Book Review: The Weight Of Zero by Karen Fortunati

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The Weight Of Zero
Author: Karen Fortunati
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: October 11 2016
Review Source: Delacorte Press

Seventeen-year-old Cath knows Zero is coming for her. Zero, the devastating depression born of Catherine’s bipolar disease, has almost triumphed once, propelling Catherine to her first suicide attempt. With Zero only temporarily restrained by the latest med du jour, time is running out. In an old ballet shoebox, Catherine stockpiles meds, preparing to take her own life when Zero next arrives.

But Zero’s return is delayed. Unexpected relationships along with the care of a new psychiatrist start to alter Catherine's perception of her diagnosis. But will this be enough? This is a story of loss and grief and hope and how the many shapes of love – maternal, romantic and platonic – impact a young woman’s struggle with mental illness.

The manuscript was awarded the 2014 SCBWI Work-in-Progress Grant in the Contemporary YA category, named a finalist in the 2015 Tassey-Walden Awards and won the Serendipity Literary Agency 2013 YA First Page/Novel Discovery Contest.

The Weight Of Zero.

This book was so brilliantly written. This book sheds light onto mental illness. It allows those who aren't really sure how certain people with a mental illness feel, to see what it feels like. Catherine is bipolar, with that comes manic depression, or manic joy depending on the swing of her mood. When people hear bipolar they tend to think crazy, or someone who really has just no control over anything. While this shows what is going on in her mind. Her thoughts are all clear, and their all her own. But she fears her disorder.

When Catherine starts to get a life, one in which she has friends and a love interest, things start to change for her. While she's battling the illness on her own she's seeing that there is more to life than just waiting for The Weight Of Zero.

Everyone always says that those with the illness needs to talk to people around them - yes it will help but it's not always easy.  This book is the best example of that. Catherine starts forming a group of people who would be there for her, and who would be able to help her out of her chronic depression, through her mania's, through everything. But she still doesn't trust them. She would rather keep everything in and eat her away then to tell someone else. To let someone else into her world.

This book opens the door to a topic that so many people shy  away from. There's a stigma when it comes to mental illnesses, and that stigma is something that we should work towards getting rid of. And I think this book does just that.