“Sometimes in life you just have to eat the eggplant Parmesan, even when you don’t want to, because you love the person who made it.”

This might be one of the best depictions of trauma I’ve ever read?? I finished this book in under 4 hours.

This book follows a 13 year old Penny/Pilar, stuck in a world of judgement, identity crisis and change. She is learning who she is, who her friends are, secrets about her parents, and struggling with becoming a writer. Her play is going to be performed not the way she envisioned it. Her small voice isn’t being heard, until she no longer has a voice.

So let me break down how many hurdles this book covers. You get to see how religion in young people trickles down from their parents, and how they struggle with their own religious beliefs. How teens accept a fellow transgender youth. A very difficult situation of being guilted for not “liking” a transgender individual not because they are trans, but just because you don’t have feelings for them. How immigrants are treated in the American work system, even when they have years of background and experience in their home country.

Dealing with mental illness through therapy. Acknowledging it doesn’t always work but you have to put in the effort. How your parents mental illness can or can’t effect you. Will you have the same struggles? Learning how to be strong for other people who are hurting, and knowing when you must step back and help yourself. When someone is not themself anymore, lost to mental illness, when they don’t know you most days. Disordered eating as a result of anxiety, as a way to punish your body. Comparing traumas because you are using anger as a coping mechanism. Dealing with all of this at just the age of 13. The list is endless.

So obviously this is a lot, I took so many notes because some of these topics hit so close to home. There is a situation I mentioned previously that I was in personally, I won’t share, but having an author write about this was just so validating and rewarding.

Even though the main character is only 13, it does not feel like a YA novel. I think teens could easily read this and learn a lot. It’s absolutely an emotional roller coaster, but you come out learning more then when you began.

I cannot recommend this book enough when it is published. I was shaken to my core and knew that only after a few chapters, it was a 5 star for me.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Language of Crazy was an interesting book to dive into. It definitely dove into mental health/illness but it also dove into a person's identity. After meeting Penny, it was pretty obvious how unique she was. I've never known someone who would choose a new name for them whenever they wanted. So I really thought it was pretty interesting and I wanted to get to know her more.

I honestly wasn't expecting so much representation throughout this book. I liked how we dove into schizophrenia. Especially when we dove into her visiting her mother. Other than that, I liked her found family in a way. It was refreshing how everyone she surrounded herself with just went with the new name change like that. Zero hesitation whatsoever.

Then once she goes into selective mutism, well, her friends try to do anything to get her to speak. Even her own dad did. They missed her being her and didn't really know what to do. Eventually she did speak but I liked how no one truly gave up on her no matter what.

In the end, I did end up liking the book. I just think some of the book got jumbled up for me but I'm sure there was a reason for how it was written those ways. I'll definitely have to dive into this again when it's less hectic in my life. Maybe I'll see it in a different light.

Unfortunately this book wasnt really for me. I struggled to get into it, in fact i actually put it down and started a different book. The writing is a bit disjointed, i get there may be a purpose to this but it really put me off, it just didnt flow and I found mysef disliking the main character too.

Important message for sure, but for me the delivery was lacking, especially at the start.

An enjoyable read that highlights a key issue in todays society. Despite this, the choppy nature of the plot can result in said impact being lessened.

This book does a decent job of representing Penny’s struggles and friend’s mental illness. It is choppy though abs had a bit of trouble keeping my attention. I did like how it supported important topics for middle grade readers though. I received this novel as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Atmosphere Press for providing an advanced e-copy of “The Lost Language of Crazy” in exchange for an honest review.
Sadly, this book is not really for me since I ended up feeling disjointed and dejected by the time I finish it but that doesn’t mean it won’t be significant to others.
I applaud the author for bringing up themes that are usually discussed in YA and adult fiction (mental illness, identity issues, gender identity, religion) to Middle Grade fiction but weren’t explored much thus making some themes shallow and unnecessary to the plot.
As for the writing, I do understand that the jumbled writing reflects the mental state of the main character but I got thrown off of the shift from Penelope’s POV to her medical reports.
Lastly, wished that the novel could’ve been longer so that the relationship of the mc with the other characters (especially with her mother) is further established and I am left with more emotional connection with the characters.

