**ARC copy received from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review**
Let me admit from the start that I'm a huge Neal Shusterman fan so I requested this title the second I saw it on NetGalley. I really loved his Scythe series in particular and was expecting the same kind of story but this was a complete departure for him.
I can't say it enough - this is an important read. Teenage mental health (and mental health in general) can be such a taboo subject and we need more authors like Shusterman to tackle in it all its truth. This isn't a romanticised journey at all, it's confusing at times as we try to work out what the main character is experiencing in the real world and in his inside world.
Reading the information at the back, I realise that Shusterman wrote from personal experience within his family. Bravo Mr Shusterman.

Although I struggled to get into the story it is overall a really good book in the alternative way it thinks about mental health.

After adoring Neal Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe series, I was eagerly anticipating this new release and I wasn't disappointed. Like other reviews have said, it's difficult to follow at first - but it is totally worth pushing through for

'Challenger Deep' is a second-person narrative about Caden Bosch; an intelligent, artistic boy, who begins to act strangely, to disappear inside his head, and to fear that his friends and family are plotting against him. 

There is also a parallel first-person narrative in which Caden is on a voyage to the Marianas Trench, in a ship led by a charismatic and enigmatic man, known only as 'The Captain', together with a mismatched crew and a rebellious parrot who incites Caden to mutiny. 

At first this is an extremely disorientating book—the reading experience is like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole into a world that doesn’t make sense: 
“I can’t remember when this journey began…” Caden writes. “Even if I’ve been on board this wooden relic of a ship for years. I’m still fifteen. Time is different here. It doesn’t move forward; it sort of moves sideways, like a crab.”

Halfway through the book there is a shift as the connections between the two narratives become clearer, the stories merge, and the true meaning behind Caden’s journey to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on earth, becomes clear. 

I loved the Scythe series, so I was excited to read another novel by Neal Shusterman, and although this is a very different book, it is similarly gripping and thought-provoking. 'Challenger Deep' is an incredibly compassionate, devastatingly honest, but ultimately hopeful perspective on mental illness, written from the author’s own experience as a parent and authenticated by illustrations contributed by his son. Highly recommended.

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins for providing me with an ARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Neal Shusterman's Challenger Deep is my first experience with the author, and what an experience it was. I had a hard time reading this book, and now even more of a hard time rating it. I don't know if I'll be able to articulate all my thoughts into this review. This was a difficult read for me in every sense of the word. I had to put it down several times and take breaks in between as well. This book requires patience, strength, and determination to push through. The story is about a young teenage boy Caden who struggles with mental illness. We follow his journey and his decline of his mental health as he shuttles back and forth between his delusions and reality that seems to be far out of his reach. The story is said entirely from Caden's perspective. The chapters filled with reality and delusions bring the situation of mental illness to the forefront. The book will leave you confused, scared, and shocked at the rate at which Caden's mental health declines. His thoughts are scattered, his delusions holding him prisoner. The chaos of the mind pulling Caden deeper into the depths of the unknown will leave the readers heartbroken for his pain. The lines between reality and delusion are so blurred it takes readers and Caden a long time to understand the source of the chaos. I gave the book 4.5 stars. I think this is an important book to read. If you have the strength to read through the book without losing yourself to the chaos, the book will be an informative, educational, and eye-opening experience. Whether it's the slow decline or the abrupt deterioration of a person's mental health, the struggle is real. The author has done a fantastic job of representing the chaos and the delusions. The artwork included in the book was drawn by his son when he was going through his challenging moments. I felt it added more of a personal touch, and it elevated the book as well. This is a raw, honest up-close portrayal of a young boy's decline of mental health and his journey of recovery. This was without a shadow of a doubt one of the most enlightening and life-changing read for sure. I highly recommend checking it out.

I found this book quite confusing to start with but as the story progresses you soon realise the connections and what is "reality", a great depiction of mental illness and highly addictive reading. Some really great characters too.

This is a slow, powerful journey in the mind of someone with severe mental health difficulties. Drawing on the experience of the author's own son, this gave me so much insight into the complex world of mentally ill mind, without ever glorifying it. It's expertly crafted, with illustrations from his son throughout, that were truly incredible.

I did find this book slow going, very slow going. I think what bogged this down for me was the 150+ chapters in a 330 page book, nearly every page was a new chapter (I read this on the kindle app). This made the story difficult to get into, as the pause to read every new chapter heading slowed me down.

While I could relate to a lot of this story, I also have not experienced the mental health crisis that Caden had, but was able to draw on memory of articles I've read, books I've read. I do wonder if a neurotypical reader would be able to understand this strange story that twists from reality to fantasy at a moments notice.

I loved the ship being an allegory for Caden's mind, the more I read on the more I was able to compare and understand the fantasy versus reality. The captain, the parrot and the navigator were all fascinating characters and with this being a story of mental health, I was never quite sure what they would do next.

In my opinion, this is one of the most important fictional books about mental health. It's not overshadowed by a romantic storyline, it's not glorified and shrouded in flowery language, it's dark, it's ugly, and it feels very very real. It's a difficult book to read, and it should be.

eARC provided by NetGalley , thank you to NetGalley and Walker Books. All opinions are my own.

