A Tragic Kind of Wonderful

by Eric Lindstrom

Overview

In the vein of It's Kind of a Funny Story and All the Bright Places, comes a captivating, immersive exploration of life with mental illness.

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?

In A Tragic Kind of Wonderful, Eric Lindstrom, author of the critically acclaimed Not If I See You First, examines the fear that keeps us from exposing our true selves, and the courage it takes to be loved for who we really are.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316260060
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	15 - 17 Years

About the Author

Eric Lindstrom is a BAFTA and WGA-nominated veteran of the interactive entertainment industry. He is the author of Tragic Kind of Wonderful and Not If I See You First.

Editorial Reviews

11/21/2016
Sixteen-year-old Mel Hannigan attends school, spends time with friends Holly and Declan, and works at Silver Sands Suites, a retirement home, all while doing her best to appear ordinary. Privately, however, Mel is struggling to keep several things under wraps: her bipolar disorder, her late older brother, and the way she betrayed and drove away her best friend. When a new Silver Sands resident and her grandson enter Mel’s life, she beings to cycle ever faster through mania and depression, and the things she’s tried to hide begin to surface. Lindstrom (Not If I See You First) deftly addresses life with bipolar disorder, as well as the internalized shame often felt by individuals with mental illness. Each chapter begins with a notation of Mel’s emotional state, with various internal forces illustrated by animals (a hamster for her head, a hummingbird for her heart, etc.), which offer insight into Mel’s thoughts and actions. Details about Mel’s deceased brother and estranged best friend are revealed slowly, providing tension and mystery. Emotions run high as Lindstrom’s story confronts mental illness, grief, and shame, but the optimistic resolution provides balance. Ages 15–up. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for A Tragic Kind of Wonderful:
"The portrayal of Mel's bipolar disorder is nuanced and reads true to life. Her fear of rejection will be familiar to teenagers, whether they're acquainted with mental illness or not, making it an important gateway to self-acceptance and understanding of others. An intimate and affecting portrait of mental illness helmed by an achingly real protagonist."—Kirkus Reviews

"Lindstrom (Not If I See You First) deftly addresses life with bipolar disorder, as well as the internalized shame often felt by individuals with mental illness. Emotions run high as Lindstrom's story confronts mental illness, grief, and shame, but the optimistic resolution provides balance."—Publishers Weekly

"Lindstrom's compelling novel is rich in clinical detail, which is nicely integrated into the plot, ensuring the novel is never didactic but always dramatic...Readers will find Mel's story always absorbing and gain insight into her troubling disorder. Those who enjoy this fine novel will also enjoy Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places(2015)."—Booklist

"Mel's struggle to take her condition seriously without letting mental illness define her life is heart-rending."
—The Horn Book

"An engaging and fast-moving plot that foregrounds Mel as a person who maintains a strong ethic of kindness even and especially when [she's] down, making her a bipolar poster child fully worthy of reader sympathy."—BCCB

From the Publisher

11/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—Mel has bipolar disorder and professes to have a "superpower" that lets her avoid thinking about certain things, especially her dead brother or the real reasons why she lost her best friends around the time of her diagnosis. She has made new friends, but she has been able to hide her illness from them. Mel works at a nursing home where a retired psychiatrist keeps an eye on her, and she is in treatment with her own doctor, too. After she meets a resident's grandson, David, she wants to get closer to him, but she is worried that as he really gets to know her, he won't like her. Though she has her ups and downs, Mel can appear fairly even-keeled until an incident with her former friends begins a terrifying descent into a manic episode. Lindstrom offers an intense look at one person's experience with bipolar disorder, but unfortunately, the story's execution is unsatisfying. The characters are undeveloped, particularly Mel, who seems defined by her diagnosis. In addition, there is a troubling correlation between her mental illness and her sexual behavior, and there are cringeworthy scenes relating her constant desire to touch the hair of minority characters. The messages that Mel needs to keep fewer secrets in order to truly be close to others (and to more effectively treat her mental illness) and that real friends will stick around in spite of her diagnosis are nearly lost in the meandering narrative. VERDICT Weak character development and plotting make this an additional purchase.—Amanda MacGregor, formerly at Great River Regional Library, Saint Cloud, MN

School Library Journal

2016-09-19
A girl grapples with bipolar disorder as she tries to mend broken friendships and find herself.White teen Mel Hannigan has faced a harrowing two years: her older brother died in a tragic accident, her parents divorced, her family moved, and she had a breakdown at the onset of her bipolar disorder. After the breakdown she doesn't speak to anyone for weeks, even her best friend, Japanese-American Zumi, and she never tells anyone about her illness. Subsequently, it's easy for her frenemy, Annie, a white girl whom Zumi idolizes, to insist Mel abandoned her because she was tired of her. Mel is too terrified of rejection to admit to the reason for her disappearance, and Zumi's anger sends her spiraling. At work she meets David, a Chinese-American boy that she grows close to, but she can't bring herself to let him in either. As pressure builds around her, Mel must learn to separate who she is from the illness she has and choose whether to let her friends see all the parts of her or lose them for good. The portrayal of Mel's bipolar disorder is nuanced and reads true to life. Her fear of rejection will be familiar to teenagers, whether they're acquainted with mental illness or not, making it an important gateway to self-acceptance and understanding of others. An intimate and affecting portrait of mental illness helmed by an achingly real protagonist. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews