"Introspective, honest, and hopeful, this is a realistic look at the impacts of mental illness that so many youth experience."
**STARRED REVIEW** "This immersive portrayal of a sensitive teen learning to live with mental illness will earn nods of recognition from readers coping with anxiety or depression but will also resonate with young people facing any fear."—School Library Journal
"Introspective, honest, and hopeful, this is a realistic look at the impacts of mental illness that so many youth experience." —Booklist
"Quietly arresting and ultimately empowering."—Kirkus Reviews
"Critically normalizes self-care as its protagonist learns to become vulnerable and advocate for herself and her needs."—Publishers Weekly
2020-01-07
An intimate visual exploration of depression.
In this introspective graphic novel, Mona Starr, a sensitive, bespectacled high schooler with a floppy bob, loves journaling, making art, and music. Mona struggles with both depression and anxiety, which she imagines as "dark matter," an internal shadow she must constantly fight to keep it from consuming her. Mona comes from a comfortable middle-class home with loving, supportive parents. She regularly attends therapy and practices self-care. Although she is doing all the seemingly right things, her journey is arduous: She faces debilitating physical pain eventually leading to hospitalization for GI issues. Resolving to take her life back, Mona establishes a personalized self-care plan and surrounds herself with "Artners" (a portmanteau of partners and art) who share "creative intimacy." Mona's story is loosely based on events from Gulledge's (Sketchbook Dares, 2018, etc.) own life, which she discusses in an introduction and author's note along with sharing her own plan for self-care. With an emphasis on both physical and emotional health, this should appeal to older readers of Raina Telgemeier's Guts (2019). Gulledge's absorbing black-and-white art highlighted with bright yellow splashes easily pulls readers into Mona's innermost thoughts as she strives to bring her own darkness into the light. Mona and her family appear white; her therapist, Dr. Vega, may be Afro-Latinx, and there is diversity in secondary characters.
Quietly arresting and ultimately empowering. (introduction, reading list, soundtrack, self-care plan, author's note) (Graphic fiction. 12-adult)
02/24/2020
Pain—physical and emotional—isn’t always visible, but Gulledge clearly visualizes Mona Starr’s depression—or, as she calls it, “the Matter”—in a graphic novel based on her own experience. After Mona’s best friend moves away, the high school violinist, a self-described “creative oddball” within her science-minded family, agrees to work with a therapist on her pervasive anxiety and depression. As she begins observing patterns (“My Matter thrives on doubt”), learns useful practices, and makes new friends, Mona slowly establishes a support system and works to break her cycles. She continually struggles with how her Matter manifests, pushing her friends away and finally getting help when a pain her doctors initially dismiss turns out to be a major intestinal issue. In black-and-white art with yellow highlights, Gulledge (Will & Whit) melds the surreal with the physical, rendering Mona’s Matter evocatively as a suffocating black flame, an endless void, and a deep, solitary hole. Similar in content to Raina Telgemeier’s Guts, this story critically normalizes self-care as its protagonist learns to become vulnerable and advocate for herself and her needs. Useful back matter includes the author’s care plan and a worksheet for readers to generate their own. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 12–up. (Apr.)
★ 01/01/2020
Gr 7 Up—The "creative oddball" in a science-loving family, Mona uses astrophysics-inspired metaphors to understand her mental illness—depression is like a cloud of dark matter surrounding her, or a black hole collapsing in on itself. The Matter, as she calls it, keeps the teen from connecting with others, and sometimes it makes her physically sick. Therapy, together with her art, her writing, and a few determined friends, shows Mona that her most difficult moments can, with effort, become her greatest strengths. The realistic, grayscale art is evocative in its simplicity, with detailed expressions adding depth and occasional bursts of bright yellow turning Mona's black holes into exploding stars as she gains self-worth. An inspired, empathetic storyteller, Gulledge (Page by Paige; Will & Whit) draws from her own experiences using art as an outlet for mental health issues. Though she never flinches from depicting the anguish of depression, she instills readers with hope, too, through a self-care plan and chapter headings that also offer advice ("Notice Your Patterns," "Draw It Out," "Break Your Cycles"). VERDICT This immersive portrayal of a sensitive teen learning to live with mental illness will earn nods of recognition from readers coping with anxiety or depression but will also resonate with young people facing any fear.—Kelley Gile, Cheshire Public Library, CT
