The Memory of Light in Mock Printz 2026

Apr 05, 2019 Wendy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: we-need-diverse-books, in-my-classroom-library, latino-a, young-adult, family-issues, friendship, mental-illness-and-differences, death-and-dying, 2017-goals

~~That epilogue though.~~ I'm such an idiot! I read this too quickly, I guess, and thought her friend jumped out a window, not that her CAT jumped IN. Holy Poor Close Reading Skills!

"Challenger Deep" remains my gold standard for books about mental illness, but this is the first book I've read since then that comes close to it's level. Like that book and like "It's Kind of a Funny Story," it's drawn from personal experience, and it shows. ...more

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Apr 12, 2016 Ann rated it really liked it

Shelves: friendship, family-relationships, young-adult, texas, suicide, realistic, private-school, high-school, latinx, mental-illness

I'll be honest, there were a lot of parts of this book that didn't hold my interest at all. It could have eliminated all the friendship side stories and concentrated only on Vicky and her family, and I would have liked it more. But I loved that it focused on the recovery from mental illness and the strategies one has to find to live with it every day, rather than the descent and the suicide attempt, which seems to show up an awful lot in YA books. I also loved the author's personal posts on Good ...more

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Sep 26, 2017 Donalyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-realistic-fiction, audio

The book was wonderful, but the audio performance was inconsistently good. The narrator was great for the main character, Vicki, but added affectations (like Mona's lisp) and dialects that were off-putting and weird. The male voices were often the same voice for different characters and a teacher described in the text as having a "squeaky voice" was performed in a deep monotone.
It is a testament to Francisco Stork's incredible writing that I listened to it, anyway. A powerful story about mental ...more

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Nov 27, 2015 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: animals, depression, elderly-characters, teachers, community, philosophy, power, cultural-identity, loss, death

While many might argue that teenager Vicky Cruz has so much for which to live, she doesn't see it that way. After a failed suicide attempt, she wakes up in a mental hospital and knows that she will try to kill herself again. But through Dr. Desai's Group Therapy Healing--also affectionately called Gripe to Heal--Vicky meets others at various stages on their own journey to recovery and begins to address her own depression. Through the efforts of her doctor and fellow patients--Mona, Gabriel, and ...more

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Oct 01, 2015 elissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: youngadult, my_10s_reads, mental_illnesses, capitol_choices_archives, 2016favorites

Before I read the book: Looks excellent, and now nominated for Capitol Choices. Yay!

After I read the book: Not my favorite of Stork's novels, but that's only because there are 2 of them that I love very, very much. I do think, however, that this one has the capacity to save lives. Very good descriptions of depression and other mental illnesses. I enjoyed the main character and the friends she makes while in the hospital. Maybe even 4 1/2 just because it seems like it could be very powerful for a ...more

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Mar 05, 2016 Mary rated it really liked it

This is an exceptional book. The writing flows, the characters are realistic and empathetic and his treatment of the subject matter of teen depression and mental illness is outstanding. One of the best teen books I have read this year.

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