Mental Health in Fiction
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Increase your own awareness by reading these stories of mental illness, treatment, and wellbeing. Created April 2025.
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Mama Said
A set of linked stories map the lives of a Black family in Louisville, Kentucky, tracing the generational effects of addiction, poverty, and mental illness...A celebration of Black family life that will make you laugh and cry in equal measure. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Bear
This slim and sweet yet eerie wordless fable by Swedish artist and printmaker Gnosspelius begins with the funny-sad image of an enormous bear with its head stuck in a cone. A lanky rabbit tries to help, undaunted by the bear’s anger and frustration, and the two animals become wary companions...As an allegory about depression, connection, and friendship, this work will strike a chord with receptive readers. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Graphic Novel
Availability: All copies in use
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Director's Cut
Transcending traditional contemporary romance tropes to put a spotlight on the intersections of love and mental health, this deliciously spicy and achingly sweet romance showcases Greenwald at her best. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Things Left Unsaid
Two former friends reconnect as adults in this perceptive literary romance...Jafari convincingly conveys Shirin’s shattered self-worth and Kian’s crippling guilt. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: On order
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Call Me Esteban
This poignant and kaleidoscopic debut collection from Kalamujic conveys a young woman’s adolescence—also named Lejla—in Sarajevo during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s...Stylish and brisk, these stories refuse to wallow in tragedy, becoming instead a convincing testament to the consolations of art. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Making It
Kay offers a compassionate look at the coming-of-age of a late bloomer who isn’t sure she even wants to flower. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Shred Sisters
The younger of two siblings grows up in the shadow of her beautiful, reckless, mentally ill sister...A seamlessly constructed and absorbing fictional world, full of insight about how families work. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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You Know What You Did
When her mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly, Annie Shaw finds her OCD coming back with a vengeance, and when the investigation zeroes in on her, her mind increasingly fractures and the only thing she knows is this: she will do anything to protect her daughter even if it means losing herself. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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We Were the Universe
Still in denial after the death of her sister, Kit, a young mother, in the secret recesses of her mind, is keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, causing her to spiral as the thin line between reality and fantasy blurs, making her wonder is her sister is really gone. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Before I Let Go
Ryan brings both tears and laughter in a powerhouse second-chance romance that shines a sensitive light on mental health issues. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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