A heart-breaking and tender contemporary YA that brings to light important mental health issues with illustrations by the authors son Brendan, who brought real life inspiration as he himself, was diagnosed at 16.

THE FEELS
description

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (spoiler free reviews)
Standalone
Publish Date: August 6th 2020
(First published April 21st 2015)
Cover Rating: 8/10
Young Adult - Contemporary – Fiction – Mental Health Awareness

Firstly the cover is a boy’s head upside down, and I just realized that. It’s stunning.

SHORT SYNOPSIS:
Caden Bosch is a high school student and keen artist, when his behavior starts to suddenly change; he starts to become absorbed with the thoughts in his head that he doesn’t quite understand. But Caden Bosch is also on a ship headed for the deepest point on Earth, a designated artist set to document the journey.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
This book has been dipped in love. You can feel it off every page and it’s beautifully crafted. This comes from me- who was probably one of the few people that did not really enjoy Scythe all that much. The chapters are short and the artwork by Neal’s son Brendan is really enjoyable to look at and reminds you this was a real journey for their family that he took inspiration from.

"Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug." This quote is so very very true.

The chapters are really short and well developed as we follow Cadens’s journey externally in the physical world and internally in his mind. A part of me wishes that we went through the very realness of this journey with Neal and his family but I guess its easier to turn it into fiction and craft a story that takes elements but isn’t as personal. I respect that. I just found myself more interested in the actual journey of Caden and not so much the Challenger Deep sea-faring aspect, even though it was sort of intertwined- it just did not work for me. I do however understand why the book was done in this way.

Over all this was a brilliant story and I am really impressed at how realistic Caden felt. It could be your brother, your son, your friend and Caden's feelings are very true to how this process feels in real life Neal has said.

IS IT WORTH IT?
Definitely. I would really recommend this book to everyone, young and old. Its so easy to judge when even the idea, is so alien and foreign to us. This book is raw, powerful and sad - so understand that there are some sensitive issues that are discussed, but everything is described in a very real and honest way.

Rating: 3.9

trigger warnings; mental illness, attempted suicide, talk of self harm, inpatient treatment, medication.

I have truly wanted to read Challenger Deep for years and now that it’s finally being released in the U.K. I’m so thankful that I’ve gotten to read it.

This book is truly one of the most intense, harrowing, real and raw novels I’ve ever read about mental illness. This book is truly an incredible one. At the start, it was a little jarring switching between the scenes at sea and the scenes in the “real world” but I got used to it and when it all started to come together I found myself truly loving this novel. Well, I feel like loving isnt the right word because this novel was so real and harrowing because it is real, this book was written because the authors son has the same condition the MC suffers from and that gave the novel so many more layers. I encourage you look yo own voices reviewers for the representation but having said that, remember everyone copes with these things differently and as the book says, no two people go through exactly the same thing when it comes to their mental illness and this is a story about how his son in particular suffered.

Overall, this novel is truly fantastic and deserves all of the praise and love that it gets. If you are looking for a mental health novel I would definitely suggest reading this one. Not only does it really raw and real but it also has some of the best and most beautiful quotes in it and I feel truly privileged that I’ve read it.

‘Challenger Deep’ is a brilliant exploration of what it’s like to be a teenager with psychosis. Told in first person, it chronicles the insidious development of mental illness and its impact – on school, family, and the individual. Alongside this, there is a story about a ship on a quest to the Marianas Trench, with the narrative alternating between the two. The purpose of this second storyline is not immediately clear, but as more is revealed the two cleverly intersect. Each plotline provides relief when the other gets too heavy – this isn’t a book that shies away from the dark parts of mental illness.

The protagonist, Caden, is fifteen and an American schoolkid. He’s always been a smart, social kid, the type to flit effortlessly between friend groups and fit in anywhere. He’s an artist, spending his free time drawing and designing video games with his friends.

The protagonist, Caden, is fifteen and a crewmember on a ship. He’s the youngest member of the crew, still trying to figure out where he fits in. He shares a cabin with the ship’s navigator, a man with a fondness for alliteration and rhyme who spends his time creating maps and star charts. At night, he dreams about the White Plastic Kitchen, a kitchen full of sparkling white appliances that regularly plays host to monsters.

The highlight of this book is the language. The way Caden’s internal monologue is narrated is gorgeous – often harrowing and disturbing, but written so well it’s hauntingly beautiful. I’ve read other books by Neil Shusterman, but this is undoubtedly where his linguistic skills are at their best.

Shusterman mentions in the notes at the end that he created Caden with collaboration from a family member who suffered from psychosis. Having worked with psychosis patients myself, it seems – from an outsider’s perspective – to be an excellent depiction. His mannerisms, actions, speech, changes in emotions – all of them change with the course of the disease, subtly at first until they become overwhelmingly obvious. Later in the book, Caden also meets other patients with various mental illnesses, and – whilst we only get Caden’s perspective of them – their presentations also feel accurate. I’m always wary of fictional depictions of psychosis because of how much stigma there is against it, but Shusterman avoids all the major pitfalls here.

