I've read this before, and better. The saving grace for this book about mental illness, parental problems, art and finding real friends along with yourself is that those other books were published a while ago and readers may not discover them

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley

This story is on point of what it is like to be a teen with bipolar disorder, the hard truth. The author uses humor to help the main character cope. It is story of growth, finding out your parents are not perfect and who will be your true friends. This story could help a lot of young girls that they are not alone in mental illness and the struggles are real.

Natalie is just trying to make it through high school with her newly diagnose of bipolar disorder. Her mom wants her to keep it a secret but hiding seems harder than she ever imagined. Her artwork is her passion, and she wants nothing more than to make it into an art show. She takes on dog by helping a friend who loves her no matter what. There are new friends she wants to open up to about her past and her mental illness, but could she lose them? Her parents' secrets are revealed, can she come back from all the lies?

This story is relatable and had me hooked to the end, I hope to read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen Published

I throughly enjoyed this novel. In fact, it’s one of the few lately that has held my attention throughout the entire story. While I could see a few things coming, I never felt like rushing though it. I would definitely recommend it to friends.

Thank you to @peachtreeteen for an eARC of this book through NetGalley! I picked this up on a whim because my NetGalley feedback ratio is a bit low and I ended up reading the whole book in a day. It was a poignant and emotional story about a teenager’s experience with mental health.

Our narrator is Natalie, a senior in high school who has bipolar disorder and recently attempted suicide in her car. Most people who know her, including her best friends, believe that this suicide attempt was a car accident. Her mom believes that she should keep her bipolar disorder and the truth behind her accident a secret from everyone. This perspective forces her to feel ashamed.

Natalie has two supposed best friends, Cecily and Brynn. I didn’t like these characters very much, especially their reactions to her bipolar disorder when they eventually find out about it. I loved Ella, who becomes a friend to Natalie during the novel. She is another neurodiverse student at school and she never makes Natalie feel like there is anything wrong with her for being who she is.

I felt that the mental health representation was good overall. I don’t personally have experience with any of the topics represented in the story, but I believe the author does have bipolar disorder. There is a positive representation of using medication. There is also positive discussion around accepting those whose brains work differently and that this doesn’t mean they aren’t “normal.” There is a character with autism whose portrayal reads a bit stereotypical at times, and I have seen a few other reviews mention that.

I think this story has a worthwhile message that would be especially good for teen readers of it!

The Art of Insanity

First, thank you @netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

This is a contemporary YA story about dealing with bipolar disorder as a teenager. This was written from experience.

We love some mental health rep! Natalie is a senior in high school, dealing with her recent diagnosis in a not so great way. There's a lot of stigma surrounding mental health and she's not coping very well. I'm not going to say much about what happens, but in the end, Natalie finds herself and is proud of who she is.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A brave and beautiful novel about Natalie, a teen just diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The author also has the illness, so there is a sense of profound authenticity to the writing. Should be in every school library as it destigmatizes mental illness and gives hope to sufferers.

Thanks to Christine Webb, Peachtree Teen, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

This felt like an accurate depiction of mental illness — but it’s hard to know for sure when I don’t have the experience. I do think the problems the main character encountered were accurate. However, I think these days a lot of people have a much better understanding bi-polar that they wouldn’t have reacted in the extreme negative way the supporting characters did.

My biggest problem was the characters voice. I thought it was incredibly immature for a junior in high school.

This book… this book. It was so good and so realistic. I loved Natalie as a main character, what she was feeling was so so real and I loved to see it. This book is honestly so necessary and I’m so happy that teenagers have this book to know that what they’re feeling is real.
There were so many amazing aspects of this book, I really loved it. I hated to see it, but seeing Natalie’s friends not being so sure about her bipolar disorder was so amazing to see. In other books, the main character friends don’t care and take it in strides so seeing it how it usually is in real life made the book that much better.
Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for eARC copy of this book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this YA novel a lot. I found myself really rooting for the main character.

Hard to read because it was in PDF format, but otherwise it's a good book. I always enjoy mental health representation in a book, and I still think we need more of that in the publishing world. But this is a book I'm definitely going to buy when it comes out - for myself and for the library I work at.

thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

a story with some hard topics, but handles them beautifully

DNF @ 32%

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!

Unpopular opinion, again, so ignore me. A lot of people have enjoyed this book, but this wasn't my cup of tea. I tried to read it.

It was the funky cover and cool title that got me interested in this book. I thought that it would be fast-paced after the first chapter, but it slowed down and got kinda boring. I felt like the original mystery at hand was not looked at again (up to where I stopped, at least) so I got too bored to really care.

Was given an e-arc from NetGalley to review.

I had to DNF at 65%. I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m so sorry but this book was just awful. The pacing and plot were all over the place making the story impossible to follow and overall incredibly messy to read. The plot that was there made next to no sense, was completely unrealistic, and felt like 5 different stories patched together. The characters felt like cardboard stereotypes and consistently made choices or statements that just boggled my mind. Mental health is the whole point and focus of this story and yet it felt truly offensive. As someone with mental illnesses and who has a college degree in psychology, I just couldn’t stomach it anymore. I can’t speak specifically to bipolar disorder, and apparently that is a disorder the author does know personally, but I’ve dealt with chronic depression and anxiety, have had many panic attacks in my life, and I felt enraged reading how it was described in this book. If it gets better in the last 35% then great, but it can’t cancel out the first 65% I slogged through. Also, Ella’s autism representation? Yikes. Again, incredibly offensive and horridly stereotypical. This book might have been great but it needed way more rounds of editing and sensitivity reading.

