Since May is for mental health awareness, I am going to pile my favourite books featuring anxiety into your arms and stare at you till you read them.
10/10 for this method of book recommendation. I’m sure it can’t backfire.
Actually I had a whole lot of posts planned for May because YAY (!!) mental health is a topic I’m passionate about and it’s a topic that’s layered in stigma, misunderstood, and given confusing rep in media. But somehow it is…May….18th…and I have posted a grand total of TWICE this month. Yikes. Ok but I did disappear to move house and write a novel. And while I could’ve scheduled posts…Organisation??? We don’t know her. Focus?? A stranger. 🙌🏻
So let me squeeze a bunch of mental health posts into the end of the month.
Today I’m recommending books featuring ANXIETY because…I have it! And it’s really hard to find good rep for it!
This, I feel, is because it’s so misunderstood. “Oh you’re anxious? Just stop overthinking it!” they say. Cue our eyes rolling out the back of our heads. Plus there’s a difference between “oh I feel anxious” to “I CYCLE ANXIETY BETTER THAN A WASHING MACHINE CYCLES MY SOCKS AND THERE IS NO END. EVER.” Anxiety vs anxiety, basically. I’ve been diagnosed with Anxiety, social and general (also depression). I long to read books that hold that comforting whisper of “Hey you’re not alone…” But often times, the rep I come across is gut-wrenchingly bad.
So I want to share my faves. 🤗
also, the obvious disclaimer is: not everyone’s anxiety disorders manifest the same way. So these hit a chord with me, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect or universal anxiety rep.
onwards!
OTHER POSTS you might like 👀
➸ How To Keep Writing When You Have a Mental Illness
…The Wicker King by K. Ancrum
honestly if you only read ONE BOOK from this list…make it this one. It is the kind of book that steals your whole heart and just wrecks you — in the best possible way. It’s narrated by August (who has anxiety) and he is trying to keep his best friend Jack afloat (who has a degenerative illness) and honestly I broke for these two boys. For their love that they didn’t have words to describe. For their need to be loved and taken care of and how that was never given them. How they would die for each other. The book is the softest, and most deepest heartbreak — coupled with pure hope. (And August’s anxiety was very very dear to me.)
…Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
OH. If this isn’t one of my favourites of 2019 already!!! Sam’s anxiety was like…oh I felt seen. He’s basically an anxiously depressed heap, existing on coffee and unrequited love, and I 100% loved this book with all my soul. It’s also dual-narrated by Penny, who is a writer, so like hit me with how good this book is, why don’t you. I think Penny also had anxiety? But Sam’s was like a washing machine on a spin cycle that never ended and Penny was self-imploding by herself.
…HISTORY is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
Technically Griffin has OCD … but that’s anxiety! And also this is #ownvoices and you can tell because it just has so much heart. It’s also here to break your heart, because Silvera is constantly nice like that. Look it’s been a while since I read this so I’m clinging to feels more than actually remembrance of what happened (lol, yes, I am the worst) but I do remember feeling my heart knot up in my chest at how Griffin was at war with his compulsions: does he ask for help for them or deny them? Because I get that. Also this book is queer and sad and, yet still, hopeful.
…A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard
Steffi has social anxiety and selective mutism and…🙌🏻 if this wasn’t some of the most relatable rep for me eep. It’s actually such a Quiet YA™ story, soft and wholesome and she’s kind of forced into being “buddies” at school with the new kid, Rhys, who is deaf. Since Steffi knows a bit of BSL (British Sign Language) due to her selective mutism, she can sort of talk to him. And the whole “I don’t wanna be around this boy” turns to “😍THIS BOY😍”. And if you’re worried it has a “romances cures all” plot? NOPE. That is not to be seen here. It so firmly stays true to the realities of mental illness…but how life can be so much sweeter when you have someone on your side.
…Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
Also gonna shout out to I Was Born For This also for being amazing with anxiety. Jimmy!! 🙌🏻 She just writes perfectly accurate anxiety-rep ok?! Ok. So in Radio Silence my heart was just stolen by Aled, who’s actually a secondary character — but he’s ace and anxious and an absolute geek and he and Frances fall into this such deep, wholesome friendship. It is EVERYTHING.
