Despite the serious topic base, there was plenty of humour, especially from events on the pirate ship. Once I realised the crew was based on people Caden knew, it became a guessing game, although truth be told, everyone but the captain was easy to guess.Ĭhallenger Deep is a thought-provoking book without being so intense that it becomes depressing. The links between his fantasy life and real life made his journey all the more interesting. He helps set the mermaid free, just like he helps Callie to get better and leave the hospital. For example, Calliope the mermaid figurehead of the ship is based on Callie, a girl Caden likes in his psychiatric unit. I particularly enjoyed the eccentricities of the pirate crew, especially since they were based on actual people in Caden’s life. But what if the dream doesn’t go away when you wake up? And what if you lose the ability to tell the difference? They linger there on the edge of your consciousness like the things you hear just as you’re walking up, before the dream collapses under the crushing weight of the real world. Caden’s condition deteriorates until he can’t tell the difference between what is in his head and what is reality. The progression of his illness and how it affects his life before he is rehabilitated was scary to read. The story is told from Caden’s perspective, a smart 15-year old who spends an increasing amount of time in his fantasy world, where he is a crew member of a pirate ship on its way to Challenger Deep the deepest known part of the earth’s seabed. However, I’m glad to note that Challenger Deep stands out from all the other reads, if not for anything else but for the unusual concept of using pirates to explain the story! The problem with popular themes is that after a few books, they start to sound the same and become easily forgettable. I have probably read more books on mental illnesses in the last few months than I have altogether! It’s not a conscience effort on my part, there just seems to be greater emphasis on such issues of late, and I’m glad of it because it brings to light a taboo subject. Opening Sentence: There are two things you know. Quick & Dirty: An incredibly moving story on the progression of a teenage boy’s mental illness and the thinning veil between reality and make believe. The perpetual psychology student in me especially appreciate the last couple of paragraphs in which Caden talks about how the Captain will always be waiting and that there's a chance he may go with him again, whether he wants to or not. It's confusing and doesn't really go away permanently. Though it ended with a positive outcome for Caden, the book doesn't idealize mental illness. I 100% recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a challenging, realistic, and honest book about complexities of mental illness. It's a tough read in terms of the heaviness of material, but otherwise the chapters are short and the imagery is vivid I had to take breaks throughout the book to allow my mind to digest and absorb the descriptions. The chapters seem so incohesive but the effect is compelling in that you experience the same confusion parallel to Caden’s at the onset of his mental illness.ĭon’t give up on the book if you get frustrated - it’ll start to make sense a few chapters in! By midway, you will start to piece together the allegory, so to speak, of the Challenger Deep through Caden’s hallucinations, and identities will be revealed through Caden’s bouts of lucidity. In the first few chapters, you will find that Caden is experiencing hallucinations and is having a difficult time discerning between those and reality. It helps to know a little about the book is prior to delving in: it’s a first-person account of a teenage boy’s descent into mental illness. You have to spend some time with the book to figuring things out.
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