A Tragic Kind Of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom #BookReview

Title: A Tragic Kind Of Wonderful
Author: Eric Lindstrom
Publisher: Poppy
Published Date: February 7th 2017
Genre: Mental Health, Bipolar, Contemporary, YA
Page Count:288
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★.5

Goodreads Summary: 

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?
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 My Review:

"I wondered if my ability to keep myself from thinking about something isn't a superpower at all. I've always thought I had the strength to avoid thinking about painful things. What if I actually can't think about them because I lack the strength?"

Mel Hannigan is a fairly likable character, sure she has some friendship problems, but when you consider the things she's had to deal with they end up being understandable. Mel spends her free time at a care/group home for the elderly (not a nursing home) and she is really good at it. She has made friends with all of the people and knows what to do to make them happy. Yet the whole time she is struggling inside with something very few people know about.

I'm going to  be completely honest and say I don't really know anything, but the basics about bipolar disorder and how effects each person differently. So for me this book was very eye opening with the different types we see and how they have each responded differently to things.

Mel is someone who has responded well to the meds she is one and goes to therapy she also has a really interesting way of monitoring her emotions. But she also hasn't told much of anyone that she is bipolar. Which I completely understand her not wanting them to know, but also at the same time I feel like they should know as well if she truly wants them to understand all of her.

"I'm not telling you to reveal your condition to anyone. That's for you to decide. But you seem to crave true intimacy and that's not possible with you keeping so many secrets. Not just about your past, but about who you are." 

Overall I did really enjoy this book and it was a really eye opening read for me. Having said that though I didn't agree at all with how she handled certain things in such a unhealthy way (I get she was manic, but I feel like the adults in her life should have been paying more attention). Still though please read this if you want to understand just a little bit more. (please note that I am just going off of others having said that this is a fairly good representation. I personally don't know if it is or not.)