"Challenger Deep"

I joined a book club in my neighborhood to try to expand my horizons. Plus, who doesn't love to get together just to talk about books? "Challenger Deep", by Neal Shusterman, was the first book that we read and let me tell you, I am so glad that I had people to discuss it with.

Neal Shusterman takes you into the mind of Caden Bosch, a high school student that walks around with a secret alternative universe in his head. He has to differentiate between what is real and what is not. For a while, the reader does too. Caden's life is split, and he does a pretty good job of keeping his internal struggle to himself, until he can't contain the voices in his head anymore. His parents send him to get help. This is where the lines between worlds are the blurriest, before they all become clear and Caden finally realizes what he has to do to be free. 

"Challenger Deep" is exactly what the title says - challenging and deep. It doesn't just give the reader an idea of what it would be like to have a mental disorder, it thrusts the reader so far into Caden's mind that you yourself have a hard time picking through the voices and all of the information. You really get to experience what it would be like to have all of these different voices telling you what is right and what is real and how confusing that would be. You can tell the author really put his whole heart and soul into this book. It is full of depth and raw emotion. If you are looking for a book that is more than just a 'light read', then go get a copy of this right now. It definitely earned 5 out of 5 stars. Check it out and let me know what you think!