Review: The Angel Tree by Daphne Benedis-Grab
Although the author got some of the details about blindness wrong, she seems very committed to diversity, and I enjoyed this book a lot.
Although the author got some of the details about blindness wrong, she seems very committed to diversity, and I enjoyed this book a lot.
The description for this book uses the phrase “brilliant but autistic” to describe its main character, and that’s where our conflicted feelings about Viral Nation start.
Shaunta Grimes’s Viral Nation is the rare YA dystopian novel with an autistic protagonist; we were keen to sit down with the author to discuss the book, its sequel Rebel Nation, and its protagonist Clover Donovan.
April Henry’s main character in Girl, Stolen is a well-researched, well-written example of blindness, and we were thrilled to discuss the book with her.
The notion of people faking disabilities is not at all new or novel–and, like many, many disability tropes, it’s a harmful one.
While Call’s disability informs his character, it’s hardly the focus of the story, and I appreciated that. What I liked even more was the way Black and Clare treated Call’s disability when they did mention it.
Pete’s autism is portrayed over and over again as being non-stop pain and suffering. That got incredibly hard to read; do people really think this is what autism is like?
An accurate, respectful, and deftly handled portrayal of Tourette’s Syndrome, from an author who has the condition himself.
The Mara Dyer trilogy remains one of the best fictional depictions of PTSD that I have come across. That just makes it more disappointing when the series badly misses the mark on other issues.
Writing about characters with mental illness can be challenging in various ways. How do you accurately convey a character’s state of mind, without compromising on clarity or excitement? How do you show a character’s skewed perceptions of the world?