Book Recommendations by Sav | Shattering Stigmas 4.0

Hey everyone, I’m Sav and before I get started with recommending some books, I want to briefly talk about my own experience living with mental illnesses. Ever since I was young I’ve always known I had anxiety, and now I’ve discovered that I have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) along with panic disorder and depression. It’s been a long journey discovering my mental health and figuring out what’s best for me. I still don’t have it all figured out but I’m kind of hopeful lol.

I wanted to share some books with y’all that have some of my favorite representations of mental illness. I also want to add that; not everyone experiences mental illnesses in the same way. For example, anxiety is such a varied, diverse experience and it may not happen in the same way it does for someone else. So even if you may not see YOUR anxiety, I think it’s still important to see it through the lens of someone else.


StarfishStarfish by Akemi Dawn Brown

Content Warningstoxic maternal relationship, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, suicide attempt by a minor character

A beautiful story inside and out (the cover is stunning). The story of Kiko Himura as she learns to heal and grow out of a toxic environment really helped me heal in many ways.  Kiko is a biracial teen who has social anxiety and faces emotional abuse. This book is also #ownvoices! I do recommend some caution with this one because of the difficult topics mentioned.

Goodreads | Amazon

some kind of happinessSome Kind Of Happiness by Claire Legrand

Content warnings: depression, anxiety, description of panic attack

This is actually a middle grade but I think it’s still a great read for those dealing with anxiety and depression. Finley is a young girl who stays with her grandparents during the summer while her parents are going through a divorce. She writes about a fantasy world called Everwood as a way to escape from her growing depression and anxiety. The way anxiety and depression are described in this is exactly how mine feel and I cried reading this. This has a similar vibe to Bridge to Terabithia.

Goodreads | Amazon

nice try jane sinnerNice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke

Content Warnings: depression, suicide attempt, suicidal ideation, germophobia/OCD, bimisia (challenged)

This is one of the funniest books I’ve read about depression. Humor helps me a lot with dealing with anxiety and depression and this book made me feel so much. I also appreciated that this was a book about depression where the depression wasn’t conflated with grief representation (which sometimes marketing in YA mixes up)

Goodreads | Amazon

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

little & lino

Content Warnings: bimisia, ableism (challenged in text, racism (challenged), microaggressions

A stunning #ownvoices YA contemporary about step-siblings, Suzette and Lionel. Suzette, a bisexual Black girl questions and explores her sexuality, while also coming to terms with her brother, Lionel’s Bipolar II diagnosis.The thing I liked about this was how it called out the ableism in the story that, Lionel faces and that he has a supportive family, especially from Suzette. I also related to the depression that Lionel finds himself in and it helped me understand myself more.

Goodreads | Amazon


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0 Responses

  1. I also loved Starfish, Jane Sinner, and Little & Lion! I’m slowly but surely making my way through Claire Legrand’s backlist, and now I’m very excited for Some Kind of Happiness!

  2. These are GREAT recommendations! I read and really loved Starfish and especially the social anxiety representation. I have Nice Try, Jane Sinner on my TBR and it’s a book I’ve been wanting to read for so long, I’m so happy to see you’re recommending it and that you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing! 🙂

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