Challenger Deep

This is the second book about mental illness I've read in the past 2 weeks. The first was dark and uncomfortable. This has its dark moments but has an overall lighter and more hopeful tone. An interesting take on psychosis that is not exactly 100% accurate but touching and brilliant nonetheless. Very deserving of the National Book Award. Also, the audio is fantastic.

Defective recording. Doesn’t play after first few minutes. The end.

The strange story of a young man slowly moving into schizophrenia and the people in his life watching it happen. There is also his parallel journey on a pirate ship that is his delusion. The characters who inhabit the ship have counterparts in his real world that are slowly revealed as the book goes on. Based on Shusterman's son's experiences with mental illness and including his son's drawings from that time in his life, this book is honest and lyric and beautifully told.

At the beginning the book is very confusing. There are a lot of boat scenes and its hard to figure out what is going on. It isn't until later on that you realize the boat scenes are the way his psychotic mind is making sense of what is going on in his life at the moment. I thought the book gave a good sense of what mental illness must feel like. I would recommend the book.

Rating: 4.5/5I read this book for a project a long while back, and revisiting it I can see what I loved about it back then. The contrast and similarities between Caden's reality and the world in his head took me some time to grasp when I was younger, but reviewing it with the full picture makes this book all the more enjoyable. Not only this, but it gives an interesting perspective on mental illness, and opened my mind when I first read it. The way it presents schizophrenia is entirely different from how I've seen the illness shown in media before, and it is something that I greatly appreciate now. I am grateful to have read this book. I only took off half a star because, as some of the other reviewers have mentioned, it is difficult to follow at first and that may be off-putting for some (although I felt that the rest of the book almost completely makes up for that).

Brilliantly done. I love the collaboration with his son for this book. Shusterman depicted the mind of mental illness in a way that really brought it to life that the reader can experience it.

teen fiction (fantasy/reality punctuated with paranoid schizophrenic episodes). I generally like Shusterman's adventure-packed boy-reader-friendly books, and I applaud his effort to promote awareness of mental illness (more common than you realize), but this story petered out for me once I figured out that the alternate reality world of one-eyed parrots and pirates were only hallucinations. It was sort of interesting to see which bits were anchored in the real world, but I lost interest in the waiting to see that his parents would eventually put him in a psych home, and waiting to see if his meds would eventually have a positive effect, and waiting to see if he would eventually be able to go home again. I think that this book does have an audience, but the appeal is not broad enough for me to recommend it to very many.

A book that kept getting better as I read. I really liked it when the metaphorical scenes on the ship started coinciding with the scenes in the hospital. Had some pretty intense emotional spots towards the end as the main character starts building relationships and how those relationships relate to characters on the ship. Of the three Shusterman books I’ve read I think this is his best one certainly the most heartfelt and written from personal experience. A great book to build empathy in regards to those suffering with mental illness. I thought his descriptions of The main character, Kayden, starting to become ill were intense and made me worry about having a sympathetic reaction. If ever using this form talk there is a great paragraph on page 129 to use.

The metaphors used and the visualizations are enough to bring you to tears, but by the end those tears are tears of joy when the realization comes to light : for a BiPolar individual, it hit very close to home. And a shining beacon is a world of chaos.

This is a hard book to rate because, while it was powerful, it was not enjoyable. I don't think it's really meant to be, though, so thus, four stars. Actually, now that I've finished and can see the novel as a whole, I'm tempted to reread it and look for more connections between the delusions/hallucinations and reality. But I probably won't.

This book is something special.

How have I never heard of it until now?

WHY AREN'T PEOPLE SCREAMING ABOUT THIS BOOK?!

Because I'm screaming. And I'm gonna keep screaming until you read it too.

It's going to be weird. You are going to feel disjointed and confused and wondering what the heck is going on. Keep reading. Trust me.

This story feels so real, and is as soft as it is sad and terrifying. I don't mean terrifying as in scary, but terrifying to realize that this is an experience felt by millions-- and maybe even by you.

Where this story really shines is not in the subject matter though, but in the writing because OH MY GOSH it's so beautifully done. The best writing comes about midway through, where the two "stories" begin to mingle, and everything starts to make sense. Personally, I love second person perspective, where "you" are the protagonist, but I find that it can get extremely tedious. Shusterman masterfully uses it sparingly enough so it stands out and never feels tired and dry.

If there are two words to describe this book they are as follows: real, and artful.