This isn’t always an easy read, and – despite the very short chapters – isn’t designed to be a quick one. However, in many ways, I think it’s an essential one. Psychosis is hugely misunderstood and very common, affecting at least 1% of the population at some point in their lives. This is one of the best depictions I’ve ever read. If you want to understand psychosis and start breaking down the stigma, this is a good place to start.

Overall, this is a highly recommended young adult book for teenagers and adults alike with an interest in psychology and mental illness.

Challenger Deep is an interesting and insightful book about mental illness following the main character, Caden and his story which is told using two different settings.

The book has short chapters and the setting/story moves very fast between them especially at the start which did make it hard for me to get into the book however once I got over my initial confusion, I did enjoy the book although I did still get confused at times which made me a bit bored however for most of the book, I did find it interesting especially how Caden was thinking and how things linked together.  

3/5

I found this book incredibly confusing as it switched between the real world and the very strange boat world (not quite magical realism, but close). I admit I was expecting a more sci-fi/dystopia book than I got - as that's my entire experience of Neal Shusterman's books so far - so the contemporary feel of it was something to get used to.

There are also some sections written in second person chucked in for good measure, which threw me from the story. It also jumps about in time a lot, with strange side tangents that don't seem to add to the story at all. 

I was very tempted to DNF this book, because I found it so hard to follow at times. Trying to keep track of what was going on was very difficult. However, I persevered because I think it was supposed to be so disorientating and hard to work out what was real and not to mirror the experience of someone living with schizophrenia.

It takes a long while for the book to put a name to what Carden is experiencing, which felt right for the story - it meant I couldn't bring any of my implicit biases into my reading. I probably would have read it very differently if I had known that.

However, I feel like I didn't get anything out of the reading experience because I was struggling so much to work out what was going on. Part of me thinks I should have just DNF'ed it, but I think it was the right choice not to, as I feel like I know a smidge more about schizophrenia, and am more aware of how different it is in reality to the public perception.

An incredible book, one that I'll not easily forget. Its raw, powerful writing is rich in images and phrases that you have to go back and read again to savour; deservedly the winner of the National Book Award.

The book is based on Neal Shusterman's son Brendan's experience of schizophrenia, hospitalisation and treatment. The story has two threads, both following the main character, Caden Bosch. In one, Caden is on a ship bound for the deepest point on earth - Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. The ship is populated by a range of vaguely threatening characters - the captain, his parrot, and others, and strange events provoke unpredictable and surreal responses from those on board. In the other thread, we follow Caden as he becomes increasingly ill and is hospitalised. Gradually we become aware of the crossover between the two threads - characters on the ship have their counterparts in hospital - until the final devastating destination is reached.

The writing is interspersed with Brendan Shusterman's drawings that he made while 'in the depths'; they're as haunting as the writing.

A compelling and touching read, clearly written with love. It's a book that demands your full attention - but it deserves it. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Wow this was incredible. Definitely made me feel really anxious when reading which shows just how good the writing was. It gave me so much to think about.

The book centres on Caden, a teenager with a mental illness. It's told through Caden's real life experiences and the thoughts he experiences in his head (set on a ship, heading for the Challenger Deep). The characters cross over between each, and it takes a little while to process the links.

The real life chapters definitely hit me the most. We see Caden slowly begin to struggle more and more, worrying his parents. They take him to a psychologist, but after a while Caden ends up in hospital. We see what his days look like - his appointments with the doctor, his group therapy with a volunteer, his friendships with the other patients. We see his battle to find a medication mix that works for him, and what happens when he doesn't take his medication anymore.

Caden forms a deep friendship with a girl called Callie. At night, sometimes she comes to his bed, but only so he can keep her warm. He also befriends his roommate Hal, and a girl with blue hair with OCD.

Overall this is a super thought-provoking, considerate book. Neal handles mental illness so well, portraying it in a way that does not romanticise, which I've seen in some other YA. All of this whilst having a writing style that makes you feel.

This isn’t the kind of book I’d normally read, but it was a very interesting (and harrowing) portrayal of mental health, will definitely be recommending it!

Challenger Deep is fantastic. It's a very deep and raw exploration of a young boys mental health. It's uncomfortable and could potentially trigger some readers, so caution should be taken when reading. That being said it's a book that forces you to think about and confront as a reader how you view what mental health is. Thought-provoking and necessary read,

Shusterman takes a close look at a teenage boy struggling with poor mental health. The first-person narrative is direct, forcing the reader to experience Caden's downward spiral, and admission to hospital from close proximity. We see his anxiety grow to become deep-seated paranoia, we see his gradual distancing from his best friends, the impact his deterioration has on his physical health, the growth of obsessive behaviour. Caden's narration demonstrates the bewilderment and fear felt by his parents and younger sister. The period in hospital is deftly conveyed, particularly his interactions with other patients and staff while functioning under the influence of a changing regimen of meds and therapy. The hallucinatory sections are uncomfortably realistic. I found it insightful but it was a tough read for me. A good one for those wanting to understand mental health probs, but could be triggering for those who have suffered/are suffering.