I love friendship books!! I want 100 more of them at all times!! I also need to badly reread it because I’ve forgotten too many details.
…Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman
Yes this one will slowly turn you into a star shaped puddle of tears and you’ll just be there whispering, “This is beautiful” while the book repeatedly smacks you in the head. Bless. Kiko has social anxiety, too, and also PTSD from an abusive mother. Like you don’t really imagine your own mother would be…racist. But she IS and it’s disgusting and horrifying and I felt so bad for Kiko I wanted to steal her from these very pages. Also she’s an artist — so the book is a painting in itself.
…Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
This isn’t explicit rep…as in: it’s not on page with Stevie saying “I have anxiety.” But I can SEE. I feel it in my bones. She’s so socially awkward and she absolutely overthinks everything and isolates herself (actually I headcanon she’s also autistic 😌my child, I love) and she sort of buckles inwards when things get Too Much and she panics. Also there’s murder and boarding schools and it’s SO quirky. I just loved it!!!
…Anger Is A Gift by Mark Oshiro
Ok I loved Moss but this book will hardcore make you CRY. It’s a #BlackLivesMatter story (#ownvoices too) and it’s about the absolute discrimination black teens face in some highschools. Moss has very intense anxiety disorder, partially brought on also by his father’s murder and how Moss feels he’s expected to fit in those shoes and be an activist, but he is struggling just with highschool. It also has a soft queer romance and I just 😭 Reeeeead this one. It’s so important.
…The Weight Of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
Another super important one! This is set in the riots of 1969 in Malaysia (#ownvoices!) and Melati has OCD/anxiety and it is SO intense. Her spirals are described in acute detail and it’s so hard to read sometimes. My heart broke for her. And also this was a pocket of history I knew literally nothing about, so it was good to learn?? And also I just loved the writing, how it was about family and facing your demons and admitting you need help.💛 A tough read but SO GOOD.
…The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Why have one type of anxiety when you can have FOUR. Ok you know that this is my favourite series adjfkasld and one thing I love is how accurately Maggie Stiefvater gets anxiety. (Well, she lives it, so that makes sense.) But Gansey has full on panic attacks, Adam has PTSD and dissociates with his anxiety, and Ronan self-medicates his PTSD and gets stuck in literal anxiety-dreams of visceral nightmares. And Noah? Noah is so anxious what can I say. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think it’s important to talk about how anxiety can be displayed so differently too?? So bless this book for that. (ALSO IT’S MY FAVOURITE AHHHHH.)
…The Boy Who Steals Houses by… Meeeee
What can I say. I wrote a book. I am anxious. The book turned anxious. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And now my life’s work is loudly subtly recommending it to you at every opportunity with zero shame.
My two main characters, the Lou brothers — Sam and Avery — both have anxiety. It presents in different ways, a contrast that really meant a lot to me to write. Sam implodes and Avery explodes. Sam helps Avery manage his anxiety but Sam feels like no one notices his…HA BOI. Just wait till I gift you with a whole new family. 🤗 Anyway this book was very personal for me to write, particularly with the anxiety rep. So I’m just glad it got a chance to be in the world!
💖✨☁️🌸
| WHAT DO YOU THINK |
tell me some YA books with anxiety rep that you loved?? have you read any of these? (and have you posted much this month or been a slacker like me oops lmao🤭)
I really want to read The Wicker King, The Weight of our Sky and Anger is a Gift because I’m pretty sure they’ll be favourite reads of mine. Gansey having anxiety was…honestly one of the best things. Not because having anxiety is great but when fave characters struggle with mental illness they become so much real for me?! same thing with warner from shatter me. him having panic attacks had me so SAD 🙁 i really wanna re-read radio silence because it was so amazing! and i’m on hiatus (slowly returning i think now) so have not been posting much either!
Absolutely yes to characters feeling more real when they struggle with mental health! It just…it makes me connect so much faster? I love them and break for them. 😭💛 Desperately need to reread Radio Silence too omg. (I’m beginning to accept that hiatuses are actually ok and not the end of the world., 😂)
The Wicker King is still one I’d like to try some day. And of course The Boy Who Steals Houses. 😉
Thank you for a great list. <3
The Wicker King is just everything 😍😍 author goals!!