Read it.

Really.

Read it.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I finished it, but it was an intense experience to do so. Told from the perspective of a 17 year old young man suffering from schizophrenia, the author took us inside his very damaged mind. It was very difficult because the storyline went back and forth in varying chapters between his belief that he was aboard a ship heading for the Marien Straights and challenger deep. All around the ship was falling apart. A parrot enticed him to help through the captain overboard, and the captain put the young man in very difficult situations.The other chapters contained the perspective of the hospital where his parents knew he belonged when they could no longer help him. That setting was also depicted through his very troubled mind.This is a National Book Award winner. I really wish I could have liked it better, but to be truthful, I have to say that the story went on way too long, and for the most part, it took too much energy to follow.

Rating: 4.5/5I read this book for a project a long while back, and revisiting it I can see what I loved about it back then. The contrast and similarities between Caden's reality and the world in his head took me some time to grasp when I was younger, but reviewing it with the full picture makes this book all the more enjoyable. Not only this, but it gives an interesting perspective on mental illness, and opened my mind when I first read it. The way it presents schizophrenia is entirely different from how I've seen the illness shown in media before, and it is something that I greatly appreciate now. I am grateful to have read this book. I only took off half a star because, as some of the other reviewers have mentioned, it is difficult to follow at first and that may be off-putting for some (although I felt that the rest of the book almost completely makes up for that).

The first third of this book is so strange that I almost put it down...I'm so glad that I stuck with it! All of the puzzle pieces come together to form a brutally honest yet beautifully written story about mental illness.

I first read “Challenger Deep” a couple of years ago when it was getting a lot of press and hype for its themes of mental illness. Given that I went through some nasty battles with depression in high school and college, I was very interested to see what Neal Shusterman was going to do with it, especially since I knew that his own son was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was a teen (and therein inspired this book). Reading it the first time was a very rewarding and somewhat personal experience, but reading it a second time gave me the chance to read it knowing what was coming and how all the symbolism was going to come together.One of the most striking things about “Challenger Deep” is how Shusterman frames it, in that it’s a very disorienting read for the reader, giving him or her a sense of what constant disorientation may feel like for those who are struggling with mental illness. Shusterman is careful to not put any kind of mental disorder into a box, and does take care to mention that this one experience that Caden is having is not necessarily universal to all people who suffer from schizophrenia. The story is all from Caden’s perspective, but you do kind of get insight into what those who are around him may be feeling based on their reactions and the decisions that they make. The parallels between what is going on in Caden’s ‘reality’ and what is going on on ‘the ship’ was very interesting to see, and it was powerful to be able to see the glimpses of reality within the hallucinations (the captain, the figurehead, etc).I also liked that Shusterman never felt condescending or cloying in his storytelling, and never got preachy about what Caden should or shouldn’t do, or should or shouldn’t feel. He presents a situation and lets the reader decide for themselves what conclusions to draw. He also doesn’t wrap everything up in a neat little bow; you get the sense that things aren’t over for Caden and that he will always have these struggles. As hard as that is to accept, it’s also very realistic, as mental illness is for many people something they are going to have their entire lives, degrees of seriousness changing all the time. It’s a realistic take, but it doesn’t feel bleak or nihilistic. Given that this book is so personal for Shusterman and his family, I’m not surprised that he didn’t approach it with easy answers or cut and dry solutions. I think that it’s very important that teens can see this kind of story, so that they can either see themselves in a book, or they can gain some insight into something that those close to them may be dealing with.“Challenger Deep” is a poignant and powerful novel, and I’m pleased that we kicked off our B-Sides Book Club Theme with it!-----I had never read anything by Shusterman until I picked up “Scythe” last summer. So all I knew was that I liked him as a dystopian, YA author. Tackling a tough subject like mental illness is another thing all together! But I should have had faith, as Shusterman once again blew me away with his sensitive, unflinching yet compassionate, tale.As Kate already touched on, one of the strongest aspects of this story is the subtle manner in which Shusterman depicts the slow, almost unnoticeable, descent into confusion and paranoia that Caden slips into. The reader, too, is unsure of what is happening, not only with the events on the ship, but the timeline between one section and another. It isn’t until halfway through the story that I was able to begin to piece together these two disparate storylines. This perfectly aligns with the point at which Caden, too, begins to gain a bit of clarity, though he is by no means out of the woods.The ship itself, obviously, is an extensive metaphorical look into the world that Caden has projected around himself. However, for readers looking to gain more insight into what loved ones experiencing mental health challenges are going through, the author also sprinkles in some shockingly simple but apt comparisons that I found incredibly insightful and helpful. In this way, the book speaks not only to an “own experience” reader looking to see themselves and their challenges on the page, but also as a perfect portal for friends and family to understand a bit better what could be going on. As Kate said, Shusterman is careful to never imply that this is by any means a road map for all mental health experiences and that even any given diagnosis is not the same for every individual experiencing it.It is clear that Shusterman was writing from a very real place, having been the parent of a teenage boy who struggled with mental health. His son not only provided insights to help direct the creation of this story, but there are also images sprinkled throughout the story that Shusterman’s son drew in the midst of his own crisis. Every time a new image appeared, I found myself taking quite a bit of time looking at it. Most were unclear, scribble-like creations that, while not clearly depicting a scene or object, spoke quite strongly to the swirl of emotions that its creator felt. Caden’s own art and his use of it to not only express himself but what he sees in others was also a great lens through which to read his experiences. His family and friends first begin to note changes in him by the changes in his art, and Caden uses his artistic ability to get at deep truths of the other teens he meets who have their own struggles.I absolutely adored this story, and it was a great start to our new season of bookclub!

