequel)

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
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Fall From Grace

The Bell Jar
Author: Sylvia Plath (first published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas)
Publisher: Heinemann
Date: 1963

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.

Esther Greenwood is the girl who has it all: youth, talent, beauty and an internship at a leading women’s magazine. She is, however, slowly falling apart. Flowing, lyrical and darkly beautiful, The Bell Jar is the tale of Esther’s descent into madness, and is largely considered to be semi-autobiographical. Plath uses poetic devices throughout the novel, giving it an intense, haunting tone that helps to draw the reader into the novel, making Esther’s depression palpable. Despite being peppered with now out-dated witty observations about current events and gender roles and including obsolete psychiatric treatments, The Bell Jar withstands the test of time and remains a classic.

Recommended for: 18+ years

If you like this book, try: The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
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The Isolation of Depression

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Publisher: Gallery Books
Date: 1999

So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is written as a series of letters from sixteen-year-old Charlie, writing anonymously to a stranger about his life. Shy, sensitive and intelligent, Charlie lives much of his life in his head, distancing himself from the world. Although it's never specifically mentioned, it is clear to the reader that Charlie suffers from depression. All of the characters and incidents in the novel are shown through his sometimes insightful, occasionally naïve viewpoint, with a reflective and personal tone. Throughout the novel, he deals with a range of issues, from first loves to sexuality, abuse, suicide, drug use and finding out who he really is. A coming-of-age story with a uniquely vulnerable protagonist.

Recommended for: 16-20 years
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 The Perks of Being a Wallflower is currently being made into a film starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, due for release in September 2012.