These all seem amazing??? And I need to read them??? Also can I just say that I suffer from anxiety too AND OH THE WASHING MACHINE METAPHOR IS EVERYTHING. I also found the rep. in TBWSH (specifically Sam for me since I internalise e v e r y t h i n g including worries and anxiousness it’s not good) to really represent me and it made me feel all happy and !!!!! so thank you from the bottom of my heart 💖💖. I also really get the whole ‘wait what the h e c k I CANT STOP OVERTHINKING IT I MAY AS WELL STOP BREATHING’ thing. AND YESSSS THE RAVEN BOYS AAHHH THE REPRESENTATION IS AMAZING.
Sorry for screaming all over this comment!!! Thank you so much again Cait, and have s lovely day xx
omg this means the world to me that you connected to Sam!! 😭💛He’s such a disaster but I totally internalise everything too so it was kind of therapeutic to write him. But AHHH. I just am so happy now 😘
yay!!! aahh it’s so nice to know I’m not the only one 😂 IM GLAD 😊 honestly when I came across him it made my day so ☺️
Wait this is so weird, a recommendation post where I’ve actually read several of the books! Starfish was my favorite book of 2018, I think I have social anxiety and it resonated with me to my very core. Radio Silence definitely is good for anxiety and I also connected with Aled being ace, there so little ace rep and it felt nice to be seen. If The Weight of Our Sky doesn’t win some awards I’m suing someone. And I never really thought about the Raven Boys having good anxiety rep but definitely works, I’m still internally screaming about The Raven King’s reveal to process much else in the series.
Another book not listed that resonated with me is Eliza and Her Monsters.
Ahhh I’m glad we have so many of the same favourites here 🙌🏻 And yes, oh Starfish just hit home so hard and also Aled was just…ok I just want a whole Aled spin-off. I loved Frances immensely, of course, but I definitely connected to Aled’s anxiety/ace/ability to disappear into his geekiness way more. 😂
So many of these are on my TBR list. The only one I’ve read is History Is All You Left Me. I’m glad these books have good rep because you’re right, good anxiety rep is hard to find.
awk there’s so much bad rep in media it’s just…hard. But shoutout to authors who are trying to break the stigmas! 🙌🏻
My TBR just exploded again. 😉 Thanks for the recommendations. Starfish is one of my favorites! And I’m actually taking a scheduled blogging hiatus this month, which is nice.
Aww I’m glad you like these recs 😘 Also good on you for taking a hiatus! I think it’s fair to take more breaks and not worry so much? I need to work on that. 🙈
The only one of these I’ve read (other than Houses, of course!!!) is Starfish, and while I had issues with the plotting in that, I thought the anxiety rep was great. Especially the parts where it would show what the narrator thought in her head she’d say in response to a comment or discussion – and then the next paragraph would be what she actually said, and the two did not line up at all. This happened to me SO MUCH when I was younger and afraid to speak my mind, so I totally got it. I also liked the way the narrator’s anxiety lessened over time, and how it took a variety of experiences, and that she grew on her own, AND with help from others.
Oh yes I love that when books show the character thinking something vs actually what they end up saying. Breaks my heart. I loved Kiko a lot 😭I always feel like I’m in a constant guessing game of trying to say the “right thing” to lessen my anxiety, instead of necessarily what I *want* to say. Ahhh.
I read this book called turtles all the way down by John Green and it has anxiety representation too (skin picking disorder too) and I guess it is #ownvoices too cause John Green has anxiety too? I don’t know
YES!! I wish I’d added that one to my list too (tbh I could’ve added a ton more books haha) because it was so perfectly good and hard to read at times. And yes I’d definitely say it’s #ownvoices! I know he didn’t label OCD in the book, but he did in his videos talking about it!
Of these I’ve only read The Raven Cycle and I wish I’d thought of it for my Mental Health awareness week rec list that I did on Tuesday because it would have been perfect but alas, it slipped my mind! Radio Silence wasn’t my favourite book of ever, but it definitely does well on the anxiety front. Under Rose Tainted Skies, the main character has OCD, agoraphobia and anxiety and it’s also written by an #ownvoices author, so that’s one I always recommend for mental health rep. I can’t really think of many others, I feel like anxiety is quite a common thing to see in YA but it’s not always named, so it’s hard to know, especially if you don’t have it yourself! I’ve had quite a good posting month, but then I’ve finished with Uni now, so I don’t have much to do at the moment.