I purchased this book from Half Priced Books to read with @diversebookclub in May. All opinions are my own. ????? Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman. In the beginning this book was all over the place and I didn't quite understand but the thoughts begin to tie up and become the "not so neat" package of mental illness. I love how the patient gets to tell the story from his point of view in this book. It isn't a lot of diagnosis and medicine. It's based o  feelings and the way the patient perceives those feelings. It is very different. Alternating between a world on a ship and real life puts the ups and downs in places no one would imagine your mind could take you. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Go Read, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie and my blog at readsbystacie.com

3.5/5 stars (rounded down)“I used to be afraid of dying. Now I’m afraid of not living. There’s a difference. We go through life planning for a future, but sometimes that future never comes.”This was one of the hardest books I've ever read. I spent about three weeks on it, because I had to keep putting it down - the emotions of this book kept drowning me. I will be honest - if I didn't read other, more light hearted books while I was also reading this, I'd be plunged into the pits of the deepest depression by now. "Schizophrenia, schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, major depression, psychotic depression, obsessive/compulsive, and on, and on. The labels mean nothing, because no two cases are ever exactly alike. Everyone presents differently, and responds to meds differently, and no prognosis can truly be predicted." The premise of the book, the idea and the message were fantastic. I also really recommend reading the footnote by the author, Neil Shusterman, as he explains how the topic of his book and his family are intimately related. That brought a whole new level of depth to the book. So why only 3.5 stars? The book was great - there were so many amazing and quotable moments, if this wasn't a library copy, I'd have been highlighting the crap out of it. But where it was full of emotions it lacked in plot (for me at least). I found myself losing attention at the metaphoric parts and wanting to get to the real life parts. Later on in the book they merge and connect, but prior to that I have to admit, it was a bit confusing.“You see demons in the eyes of the world, and the world sees a bottomless pit in yours.”The book also deals with prejudice and wrong accusations. How people see somebody who is different and immediately assume that person is a drug addict. And when they realize what's happening it is often way too late. I believe that this book will help many people - it will show them that they are not alone, that no matter what they might be feeling, no matter how ludicrous it may be, there is somebody out there who had felt the same way, or still is.But I also believe that this book might trigger many others. The emotions in the book were so real you can feel them dripping off the pages. Caden's fears and his paranoia are contagious, and if you are not careful enough it will get you. It didn't help that I am already a hypochondriac and an ocd (self diagnosed, of course, but these things you just know). I kept thinking - am I going to spiral down one day? I have some symptoms, so is it a challenger deep for me too? Nobody ever likes to feel powerless, but when I read Challenger Deep I felt it - inability to help Caden, or others like Caiden - because only they can help themselves. Sure, doctors and nurses and medicine stabilize people, but in the end the journey is only that person's to take. Challenger Deep also gave me a new perspective on brain altering medicine. I still don't exactly know how I feel about it, but I do realize now that sometimes that is all doctors have - their best is just a guess, and sometimes that guess works and sometimes it doesn't. “The fear of not living is a deep, abiding dread of watching your own potential decompose into irredeemable disappointment when 'should be' gets crushed by what is. Sometimes I think it would be easier to die than to face that, because 'what could have been' is much more highly regarded than 'what should have been.' Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug.”I'd definitely recommend this book, but I will also say - be ready, this is not the easiest journey you will ever read through. And it will stay with you forever.

