Schizo

Sixteen-year-old Miles has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he explains to readers that he had his first delusion on the same day that his younger brother, Teddy, disappeared from a San Francisco beach. While Teddy is presumed to have drowned, Miles believes a witness who claims he was kidnapped and becomes obsessed with the idea that “Teddy is out there. It’s up to me to bring him home.” After Miles flushes his pills, the voices in the head take him down a dangerous, self-destructive path. In his first novel, memoirist Sheff (Tweak) provides an insightful perspective on one teen’s struggle with mental illness, including the challenges of finding the right medications to treat his condition. Sheff’s spare writing style, combined with descriptions of San Francisco’s foggy skies and Miles’s own neglected home that “lets in water when it rains,” creates a mood of isolation and desperation that permeates the story. While the ending wraps up a bit neatly with a rather cinematic revelation, it also provides a welcome note of hope after Miles’s hard-fought quest for peace. Ages 14–up. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Sept.)