Yes there’s definitely a lot of anxiety in books! But I guess it also depends if hte character has it as a disorder or not? Like I wouldn’t count a book set in a battle where the character is freaking out and clearly is anxious as a “disorder” necessarily? I mean I obviously have ZERO qualifications to diagnose anyone!! This is just me speculating about fictional characters.
Thank you for the recs !!
I absolutely LOVED Radio Silence aswell, and Emergency contact & starfish is on my wanting to read list.
I’ve also quite related to Eliza & her monsters,
ahhh I’m so glad you love Radio Silence!! It’s so so wholesome and sweet, and also a little heartbreaking? afjdklsad I love it.
It always make me smile when you rec your own books. I just got hold of The Boy Who Steals Houses, but I haven’t been able to read it yet.
I’ve been slacking all year, but I have a discussion post coming on Tuesday, and I’m going to try to write a review too.
ah haha I know! It’s probably bad of me 😂 but I still have people message me like “Oh you wrote a book?” SO. I’m gonna promote 🙌🏻 I just hope I’m not too annoying haha.
(It’s been a hard year for blogging for some reason? eep.)
I re-phrased that comment about six times before I posted it and I still feel like it came across wrong. 😅 I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. I meant it as a good one. (It’s gone midnight here and, right now, I don’t have the words to explain better than that. Sorry.)
Noooo!! You’re totally fine!! 💛💛 I didn’t mean anything negative either! 😂😘 I just hope I’m not too…narcissistic, you know? but afjdklsad you’re totally fine, I didn’t think it came across wrong!!!
We need more mental health rep in fantasy. Why does my favorite genre have like 0 mental health rep, I want more characters who are tortured like meee
Although I somehow missed that Gansey had anxiety! I got the mental health rep for Ronan and Adam, of course (you could also make a very substantiated-by-text case for Ronan having some type of depressive disorder, too). The Raven Boys is a literal gift to our souls.
Oh absolutely agreed! I think ths is why I adore The Raven Cycle so much?! Because it totally reps anxiety so so well. And oh definitely think Ronan is also depressed…Adam too? They are just absolute messes all of them and I love it so much, because the rep is so loving.😭💛
As a teen with anxiety, it means a lot to me when writers share their experiences about it through literature (bc then I don;’t actually have to like look at their faces, I can read their beautiful words instead). 🙂 I’m trying to write about anxiety but it’s giving me anxiety. IDEK. But I can’t wait to look into the books on this list!!!!
omg yes I agree it’s so much easier to face things online eep haha. I also totally understand how writing about anxiety can be triggering for yourself, so take care of YOU first. 💛💛
I’ve got your books now. Can’t wait to read them!!!
The Wicker King, I need that one. Actually all of these sound good.
😍😍 omg thank you, Skye!!!!
I’m so excited to pick up Starfish for asian readathon this month! I’m so glad I picked up Wicker King based on your recommendation but books with anxiety rep are so good.
Ooh I will be keen to know if you like Starfish! It’s such a hard, but heartfelt, read. 😭 And omg ajfdkasld I am so happy I convinced you to try The Wicker King it is something else truly. 💛💛
YAAAAASSSSSS to like all of this, even though I have only read four of them (but the four I read were AMAZING). So, I’m gonna go buy the rest now and if you shame me into reading them, that’s ok by me.
Just casually recommending them with ALL MY HEART ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I love love love Emergency Contact SO FRICKIN MUCH oh my god. Like, HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE SAM & PENNY???? both of them are anxious cinnamon rolls and survive via indirect contact and listen,,,, i am HERE for this
I KNOW RIGHT?!?!? it is a pure gift and every page is perfect and the perfect balance of gorgeous fluff and ruination. 😍😍
Ahhh I love this list so much!!!!! I love books dealing with anxiety so much because I just feel so SEEN. I loved Emergency Contact and A Quiet Kind of Thunder so, so much for that and both are such GREAT books. I also loved Starfish and it seems like I need to read all of the other books on your list now and yours included, I can’t waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit to do so. <3 <3
Right?!? 😍 Me too! It gives me such instant connection, I just adore it.
