Stop Pretending

Sonya Sones has written many free verse novels, but none are more personal than her first, the aptly titled Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. Sones has crafted her journal entries from when she thirteen into poems that may help readers coping with loved ones with mental illnesses.

When Cookie's older sister has a breakdown and is hospitalized, everything in her life shifts. Her parents begin arguing, her friends desert her, and her world begins to revolve around the unnamed sister. Since they are drawn from Sones' real life, all of the emotions are authentic. Cookie veers between anger, shame, fear that she is going insane, and hope that maybe she will be the one to bring Sister out of the darkness.

My favorite part of the book actually had nothing to do with Sister. Cookie gets her first boyfriend, which is also her first dose of normalcy since Sister's hospitalization. I love the hopefulness that she brings to the relationship and am so happy that the boy was the sweet and understanding presence that Cookie needed.

While the poems did not catch me the way other verse novels have, I enjoyed viewing this as a companion to Susanna Kaysen's excellent Girl Interrupted. It's always interesting to have the perspective of the sibling left behind. In the case of Stop Pretending, it is probably more beneficial to the reader.

I was trying to describe this excellent book to a friend of mine and his first reaction was, "But isn't it depressing?" Your first thought might be the same...but you'd be just as wrong as he was.

Ms. Sones' first book is about her own experiences as a young adult when her sister "went crazy." The experience redefined the way their family interacted with each other and even how they felt about themselves.

But the book isn't depressing. It's really very hopeful and uplifting. There sometimes is a light at the end of the tunnel and Ms. Sones shows us the way.

The book is written entirely in poetic form and takes you from when things were "normal":

I can

remember what

things were like before she

got sick: my whole family climbed

into



the big

hammock on the

moondappled beach, wove

ourselves together, and swayed

as one.

to the end of the book, when the family is finally starting to come to terms with the way things are when:

And tonight,

for once,

it feels okay

to just be



three.

Along the way, you are treated to the ups and downs of dealing with mental illness. You see how everyday life intrudes upon you and how family upheavals affect your life on every level.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone; especially teenagers and most especially to anyone that has been touched by the unforgiving hand of mental illness.