Winner of a National Book Award, Challenger Deep depicts the alternating stories of a 15 year old boy. In one story he is part of a family of four, with a little sister named Mackenzie; he has a few friends in high school, but is often socially awkward though certainly intelligent. His existence starts to slide as he lies about joining the track team and starts following the street signs on long walking journeys. The other alternating chapters tells of a ship with a Captain and a talking Parrot, a ship that is on its way to Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the ocean and part of the Mariana Trench. It takes about half of the book to realize the connection of these two stores to the mental state of Caden while in the hospital. As the author says in his afterward, "This is by no means a work of fiction" "I watched as someone I loved journeyed to the deep, and I felt powerless in the descent. With the help of my son, I've tried to capture what that descent was like...." Caden's experience, his humor, his relationships with the other patients, his fears, are all wonderfully captured by Mr. Shusterman. It's a father's tell to tell, but the inclusion of his son's drawings make it even more personal. I appreciate the effort taken by these two to bring to light one person's struggle through mental illness. Some good lines:There are times I feel like I’m the kid screaming at the bottom of the well, and my dog runs off to pee on trees instead of getting help.There are many ways in which the “check brain” light illuminates, but here’s the screwed-up part: the driver can’t see it. It’s like the light is positioned in the backseat cup holder, beneath an empty can of soda that’s been there for a month. No one sees it but the passengers—and only if they’re really looking for it, or when the light gets so bright and so hot that it melts the can, and sets the whole car on fire.The deal with the devil is done. The lady with the cheeks and small glasses looks at you with a gaze of false but practiced kindness.Then the poison they put in your ass reaches your brain, and your mind spreads thin like an oil slick on the surface of an ocean.

I completely devoured this book. While it took a little bit to get me really into the story, once I understood what was happening I couldn't put it down. The story of Caden Bosch is fascinating, sad and intense. As he tumbles into mental illness you get to see the world from his point of view. The author did a fabulous job at making you feel as though you were going through what Caden was going through as well as creating parallels between the real world and Caden's imaginary world. This book is wonderfully written and a really puts mental illness into perspective. I definitely recommend it, and I recommend it for a book club! We loved talking about it!

This is a difficult, but deeply moving story about one boy’s struggle with mental illness, It is not, as the author stated, a work of fiction. Shusterman's own son suffered with mental illness as Caden does. It is hard to watch someone you love journey to the deep, and being powerless to stop it. The sketches throughout this book are the author's son's drawings when he was deep inside his mental illness.

The story...
Caden Bosch is on a ship that’s headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.

Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.

Caden Bosch is designated the ship’s artist in residence, to document the journey with images.

Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.

Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.

Caden Bosch is torn. And... Caden Bosch is very much lived by his family.

This is the most unusual and brilliantly written novel I have ever read.

What a fantastic book! When Caden's two worlds began to collide, just WOW! Shusterman's treatment of mental illness is deftly done.

This is a gut wrenching story detailing a teen’s decent into the darkest depths of mental illness. Marianas trench depths, where psychosis and delusions overtake his mind and where there is no light. Shusterman tells Caden’s story from that first point where he had a feeling that something was wrong, to being hospitalized for psychosis and paranoid delusions, through to his treatments and release. Because Shusterman has been on this journey with his own son he is uniquely able to portray his character’s journey and the impact on family and friends. Though in the end (Spoiler) Caden finds his piece of blue sky, his glimmer of hope that brings him up from the deep, Shusterman is realistic in acknowledging that sometimes you are not able to steer your ship out of the storm and clear of the beasts. For those times he has included links to mental health supports for his readers.

The first time I tried to read this book I was working through my own illness, and I found the shift between the real and imagined worlds of Caden Bosch to be confusing. I decided to give it another try, since Shusterman is one of my favorite YA authors and the book had won the National Book Award. I'm glad I did--as always, Shusterman is brilliant. He manages to write YA that adults can also enjoy. And he elucidates the mindset of people suffering with schizophrenia, using his own son's perceptions of the experience. I'll admit, at first the shift between Caden's everyday world and imagined world are confusing; but as I read on, it began to make sense. After awhile, I was trying to match the characters in his imaginary world to the ones in his real world. This book isn't funny; yet there is humor in it, and hopefulness. It doesn't wrap wellness in a neat bow; the possibility of relapse is there and it's acknowledged. Reading it has given me a greater understanding of the illness and with it, more compassion for anyone suffering from it. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand the experience of schizophrenia, even though no two cases are alike, as Shusterman says. It is accessible to teens, but will not disappoint adult readers either.

