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Great Books That Have Characters With Mental Health Issues

In Honor of Mental Health Awareness Month

Welcome back!

With only a week or so left in May I wanted to do a post that touches on the all too sensitive but important topic of Mental Health.
We’re fortunate to have access to information now more than ever that can not only help us understand what we and our loved ones are facing but help us support one another as well.

Not all mental health issues are obvious to those around us. Some are quiet, less noticeable. Others? Scream.

Today I’ll be sharing books that highlight many different kinds of mental health, from the silent ones we bury, to the kinds that can’t be ignored.
Each character, like us, lives with and handles their problems in their own way and I think that sometimes these stories can help us find new solutions to very real issues. That.. and it can be nice feeling like someone out there might understand.

Books are a wonderful comfort but if you’re struggling, please, talk to someone.
Friends, family, a professional—getting the support you need from people you trust can make all the difference in the world.

Be well.

(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Any purchases made through my links may earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you.)

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world.

For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that’s exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he’s got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she’s starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he’s still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.

The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper’s old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn’t show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.

Because of the Night by Rue LHommedieu

Icky is a quirky girl with humorous ADHD impulses. Fully convinced she’s mismatched with her complicated family, and willing to risk everything to prove it, she embarks on a one-night adventure on a magical boat.

It all starts one fall evening when Icky loses an unwinnable fight with her brainiac twin brother. Even if she uses her self-taught coping routine to tune-out, detach, and move on, it’s simply no match for the gazillions of thoughts that jam in the middle of her throat. As this ball of words unclogs in a huge explosion, it can’t be contained any longer… “Shut the front door—I must be in the wrong family!” Feeling invincible, the girl carries a pillow, a hastily packed doll case, and a clear decision—she must leave on a quest to find her true family.

But this will be no ordinary night. After meeting a mysterious Old Lady who appears on a magical boat, the girl is assured: “If you still believe you’re in the wrong family come morning, you’ll be whisked away to another one—forever.” Icky has one night to decide her fate. Will this simple promise solve her dilemma, or is it an eerie warning of things to come?

Phantom Limb by Lucinda Berry

Emily and Elizabeth spend their childhood locked in a bedroom and terrorized by a mother who drinks too much and disappears for days. The identical twins are rescued by a family determined to be their saviors.

But there’s some horrors love can’t erase…

Elizabeth wakes in a hospital, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak. The last thing she remembers is finding Emily’s body in their bathroom. Days before, she was falling in love and starting college. Now, she’s surrounded by men who talk to themselves and women who pull out their eyebrows.

As she delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Emily’s death, she discovers shocking secrets and holes in her memory that force her to remember what she’s worked so hard to forget—the beatings, the blood, the special friends. Her life spins out of control at a terrifying speed as she desperately tries to unravel the psychological puzzle of her past before it’s too late.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

The Clackity by Lora Senf

Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor—the seventh-most haunted town in America—with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her.

There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie reluctantly embarks on a journey into a strange otherworld filled with hungry witches, penny-eyed ghosts, and a memory-thief, all while being pursued by a dead man whose only goal is to add Evie to his collection of lost souls. Will she ever find Des, or is The Clackity planning something far more sinister?

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone

Cat lives in Los Angeles, far from 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing gothic house in Edinburgh where she and her estranged twin sister, El, grew up. As kids, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs, full of pirates, witches, and clowns. These days, Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home, or the fact that El now lives there with her husband, Ross.

But when El mysteriously disappears after going out on her sailboat, Cat is forced to return to 36 Westeryk Road, which hasn’t changed in twenty years. The grand old house is still full of shadowy corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past. Because someone—El?—has left Cat clues: a treasure hunt that leads them back to Mirrorland, where the truth lies waiting…

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

The Maid by Nita Prose

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

The Lost Victim by Jennifer Hunter

After his sister disappeared, FBI consultant and psychologist Ryan Strickland spent years looking for answers in an investigation gone tragically cold. But in his work, Ryan has built a reputation for getting reluctant victims to speak. A witness has been found who can identify an elusive serial killer whose crimes reach back decades. However, Olivia, the silent and scarred young woman in Ryan’s care, isn’t telling all. Yet.

