I love how Whaley allows his characters to make mistakes and learn from them. Meanwhile, Lisa’s boyfriend Clark finds he is falling for Solomon just as Solomon works through his feelings about possibly being queer. To win over the admissions committee, she envisions she will contribute original research to the study of agoraphobia by befriending Solomon and attempting to “cure” him.

Lisa is an overachiever who sets her sights on studying psychology in college. Quirky and endearing, this mental health book for teens focuses on sixteen-year-old Solomon, an agoraphobic who hasn’t set foot outside his house in three years. John Corey Whaley’s Highly Illogical Behavior is one of my favorite YA books about mental health. Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley How to read it: Purchase Every Exquisite Thing on Amazon and add it on Goodreads Every Last Wordby Tamara Ireland Stone Fair warning: Quick pulls no punches and this one will likely leave you in tears. Salinger) when I was a teen, so I totally see myself in Nanette and her non-conformist streak. I have a soft spot for this book because I was also obsessed with a work of literature ( The Catcher in the Rye) by a certain famous reclusive writer (J. The two get together and, wham, it’s fireworks. And Alex, a mentally unstable and depressed poet and outcast who is also deeply involved in trying to find out what happens to the characters in The Bubblegum Reaper after the story ends. There’s Nanette, a popular jock who doesn’t want to do what everyone wants her to do and becomes obsessed with the (fictional) book The Bubblegum Reaper and its (also fictional) reclusive author.

In Every Exquisite Thing, we see the love story between two misfits. Matthew Quick is one of my favorite YA writers and the brains behind The Silver Linings Playbook, which landed a spot on my “ 20 Best Books about Bipolar Disorder post here on Broke by Books.

Wintergirls book