So I think the reason that I didn't like this is the exact reason other people may love it. The writing felt really scattered and choppy to me. However, this is a book that really focuses on schizophrenia and I think the jumbledness of the writing was supposed to reflect that. Even though I can make that connection, it didn't make for an enjoyable reading experience for me and I felt like it took me a long time to read a short middle grade book.

I also felt like there was a lot going on in here. In addition to the main theme of a family dealing with schizophrenia, there's also themes of selective mutism, gender identity, different religious backgrounds (Muslim + Jewish), and also a brief dabble in providing consent for kissing. I also want to be clear about the gender identity theme in here - there's a transgender character, a main character who isn't transgender but figured she'd try out a different masculine name for a while, and the schizophrenic character who bounces between three different identities - two male and one female. Like I said, there's just a lot in here and it was all jammed into a middle grade read with choppy writing.

I think mental health is an important issue that needs to be exposed more in middle grade lit so I'm happy to see another book out there taking the plunge. Just because this one wasn't for me doesn't mean it won't touch someone else.

This book explores a number of serious themes - family, mental health, and identity, Written through eyes of a 13 year old Penny it takes us on a journey of her self-discovery. Each of Penny’s friends have their own struggles as they try to make sense of who they are. It is a well written book with likeable characters and some humour.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

The Lost Language of Crazy was a beautiful story about Penny who is currently writing a play but can't seem to find an ending that fits. She is surrounded by wonderful friends and a father but of course, feels the absence of her mother who she believes is dead.

I thoroughly enjoyed several aspects of this book such as the representation of different gender identities, expectations everyone feels from society and families, the way mental health problems are dealt with and talked about in the book

Although I could not fully enjoy the characterization of Zeina and her family. These characters are Muslim in the book, which could have been a wonderful chance to represent a minority community. I felt that certain aspects of their characterization were stereotypes such as Zeina being portrayed only as beautiful without her hijab and her father's anger issues.

Other than that, I think the book was overall a great and extremely quick read.

Here’s a story about 12 year old Penny who is living with her single Dad and is under the impression her Mom has died. She wrote a play for school about her relationship with her Dad but feels very unsettled about the ending. She doesn’t feel any ending she comes up with is the correct one. She goes on a quest for the perfect ending and it leads to more questions than answers.

I loved:
- the representation of Penny’s friend and of mental illness
- how strongly Penny feels about her friends
- penny’s grandparents
- penny’s curiosity

I disliked:
- the amount of times the ‘crazy’ is used, I get why it was done but whewwww, it’s a lot.
- the beginning was slow up until about p75
- the way the dad is portrayed as almost being afraid of mental illnesses

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book! Review of this book on Twitter, Instagram, & StoryGraph @astitchedspine ✨

This was a short, engaging read that i finished in 2 sittings (it would have been one if i had the attention span for that lol). I felt that the writing of this book was pretty immature and YA, although that made it easy to read and i found myself flying through it. Without giving anything away, the main character was very dramatic and the plotline was kind of… out there sometimes, but somehow still easy to follow.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Lost Language of Crazy in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Language of Crazy is an admiral attempt to try and tackle a lot of underwritten topics in middle grade (I understand this is shelved as YA at least on Netgalley, but it has big MG vibes), but I think it tries to tackle too many things at once over the course of so few pages and it leads to things either feeling too quickly paced or too forceful to buy into.

Giving this 3.5-4/5 stars. This talks about Penelope and how she navigates through her daily life when she discovers her mother isn't really dead. I enjoyed the mental illness representation and how huge gender was a part of this. Considering how short the chapters are and the book itself I read through this quite fast. Overall, this book met my expectations and I really enjoyed reading it.