As a guarded trust develops between her and Ryan, Olivia agrees to return to the nightmare from which she fled—an isolated and abandoned farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Any evidence could lead authorities one step closer to finding the killer…and help fill in the missing pieces of Ryan’s own past.

But no one is prepared for what they find or for the unspeakable truths revealed in Olivia’s darkest memories.

Violet Grenade by Victoria Scott

Her name is Domino Ray.

But the voice inside her head has a different name.

When the mysterious Ms. Karina finds Domino in an alleyway, she offers her a position at her girls’ home in secluded West Texas. With no alternatives and an agenda of her own, Domino accepts. It isn’t long before she is fighting her way up the ranks to gain the woman’s approval…and falling for Cain, the mysterious boy living in the basement.

But the home has horrible secrets. So do the girls living there. So does Cain.

Escaping is harder than Domino expects, though, because Ms. Karina doesn’t like to lose inventory. But then, she doesn’t know about the danger living inside Domino’s mind.

She doesn’t know about Wilson.

Monster by S.E. Green

It takes a survivor to know a madman.

When the police need to crawl inside the mind of a monster, they call Caroline.

As a child, Caroline was abducted along with her twin sister. For over a year, their captor forced them to play his sick games, using their hunger to test the lengths they’d go to survive.

Caroline escaped. Her sister didn’t.

Now a young woman gnawed by survivor’s guilt, Caroline’s horrific past has left her with a unique gift to understand the twisted motivations of serial killers. She couldn’t save her sister—but she can at least help the police keep other girls safe.

But there’s something different about her latest case.

Something familiar.

Teenage girls are being murdered, their organs removed. As the scope of horror widens, Caroline begins to experience blackouts of lost time and disturbing hallucinations that are leading her to one terrible, impossible conclusion.

Caroline is a keeper of secrets. She knows her captor can’t be responsible.

Yet a message is being sent…a buried echo resurfacing…a personal connection of a dark and dangerous appetite.

After the Woods by Kim Savage

Would you risk your life to save your best friend? 

Julia did. When a paroled predator attacked Liv in the woods, Julia fought back and got caught. Liv ran, leaving Julia in the woods for a terrifying 48 hours that she remembers only in flashbacks. One year later, Liv seems bent on self-destruction, starving herself, doing drugs, and hooking up with a violent new boyfriend. A dead girl turns up in those same woods, and Julia’s memories resurface alongside clues unearthed by an ambitious reporter that link the girl to Julia’s abductor. As the devastating truth becomes clear, Julia realizes that after the woods was just the beginning.

Final Girls by Mira Grant

What if you could fix the worst parts of yourself by confronting your worst fears?

Dr. Jennifer Webb has invented proprietary virtual reality technology that purports to heal psychological wounds by running clients through scenarios straight out of horror movies and nightmares. In a carefully controlled environment, with a medical cocktail running through their veins, sisters might develop a bond they’ve been missing their whole lives—while running from the bogeyman through a simulated forest. But…can real change come so easily?

Esther Hoffman doubts it. Esther has spent her entire journalism career debunking pseudoscience, after phony regression therapy ruined her father’s life. She’s determined to unearth the truth about Dr. Webb’s budding company. Dr. Webb’s willing to let her, of course, for reasons of her own. What better advertisement could she get than that of a convinced skeptic? But Esther’s not the only one curious about how this technology works. Enter real-world threats just as frightening as those created in the lab. Dr. Webb and Esther are at odds, but they may also be each other’s only hope of survival.

And that’s a wrap!
Thank you for checking out my post, I hope it was helpful.
I know this isn’t an easy or light subject but it matters, what we go through matters—talk about it.

Do you have any advice, tips, or tricks you would share with those struggling with their mental health?

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This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Rosie Amber

    Good list, some of these I know, but I haven’t got around to reading them yet.

    1. Sheri Dye

      Thank you. Some are better than others but they’re all pretty good reads.

  2. Leah's Books

    I’ve read two of these, but I added so many to my TBR from this list. So many of them sound good.

    1. Sheri Dye

      Glad to hear it! I hope you enjoy them!
      Which two have you already read?

      1. Leah's Books

        The Midnight Library, which I adored, and We Were Liars, which wasn’t a good fit for me.

        1. Sheri Dye

          That was about my reaction to those two as well. Although.. I am curious about Family of Liars.

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