When you first start this book, it is a bit unclear what's happening (for a good reason). However, the writing is compelling and gets you to stick with it. This is an important read on the experience of mental illness. I'll be recommending this book often. It would be a great read for individual students or a class.

A harrowing look at one teen's struggle with schizophrenia; told in alternate tales of reality and fantasy of a voyage to the depths of the Marianas Trench. Beautiful writing -- funny, touching (made me cry several times), concise, and real. Transcends the YA genre entirely into being a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the fragility of sanity. Highly recommended.

Narrated by Michael Curran-Dorsano. Listeners become a part of Caden's frightening descent into mental illness thanks to Curran-Dorsano's sensitive performance. He has us attuned to the fear, confusion, anger and delusions that are part of the disease. As Caden slowly turns for the better, hope glimmers in the narration. Very effectively done.

I loved the parts of this book that explained what caden was experiencing during his psychiatric hospitalization, and before and after the experience. i was bored by the metaphoric naval experiences. i think this book serves a valuable purpose by letting the reader know what it is like to live with a brain disorder. i believe the descriptions to be very accurate.

Shusterman wrote this book based on the experiences of his own son who battles with schizophrenia. In fact, the art featured in the book was drawn by his son. We listen to Caden's story as he falls deeper and deeper into psychosis. He hallucinates a world on a pirate ship and experiences paranoia fearing people are out to kill him. His parents and teachers come to the realization that he needs serious help and he is hospitalized while undergoing therapy and trying to discover which drugs at what dosages will allow him to reenter the world.Caden is a brilliant, funny young man and it was a real treat to follow his progress through this ordeal.

Stunning ship ride through madness.

‘Sometimes the darkness beyond is not glorious at all, it truly is an absolute absence of light. A clawing, needy tar that pulls you down. You drown but you don’t. It turns you to lead so you sink faster in its viscous embrace. It robs you of hope and even the memory of hope. It makes you think you’ve always felt like this, and there’s no place to go but down, where it slowly, ravenously digests your will, distilling it into the ebony crude of nightmares.’Caden Bosch’s descent into schizophrenia takes readers on an unforgettable adventure that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s mere fantasy. Caden is a gifted artist at the age of fifteen years old yet he possesses an inner drive, a compulsion, that he can no longer keep quiet. His art becomes frenetic and he begins walking his town for hours based on a uncontrollable desire to fill the empty sidewalks with his presence. And sometimes his mind takes him elsewhere, where he’s a part of a crew on a galleon and their mission is to reach the deepest point of the Marianas Trench, a place called Challenger Deep.‘The things I feel cannot be put into words, or if they can, the words are in no language anyone can understand. My emotions are talking in tongues.’Ironically, this was my first read in my National Book Award experiment, yet it’s the last one I sat down to review. This was such a staggering read for me that it really took me some time to fully process Caden’s story and how it made me feel. I suppose the expected response is sadness and pity, but it was so authentically told that it transformed this story into something truly substantial for me. Despite the fantasy world that Caden lived in, his struggle becomes something real. We glimpse just enough of the outside world to realize how much his loved ones are also impacted and how they struggle to understand his inner turmoil. How his parents plead with him to change his behavior when it’s well past the point of his ability, so he’s placed in a mental institution when they don’t know what else to do for him. Almost in defiance of such a melancholy story, is the subtle (yet effective) humor that is laced throughout.“If you continue making progress,” one of the nurses told me earlier today, “I see no reason why you shouldn’t be going home in a couple of weeks.” Then she added, “But don’t quote me on that.” Noncommittal is rampant among the committed.Sprinkled throughout this story are various pieces of art which are original pieces from the authors son, Brendan Shusterman. The story itself exists solely because of the experiences of Brendan who has personally struggled with mental illness, which makes sense as to why this story rang so true for me. Challenger Deep will certainly leave readers who haven’t suffered personally to gain more of an understanding and compassion for those that do.