Cameron and the Girls

Gr 7–10—Fourteen-year-old Cameron is struggling to reclaim his reality, if only he knew what it was. He has schizophreniform disorder, an unusual form of temporary schizophrenia that young people often grow out of. Medication controls the symptoms but alternately leaves victims feeling flat and abandoned. Cam's internal companions include two male voices, one that is a professorial, well-meaning guardian, and the other, a goading and calculating menace. An exciting new female voice is making his head spin. She's alluring and seductive, and is complicating his life. Cam is in conflict between taking his medication or forsaking the familiar, friendly, and flirtatious voices when he doesn't. He has been admitted to the psych ward twice since he was 11. Now he's in the EDP class at his junior high school. While his family frets over whether he is taking his meds, Cam is caught in a love triangle: a clinically depressed girl in his class who is clearly smitten with him and the manipulative Siren voice in his head that is gaining persuasive power. Cam's menacing alterego urges him to stop taking the pills and thus to feel vibrant, invincible, and daring. But not taking them propels him to a tipping point; the bad voice begins to dominate and Cam's behavior veers toward the dangerous. The teen's narrative portrays a scary battle, alternating between euphoria and terror. This is a well-written, taut, and empathetic novel that provides readers with an unnerving vicarious experience.—Alison Follos, formerly at North Country School, Lake Placid, NY