Thank you, again, to NetGalley for the arc. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for me.

4.5 ⭐️’s

I had received this as a arc and so glad I had the chance to read this! I love the rep in this book for people with bipolar and other rep, our main character goes through this break through and everything is difficult for her and we get to see her journey!
Loved it a lot and definitely would recommend!
Even has a cute romance which I loved and art being included.

The Art of Insanity was a poignant and well written story about mental illness. For me, its always hard to find books about mental illness that accurately portray what it's like to live with bipolar disorder, the stigmas surrounding it and the confusion you feel inside you as you grapple with dealing with it. As someone who was misdiagnosed and whose own parent was in constant denial about my diagnosis of being bipolar, this book really hit home for me and left me speechless.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I am somewhere between 3 & 4☆ for this book. I'm not certain if the final rating pushes it over to 4 stars, but let me write my review and see where we end up.

Natalie is a senior in high school with friends and is considered popular enough to be a shoo in for Homecoming Court, but she has secrets that could unravel her place. She's a talented art student and wants to go to art school. She also has bipolar disorder, after being misdiagnosed with depression, she tried to kill herself but obviously didn't succeed. Nobody besides Natalie's immediate family knows the circumstances behind the accident and her diagnosis, because her mother wants her to keep it a secret.

Natalie makes a new friend Ella who knows her secret because she witnessed the "accident" and sort of blackmails her into adopting her grandmother's dog from the pound. Natalie also meets Ty, the art class tech/ assistant and her brother Brent's new college friend. Natalie's 2 best friends Cecily and Brynn seem to be supportive but I didn't really like them, particularly gossip girl Brynn. Natalie feels pressure to act normal and with her mom treating her disease like it's a shameful baggage.

She discovers something pretty major her mom lied to her and her brother about and she goes off her meds and has a manic episode. I like how the book ended, and the realistic depiction of mental illness. I adored Ella, who has no shame about having ADHD and being on the autism spectrum. I enjoyed Natalie's budding relationship with Ty and the connection she shares that's revealed in the book. Even though Natalie made up with her mom who made a grand gesture to show her support of her daughter's art career, she kept important things from her and made her mental health a shameful secret.
TW for stigmas of mental health, suicide attempt, manic episode. 3.5/5☆ release date 10/11/22

This is the first book I've read that dealt with mental illness from many different viewpoints.
It was incredible.
Every character's reaction was unique and honest. There was nothing simple or glossed over. It felt like the author spoke from the heart and wrote a book that was approachable and true. And I appreciated the author noting that this is only one person's experience and everyone is different. I think it is such a helpful book for people not as familiar with mental illness and how it affects everyone around them.
I appreciate how difficult this must have been to write but I want to thank the author for dealing with a topic that many want to stay hidden.
Mental illness may have been the linchpin of the storyline but the story is great, the characters are well thought out and it was very entertaining.

Definitely one of my top reads of this month, so far.

The Art of Insanity is so well-written, the characters are so amazing and the storyline is so well-structured. Nothing felt too forced onto the story and it all really just flowed so easily. I mean, wow.

I feel in love with Natalie the moment I started reading the book, she is such an easy character to support and love and even, sometimes, relate to. It was so funny and authentic, and sometimes sad, to read her thoughts. I mean, it truly didn't felt like reading a book, it felt like being inside her mind, or inside her journal (or diary). It is also quite clear how her mind messes with her and how it changes her life throughout the story, in relation to other characters and even herself. The way she finds new people in her life, and the way they help her take a hold of her life when she can't do it, I mean...hats off for that.

I can only complain about one thing really: THAT ENDING! How dare this book end like that? I was reading so peacefully and, all of a sudden, it's like a cliff appeared in front of me. I was so confused and, honestly, sad that that was the ending. I wanted more, so much more! And yet, it ended so well. It just...it ended sort of abruptly but in a very good way. I don't know anymore, the ending just really got me in shock I think. I did not expect it to be like that, so sudden and out of the blue.

Either way, this book really is extraordinary. It brings light to mental issues in a very truthful way, and the struggles and challenges that arrive with them. No doubt everyone should take a look at this book and maybe learn something new. About themselves, or even about other people. I definitely learned some new things with this one.

And, obviously, the best character in this whole book is Petunia "Toons" May Cordova. There is no argument here.

Signing off,
B.

I really liked the book!! The concept, the characters, everything. I typically don’t like reading books about mental illness because sometimes I feel that they are portrayed inaccurately, but I think this book did a great job with it!

Christine Webb's The Art of Insanity takes the reader inside the life of a typical teen struggling with mental health. As if being a teenager isn't difficult enough already, Natalie also has to add in the struggle with Bipolar disorder - at a time when all she wants is just to fit in with everyone else. It isn't until she meets an unexpected new friend that her mindset begins to change and her life slowly improves.

Whether you are dealing with mental health or not, this book is an important read.