Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep: Neal Shusterman
Publication Date: April 21st 

Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.

Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.

Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence, to document the journey with images.

Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.

Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.
Caden Bosch is torn.

A captivating and powerful novel that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by one of today's most admired writers for teens.

When I first read the description for this book, I just read the first line of that and I was all "deep sea exploration, I'm in!!" I guess I was having an off day or something, I don't even know. Just like I don't even know what category of YA I'd put this in. It's not quite enough "run of the mill" stuff to be contemporary. It's a story about a boy with mental illness, told from his perspective so of course it gets pretty weird a lot of the times. 

"Does it speak to you?" asks Poirot when he catches me staring at it.

"If it did you'd probably change my medication", I tell him.

One thing I didn't expect was how FUNNY it was. Then I feel bad for thinking it's funny, right? I mean he has a mental disorder and I'm sitting here laughing at what he's saying and perceiving to be real. It's almost like I forgot he was sick and he was just having an overactive imagination. So then I'm all "no more laughing, these are serious matters and his condition isn't funny." I end up smiling anyway. I was never making fun of him, I was just laughing at what was going on in the book because it was some funny stuff. I think Caden is just an extremely likable character, and aside from being sick has a fun personality. 

"Your MRI came back clean. It means you don't have a brain tumor, or anything like that."

Until they mentioned it, it had never occurred to you that you might have had one. And now that it's been mentioned, you don't believe the results. 

I loved his book SO much, and I loved Caden. Caden is now one of my favorite book characters ever. I don't want to spoil anything, so I can't say too much about it because I feel like the characters surrounding Caden led up to a much bigger picture. I will say this: I recommend this book to everyone, not just genre specific lovers. I feel that everyone will like and interpret this book in their own way, and come out of reading it a very big Neal Shusterman fan. You will love this book! I give it all the stars!

 I will miss Caden Bosch immensely. 

"Those who speak of having seen the bottom lie"