18 Books With Great Mental Health Representation

It’s day 3 of my 18 Days of 2018 feature and if you missed the last two parts, you can find them here and here.

Today, I’m sharing 18 books I’ve read this year that have what I consider to be good mental health representation. My criteria for this is that it isn’t the defining characteristic of the character, but it still dealt with sensitively and in a well-informed way. They are all eye-opening and really good reads, though I cannot speak from personal experience for most of the representation, so it’s always worth checking out own-voices reviews.

 

1. We Are Young by Cat Clarke (discussion around mental health forms a key part of the plot)

2. I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman (extreme anxiety)

3. Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde (anxiety)

4. White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock (extreme anxiety and other things I can’t mention due to spoilers)

5. A List of Cages by Robin Roe (trauma due to abuse)

6. Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? by Holly Bourne (you learn Olive’s diagnosis with her, so it’s best for me not to say)

7. Radio Silence by Alice Oseman (I would say depression and trauma)

8. A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews (trauma due to abuse)

9. After The Fire by Will Hill (suicide and PTSD)

10. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Kaz suffers from a PTSD-esque condition)

11. The Girl In The Broken Mirror by Savita Kalhan (trauma and PTSD – this book is utterly amazing and desperately needs more love)

12. More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (self-harm and suicide)

13. Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman (trauma – this is just so gorgeously written and I need Summer Bird Blue now)

14. The Astonishing Colour of After by Emily X. R. Pan (grief, depression and suicide)

15. Only Love Can Break Your Heart by Katherine Webber (grief)

16. Clean by Juno Dawson (addiction in many forms and anorexia)

17. Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron (grief)

18. On A Scale of One To Ten by Ceylan Scott (anorexia, bipolar disorder, suidical thoughts, suicide and graphic accounts of self-harm)

Over To You:

Which books have you read this year that have good mental health representation?