Emo Reality

When Lina’s idyllic childhood descends into mental chaos in her teenage years, Lina resorts to recording her thoughts in diaries, online chats and emails to make sense of her anguish. Through Lina’s heart-wrenching words, the reader steps into her broken inner world to experience first-hand the obsessions, irrationality, angst and ruthlessness of teenage borderline personality disorder. Emo Reality shines a light into the dark corners of adolescent mental illness, proving that this disorder is not just a phase, and demonstrating its ravages not just upon an individual, but also upon a whole family.

Publishers Weekly Booklife: "Unflinching novel of growing up with borderline personality disorder.

This heart-wrenching novel-as-memoir, drawn from the experiences of author Daniel’s daughter, explores the experience of a young girl with borderline personality disorder. Through fictionalized diary entries, online posts, and emails, this firsthand personal account is told in vivid detail as Lina, growing up, contends with and descends into the muddled, often pitiless thoughts consuming her mind. Sharing her life story from early childhood into her 20s, and exploring family dynamics, self-esteem issues, mood swings—'When my best friend kept talking, I punched her'—and her feeling that 'the whole world was out to get me,' this memoir is insightful and educational in explaining the inner workings of a mind controlled by mental illness, building to a welcome burst of hope and recovery in the final pages.

Lina is an angry, depressed young girl whose 'false memories' cause her to nurture an irrational hatred of her family and most authoritative figures in her life. Though she is highly intelligent, Lina sabotages her education to spite her parents and is constantly rebelling against their concerns and advice for her life path. A talented writer and singer, Lina fluctuates between dreams of being a tattoo artist and being a famous actress or musician. In her states of delusion, Lina believes the only cause for her lack of success is the overbearing rules of her father, who is often away on business. In truth, Lina and her older sister, who also is sinking into depression, have little structure and guidance in their lives aside from him.

At times wrenching in its candidness—there are references to suicidal thoughts and rape—Lina’s story is touching, heartbreaking, and moving, a stark exploration of mental illness, undiagnosed and unchecked. Readers will become immersed in Lina’s reflections and come to understand what it is like for an individual and a family facing Borderline Personality Disorder.

Comparable Titles: Hilary Smith’s Welcome to the Jungle, Bassey Ikpi’s I’m Telling the Truth but I’m Lying."