Review: A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

Title:  A Tragic Kind of Wonderful 

Author:  Eric Lindstrom
Publisher: Poppy 
Publishing Date:   February 7th, 2017

Pages: 288
Genre: YA Contemporary/ Realistic Fiction

Series:  Stand Alone
Source:  Audio

 

For sixteen-year-old Mel Hannigan, bipolar disorder makes life unpredictable. Her latest struggle is balancing her growing feelings in a new relationship with her instinct to keep everyone at arm’s length. And when a former friend confronts Mel with the truth about the way their relationship ended, deeply buried secrets threaten to come out and upend her shaky equilibrium.

As the walls of Mel’s compartmentalized world crumble, she fears the worst—that her friends will abandon her if they learn the truth about what she’s been hiding. Can Mel bring herself to risk everything to find out?

Shameful to say this book has been on my TBR for... well since before it was released. I was so excited about this book. I read his first book and loved it. Some how this book got lost in my mountain of a TBR. Well with my backlist challenge... I found it again. I was missing something special. This book was AMAZING. I think this author is coming up fast on favorite authors. This book had so much insight, feelings, and intensity. I loved every moment and I just couldn't put it down. 

Mel has bipolar. It runs in her family. Her aunt has it, her brother had it. For the last year she has been living with this disability. In the process of getting diagnosed she lost her best friends. She has since found herself spending time with some new friends...these friends are from school and also from her job. She sees a psychologist and she is on meds. She rates her every day to see where she is at, physically, mentally, and emotionally. She is getting through. Until something starts to dredge up some memories she isn't quite ready to explore. This turns her world upside down and she must face the truth and reality of herself. 

I loved loved loved this book. I want to rave about it to everyone. This book felt real and raw and had my emotions all over the place. I have known a couple of people in my life with bipolar... Someone really close and dear to me has bipolar. I have known about it for quite some time and she speaks freely to me about what she goes through....however this book made me realize I was so unaware. I know from talking to friend kind of what it's life and I know from what she tells me that this book explores it honestly.... but really brutally too. I mean it hides nothing. I was in tears. One for the main character and the other for those I know and love that have this horrible disorder and also for me for being so ignorant. I knew this disorder was bad but reading this book made me live it. It was hard. 

This book explores the bad about this disorder but the main character... for the most part lived with it in an accepting way. She seen it with her aunt and her brother. The hardest part for Mel, the rapid ups and downs, the mixes instead of being just main or just depressed. She was all over the place and it was hard to really focus on life when focusing on your moods was so detrimental for her quality of life. She found it hard to keep friends, get close to anyone. The thought distortion part of the disorder made it hard to trust people and to trust her own  thoughts or trust reality. She would withdrawal but also want to be close to others. she wanted to date but was scared of others running off as soon as they knew the truth. She kept her disorder a secret not trusting those around her to love her for who she truly was. I felt for her. Oh did I feel for her. 

Not only was Mel living with this disorder, she was dealing with tragedy in her past, secrets, and brokenness. This made her mood shifts even harder. She was trying to deal with healing and balancing her moods, and just being a teenager. Her story really just broke my heart. 

There were many great secondary characters in this book too. Relationships of every kind were the focus so there were many different characters. Mel's parents were a big part of her life, along with her aunt. They were in the story quite a bit. There was also memories her past... her brother, her old friends. There were new friends, a boy, and even her unofficial doctor and her actual doctor. So many around her that made such an impact bad and good on her life focusing on how they help her and how she deals with all the static of the relationships. I loved each and every flawed character... the good and the bad. 

The writing in this book was just so freaking amazing. The character development, the history, the knowledge of the disorder. It all came together so flawless allowing me to really live in Mel's world, in her head... to really understand her and to feel her. Really it was just incredible and so breathtaking and so beautiful and heartbreaking. 


I feel this is a must read for well almost everyone! I TOTALLY SOLD MY SOUL TO THIS BOOK! 

In addition to writing Young Adult novels, Eric Lindstrom has worked in the interactive entertainment industry for years as a creative director, game designer, writer, and usually combinations of all three. As Editor and Co-Writer for Tomb Raider: Legend he received a 2006 BAFTA nomination for Best Video Game Screenplay, and then as the Creative Director for Tomb Raider: Underworld he received a 2009 BAFTA nomination for Best Action Adventure Video Game and a 2009 WGA nomination for Best Writing in a Video Game.

He has also raised children, which led to becoming first a school volunteer, then a substitute teacher, then a part time kindergarten teacher, then getting a credential to teach elementary school, and most importantly the discovery that YA literature is awesome. It’s pretty much all he ever reads, and now writes, in his house near the beach on the west coast, with his wife and, yes, cats.