Book Review: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

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Title: Challenger Deep

Author: Neal Shusterman

Genre: Contemporary/Realistic Fiction

Age Group: Young Adult





Challenger Deep is about fifteen-year-old Caden Bosch and his descent into mental illness. Half the time, Caden thinks he's on a ship headed to the deepest point of the ocean, Challenger Deep (hence the title). For the other half, he lives the life of a normal teenager. But when reality and fiction start to blur, and Caden begins to hear voices, he's emitted to a mental hospital and begins the fight for sanity.

For the first fourth or so of the book, I was like, "What the heck is happening?" It kept switching from Caden at school to Caden on the ship to Caden at home but acting strangely, and I found it hard to keep up with. Then his mental illness got worse, and the book got more intriguing. I started noticing parallels between real life and his fantasy. It kept getting better from there (the story, not his mental health), and I came to the conclusion that it definitely deserves the awards on the cover. My personal rating is eight out of ten stars.

If you read It's Kind of a Funny Story and enjoyed the concept but not the product, you should definitely try Challenger Deep. The two books are very similar in plot, but this one is way better (in my opinion, that is). If you choose to read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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