Caden must decide whether he wants to sink into the depths of Challenger Deep or rise up to the surface.Ĭhallenger Deep is one of the most unique young adult books I’ve ever read. Eventually-after a tragic event at the ward-he stops taking his “medication cocktail” with devastating results. The medication makes him feel like he’s swimming through Jell-O, like he’s not himself. Caden eventually learns that he’s suffering from schizophrenia and that he’ll have to continue taking medication for the rest of his life. He befriends others in the institution some who are more ill than he and some who are healthier. He befriends a few people and gets stuck in a war of mutiny between a terrifying captain and his omnipotent parrot.Ĭaden can’t keep the paranoia or his other symptoms from his parents very long before they send him to a psych ward.
Meanwhile, he is becoming a part of life on the ship. He tries to hide these moments of panic from his parents, even when he suddenly feels the need to walk for hours at a time or when he knows that someone at school is trying to kill him. When the book begins, Caden’s mind weaves in between seeing reality and slipping into paranoid fantasies that manifested themselves on a mysterious ship headed for the Marianas Trench. But it’s not referencing the lowest point found on the earth’s seabed.Ĭaden Bosch, the artistic 15-year-old protagonist, gets pulled into the “Challenger Deep” of mental illness. Ages 14 up.Re-readability: I could pick this one up again.Īs its title indicates, Challenger Deep is about a lowest point. As Caden says, "There is no such thing as a correct' diagnosis," and though his story doesn't necessarily represent a "typical" experience of mental illness, it turns symptoms into lived reality in ways readers won't easily forget. It's a powerful collaboration, and crucial to the novel's credibility. Shusterman has mined personal experience of mental illness with his son Brendan, whose line drawings mirror Caden's fragmentation in swirling lines eerily reminiscent of Van Gogh. External reality still registers: people around Caden run the gamut of humor, scolding, threats, and avoidance to pressure him into changing behavior he no longer controls. The metaphor's not exactly subtle, but Shusterman finds unexpected resonance in its details the tarry seams in the wood, the human ballast. His internal narratives are sometimes dreams, sometimes hallucinations, and sometimes undefinable, dominated by a galleon and its captain, sailing with an enormous, sullen crew to the deepest point of the Marianas Trench, Challenger Deep. With lyricism and potent insight, Shusterman (Unwind) traces the schizophrenic descent and return of Caden Bosch, an intelligent 15-year-old and a gifted artist. Laurie Halse Anderson, award-winning author of Speak, calls Challenger Deep "a brilliant journey across the dark sea of the mind frightening, sensitive, and powerful. National Book Award * Golden Kite Award Winner * Six Starred ReviewsĪ captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman.Ĭaden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.Ĭaden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.Ĭaden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images.Ĭaden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.Ĭaden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.Ĭhallenger Deep is a deeply powerful and personal novel from one of today's most admired writers for teens.
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