15 Books to Read During Mental Health Awareness Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we find that books can not only help us understand or sympathize, but can often help us talk about difficult topics. Here are 15 books to read this month to help you start a conversation and #endthestigma.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. Turtles All the Way Down is an intimate portrait of what it’s like to live with anxiety.

Things I’m Seeing Without You by Peter Bognanni

Tess Fowler dropped out of high school after finding out her boyfriend, Jonah, committed suicide. She’s left mostly to herself to unpack what it means to truly be alive, and what happens after death. She begins to write emails to help process her grief, but what happens when someone writes back?

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

16-year-old Solomon hasn’t left his house in three years: He’s agoraphobic. When Lisa and Clark enter his life, Solomon’s journey into love, tragedy, and the need for connection reveals the different ways in which we hide ourselves from the world.

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman

In Gayle Forman’s novel, three teens meet by chance in Central Park. One of them is Nathaniel–visiting New York City for the first time with nothing but a backpack, a desperate plan, and nothing left to lose. Throughout the book, he grapples with coming to terms with his father’s mental illness and how it has affected his childhood.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

When Caitlin decides to go through the journal of her best friend Ingrid, who recently committed suicide, she’ll find out that you can’t always see what the people closest to you are feeling.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

John Green’s 2006 Printz award winner follows Miles Halter’s relationship with Alaska Young and brings to light that we can never completely understand what someone with a mental illness feels inside.

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

Mim Malone is on a 1,000 mile bus ride to find out what happened to her mother, and along the way she’ll confront questions about her mental health.

How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox

A deeply hopeful YA novel about living with mental illness that’s perfect for fans of Girl in Pieces. This lyrical, profound contemporary novel takes an honest, mesmerizing look at the effects of grief and living with mental illness.

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

After her best friend Meg takes her own life, Cody struggles to understand why – but through her journey to find out, she’ll discover that you can’t always know what’s inside the people closest to you.

All Better Now by Emily Wing Smith

Emily Wing Smith’s memoir chronicles the mental and physical disabilities she struggled with during her childhood, and how a devastating accident may have saved her life.

Schizo by Nic Sheff

After a schizophrenic breakdown, Miles thinks he’s getting better, when in reality he’s getting worse. Told in vivid detail, his story is fascinating and heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Lia is a high school senior who has struggled with an eating disorder for years, and her painful path to recovery hinges on her desperate attempt to hold on to the most important thing of all: hope.

A World Without You by Beth Revis

17-year-old Bo suffers from delusions and is convinced that he can travel back in time to save his girlfriend after she disappears. His story is a heartrending, beautifully complex meditation on mental illness, loss, and life.

Daris the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same when he visits his grandparents in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Adib Khorram’s brilliant debut is for anyone who’s ever felt not good enough—then met a friend who makes them feel so much better than okay.

SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson

In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she’s never written about before. Searing and soul-searching, this important memoir is a denouncement of our society’s failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #metoo and #timesup, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts.