On a Scale of One to Ten by Ceylan Scott
Published by Chicken House on May 14th 2019
ISBN: 1338323768
Pages: 288
Goodreads

Recommending for Cream of the crop consideration.  This debut novel, suggested for grades 9-12, provides an authentic voice of someone with mental illness, as well as, a credible #ownvoices author experience to this first person narrative of a teenage psychiatric hospital stay.  Tamar believes that she killed her friend Iris.  The guilt, fearful perceptions and self-mutilating behavior spirals into an attempted suicide that lands Tamar in Lime Grove psychiatric hospital.  Tamar adjusts to the lack of privacy, learns to relate to other patients and works through her own painful and deteriorating self-talk with a darkly comical narrative that pulls the reader into the whole experience.   There is a spot-on balance between medical/therapy information imparted and Tamar’s story before and after hospitalization that provides some suspense.  Scott’s writing is both rich in description and simply honest in its portrayal of every character and the hospital experience.   Although Tamar’s perceptions may be unreliable, her pain and how she views the staff and persons outside of the facility speak to the fragility and strength of the human spirit. The setting is in Britain and some of the cultural references are British, which is refreshing.  The author’s note shares some of her personal connections to the story and resources are provided for those who are affected in some way by the content or who may be considering suicide.   This is an important book to have in all library collections due to the honesty, lack of stereotypes and the connection that can be made when an author has taken such risks to broaden readers’ understanding of something so personal.

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Springvale Public Library