I don't know how to feel about this book. I liked the mental illness theme, but I was in shock and horrified at the terrible Muslim representation. The writing wasn't great either, to be honest. There's a way of writing about yourself without making it sound like a self-insert fanfic. Penny was just so dislikeable because she was sooooo 'quirky'

I was really, really upset about how Zeina was just such a stereotype, and it's unfair that a white, non-muslim author (I say this all as a South-Asian Muslim) gets to claim that she cares about representing non-observant muslims when in reality it's just easier to write what she sees on the news and in the media.

Sorry, but this just wasn't for me.

Thank you to @Netgalley and @Atmosphere Press for providing me with an ARC of “The Lost Language of Crazy”, to read and honestly review!✨

I really enjoyed this book! From its very first pages, The Lost Language of Crazy plunges into some serious topics, and the way our narrator, P, a 13 year old girl, perceives them, how they affect her world and what they truly mean for (to) her. Her narration gave this book a truly refreshing edge; with a complex, curious and creative mind, our heroine slowly discovered her world and gave the readers the chance to see what being a writer is truly like, and in how many different ways somebody can exist as one.

This book was character driven and had great representation! Mental illness, gender identify, Muslim rep, selective mutism, this book touched into some serious topics, yet all the while managed to retain its funny, engaging side. P’s humor, playful way of perceiving human life, made this read truly enjoyable.

I liked the way all of the mental health issues were dealt with and most of all I loved how while reading, you felt as if you grew along with P, as she slowly navigated and explored the world she and all of us, live in!

[3.5/⭐️]

This book was informative and lovely and had good mental health rep. I loved the inclusion of blog posts and everything in between. The MC was loveable and wonderfully written. Well done!!

<b>Twelve year old Penny explores what it means to have no voice, what it means to hear many voices, and what it means to have your voice squashed.</b>

This was such an interesting read. I really loved the author's style of writing and the exploration behind mental illness. The two illnesses in focus are selective mutism and schizophrenia and I particularly enjoyed the monologue behind the selective mutism and the familial experience of schizophrenia.

There were various characters with lots of confusion about their identity, but the theme of friendship is very strong, and lent a warmth to the otherwise troubled storyline.

However, I felt that the story was rushed, and there was a lot to unpack with not a lot of time. I think the book could benefit from refinement, but Laskin is surely an author to watch.

The first third of this book felt like it was missing substance. It felt empty, like it was missing something. At first, none of the characters (except for Penny, slightly) were likable, but this changed as the story continued and the characters became more developed. There is a definite turning point in the story, and the writing style improved from there. Overall, this is a compelling story about mental illness and its effects on multiple lives. The title is extremely apt. I enjoyed the parallels between some of the characters' families and how Penny's friendships with Zeina, Johnny, and Ava evolved. However, the overly exuberant writing style detracts from the overall effect--there were tons of exclamation points sprinkled throughout, and it was sometimes jarring.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about schizophrenia, selective mutism, depression, and mental illness and its effects on family dynamics. Definitely thought-provoking.

This book was pretty good, I enjoyed a lot of the representation in the story. My only issue was it wasn’t really my kind of style of book I enjoy. There were quite a few spelling errors, and the main character seemed a little childish and young for her age. It was interesting to read more about mental illnesses that I have never read about before. The representation was, again, superb and I hope kids in the future, who are mature enough to read about the mental illnesses, will enjoy this story.

Penny is a middle school girl exploring who she is. When she discovers a big secret about her mother her world is turned on it's heard and she loses her voice, literally.

Navigating the newfound information, trying to force her voice out, and still being a young teen is a muddled mess for Penny.

Can she find peace with her family history? With who she is? Will she find her voice again?

I know it's an unedited version but the formatting was a bit difficult with how the columns aligned and the crazy footnotes, title and authors names were randomly placed breaking up sentences.