I'm always wary of stories that tackle mental illness. There's a tendency in popular media to either glamorize it or soften it, as if all it does is make you an off-kilter eccentric or tortured artist, as if it can be healed by just loving someone hard enough. That's why I'm so grateful to have this book, which treats mental illness with an honesty and an openness that was unflinching yet - eventually - uplifting.