On a Scale of One to Ten

by Ceylan Scott

Overview

For fans of John Green and Ned Vizzini, a heart-wrenching and witty novel about a girl with Borderline Personality Disorder who finds a way to live with the guilt of her past.

Tamar is admitted to Lime Grove, a psychiatric hospital for teenagers.

Lime Grove is home to a number of teenagers with a variety of problems: anorexia, bipolar disorder, behavior issues. Tamar will come to know them all very well. But there's one question she can't... won't answer: What happened to her friend Iris? As Tamar's emotional angst becomes more and more clear to her, she'll have to figure out a path to forgiveness. A shocking, moving, and darkly funny depiction of life in a psychiatric world.

A stunning journey of one girl's mental illness and the redemptive power of truth and healing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338323771
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/21/2020
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	193,355
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Ceylan Scott was born in London in 1997. She has suffered from mental health problems throughout her teenage years and was recently diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. She lives in Bath with her parents, twin sister, and their three dogs. On a Scale of One to Ten is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

* "There are no stereotypes here. Even minor characters are complex and rich-though they are all white-and the prose is elegant and direct. "Rock bottom is always far lower and far darker than you think." An important book and a very impressive, ultimately hopeful, treatment of mental illness." — Kirkus (starred review)

From the Publisher

05/01/2019

Gr 9 Up—Scott's debut novel explores the realities of mental health treatment in a psychiatric facility. Readers will be immediately intrigued by fragments of information surrounding the death of Tamar's friend, Iris. Flashbacks reveal that Tamar was the last person to see her alive, and it is clear that she is withholding critical details from the adults in her life. Tamar struggles with a constant sense of hopelessness and uses cutting to cope with an emotional numbness. After an intense breakdown, Tamar is admitted to Lime Grove. Scott depicts the ups and downs of Tamar's recovery process as a journey filled with thoughts of self-loathing, comparisons to other patients, and both toxic and healthy friendships. When a patient named Elle arrives at the facility, Tamar finds herself swept up in Elle's charismatic, infectious energy. However, when her reckless actions put patients at risk, Tamar finally begins to see Elle's condition with a critical lens and evaluate her own. Readers will explore the shift to recovery and the thoughts that often threaten it. The plot leads to a clear resolution of what happened to Iris and the acknowledgment of a truth that solidifies Tamar's recovery. This novel draws on Scott's own experiences with borderline personality disorder and represents an #OwnVoices text. VERDICT A candid look at the realities of treatment in a psychiatric facility and the process of recovery. A must for high schools looking to add selections dealing with mental health.—Monica Cabarcas, Albemarle High School, Charlottesville, VA

School Library Journal

★ 2019-02-20

A suicide attempt lands a teen in a British psychiatric hospital in this #ownvoices debut.

" ‘Jump, Iris,' she said. ‘I'll follow you.' " Iris jumped. Tamar didn't, and she's left grappling with the belief that she's a murderer. They were both 15 on the summer day Iris drowned in the weir. Over a year later Tamar's attempt at suicide lands her in Lime Grove with other mentally ill teens. She narrates her stay there, the events of the past, her relationships with her fellow patients, and her gradual stumbling recovery in a staggeringly honest, astonishingly lucid first-person narrative. Scott, a young woman diagnosed with borderline personality disorder when she herself was committed to a psychiatric hospital at age 16, brings readers so far into Tamar's head that they truly understand what it's like to be her, participating in both her self-deception and her climb toward truth and sanity. And sanity doesn't always look like what you'd expect—when Tamar drinks herself senseless at a party the first time she's given leave, her psychiatrist congratulates her for not doing worse. There are no stereotypes here. Even minor characters are complex and rich—though they are all white—and the prose is elegant and direct. "Rock bottom is always far lower and far darker than you think."

An important book and a very impressive, ultimately hopeful, treatment of mental illness. (author's note) (Fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews