Challenger Deep

            It was a Monday. I had ELA next period and had forgotten to bring a book to school, so at the end of lunch period I ended up in the library. Just like Ok, I have two minutes, grab a book and go. I saw a familiar name, but with a title of a book I’ve never read, so I grabbed the book and got going. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusherman. Forty-five minutes later, after reading the first sixty pages of the book, the words that came out of my mouth were, “This book sucks''. And following up with that, “It makes no sense. Why does it have to jump from scene to scene every two minutes! Like is this whatever boat pirate ship thingy the character is on half the time even real?”. The way the book was written, half of the time the character was on a pirate ship, but in modern times. Modern being the characters on the ship, the boat itself was a classic old time pirate ship. However, this ship followed none of the natural laws of the real world. The other half of the time (the book likes to switch settings about every three pages) the main character was in the real world, going through a normal life. School, home, friends, ect. The writing made it clear that the main character, Caden Bosch, living in the real world was before his existence on the insane pirate ship. Although all 308 pages of this book are written in 1st person, and in present tense no matter whether Caden seemed to be in the real world or on a pirate ship. 

But then come next Monday. Once again, I showed up to school without a book, with the exception of Challenger Deep in my locker. So come around 6th period, and once again I am back in the world of Caden Bosch. But this time, forty-five minutes later, I was hooked. Every second I wasn’t reading the book, I was thinking about it. I could not go to bed until I finished this book. I mean this was the most sucked in I’ve been to a book in the last year. So what changed? Neal Shusherman puts you in Caden’s shoes. Throughout the entire book, it is pure nonfiltered writing of whatever is going through his head. You will see the world out of Caden’s eyes, practically exist in his brain. I don’t think there is any better was to explain Caden’s brain then a small expert from the book itself, “I race across the street. Horns blare. They won’t hit me. I bend the cars around my body with my mind… I am free, but I am not. Because I can feel the acid cloud following me. Something bad. Something bad.” (94, Shusherman). No matter if it’s real life, or whatever pirate ship, Caden’s head never stops running. And you, the reader, are along for the ride. You watch Caden’s teachers, friends, family all get increasingly worried, and Caden’s inability to interact with them. Eventually, around the middle of the book, Caden’s parents take him to a mental hospital/facility and pretty soon, the reality timeline and the boat timeline match up to each other, and reality starts to blur. And that’s when you realize, all of these events that were happening on this crazy pirate ship was Caden’s brain, hyped on prescribed drugs, perceiving reality as this traumatic sailing adventure. And you are taking this journey, spiraling down into the deep with Caden. Eventually, after Caden’s roommate committed suicide with Caden’s pencil sharpener, Caden starts to drift towards suicidal as well. As not to completely ruin the book, I am not going to share the ending. But I finished the book, half an hour past my usual bedtime, and my mind was blown. Severe mental health problems and mental health hospitals are not talked about very much in today’s society. This book not only shines a light on it, but it also makes you take the journey into the mind and see the world out of the eyes of a person struggling with such mental issues. And I believe that every person that reads this book will come out a more empathetic person, and a better understanding of what it feels like to sail the dark waters of mental illness. But you know the biggest shock of this book? I flipped to the last page, the authors note and what did I find, but the works THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The hospital is a real hospital. And Neal Shusherman, popular young adult author of the Unwind and Scythe series, had been working with his son to tell his story. Dr. Poirot is a real doctor. The depression, paranoia, mania, and fear are all real things Shusterman’s son experienced. This book has changed my perspective of the world, and I believe it could for you too.

 - Eve Anderson