CAIT we’re unfortunate twins because I posted 2 times this month and then I posted once today so ???? clearly great minds act alike??/ I don’t know. Anyways, I really want to read The Wicker King, but I have an e-arc so I’m debating whether or not I should read the arc version or the finished version because I know that the finished version differed a ton from the arc, right? Also, yes yes yes to Starfish because I absolutely love that one so much. It captured my own anxiety so well and it’s always going to be so meaningful to me. <3
I actually DID hear that the ARC of The Wicker King differs a lot…and if it doesn’t have the visuals then it won’t be as good as the finished. Sorryyyyy that’s probably annoying to hear 😂 But omg I hope you read it someday so I can continue my internal scream of love for this book. Also STARFISH = 😭💛
(And clearly May was just not a good blogging month?! 😂 We’ll get our act together at some point.)
I’ve been meaning to read so many of these for. so. long. (Especially TBWSH, I meant to read that like a month ago 😭😭.) But exams came up and I d i e d on the inside. But now that most of them are over, I finally have some time for all these lovely books!!! And also to start reading blogs again because I’m pretty sure I haven’t done a lot book related things (except occasionally wandering over to goodreads) for like two months.
The only book I haven’t read/have in my TBR is A Quiet Kind of Thunder, so thank you for that recommendation!! The only other book about mutism I’ve read before was when I was like 12, and it was going in a “love cures all” direction so I stopped reading it 😑. So I’m definitely adding A Quiet Kind of Thunder to my TBR <3
Thanks for sharing this post! I absolutely LOVED and adored everything about EMERGENCY CONTACT. It was just fantastic. I have read the majority of the other books on your list but will be checking out the ones I hadn’t!
A Quiet Kind of Thunder is so underratedly good for so many reasons! I’m so happy you mentioned it in this list! I also love how you referred to The Raven Boys! I think I love them so much *because* all of them are such messes. I also think I most appreciate reading about the smol, soft anxious ones like Sam in TBWSH.
One of my favorite books featuring anxiety that wasn’t on this list is definitely Fangirl. I don’t think I recognized it when I read it the first time, but part of what made Cath so relatable to me was her struggle with anxiety. I think it was one of the first times I came across a character that I related to in so many different ways!
I love these recs so so much!! I see a lot of books I adore on this list — Starfish, Radio Silence, Anger is a Gift — and I definitely agree that they had such good anxiety rep. I absolutely LOVE Aled (and I also headcanon that he had depression as well!). And Anger is a Gift just breaks you in so many ways that I have no idea how much I related to Moss, I’m just a mess of tears from that book 😭
I really love The Raven Cycle of course. But I was surprised by how much I enjoyed A Quiet Kind of Thunder! It took me completely by surprise 🙂 A happy surprise. And I also really need to read Starfish already because it has been on everyone’s lists and it sounds amazing x
I very much agree, good anxiety rep is VERY hard to come by. But I ALSO agree with you about the ones I have read! The Weight of Our Sky, wow I loved that one. Definitely agree about Starfish too. And whoever wrote that The Boy Who Steals Houses book, they really nailed it 😉 I hadn’t thought of The Raven Boys, but you’re right about that too! AND the best part is, every single other one of these books is on my TBR and most I have actual copies of YAY. I have A Quiet Kind of Thunder, The Wicker King, and History Is All You Left Me on my “must read soon” bookshelf too!
I can’t think of a ton of others with good anxiety rep (sadly!) but I LOVED Don’t Touch, which was the first MH book that made me feel SEEN. Oh and I am a HUGE blogging failure this month! Okay, this year. This decade? 🤔
I LOVE Truly Devious!!! I still need to read the other books, but I have pretty much all of them on my TBR! I have also not posted that much this month because I was finishing up finals for college and watching a bit too much Netflix. I love this post!
Urgh, I still need to read The Wicker King. I think that I haven’t read it because I’m so so terrified that I won’t like it. 🤷
Anyways. I was (somehow) completely unaware that it was mental health month?? Better late than never, I guess? I love (good) representation in books, though!
I wrote a post on my opinion of mental health representation book the first week of May, completely unaware, haha. But yes! I need to read theeese books!