Did you know 1 in 5 Canadians will experience some form of mental illness. Some will experience it to a greater degree than others. Anise, the main character of the book Gravity Journal by Gail Sidonie Sobat, is one of many one in five. She has anorexia and depression and is hospitalized for the second time because of it. She spends her hospital stays in ward 4-psych-o, a very ironically named ward. One of the major themes in this book is coming of age as Anise matures quite a bit and learns how to live healthily with her mental illness. I would recommend this book to anyone, but it does deal with some hard topics. In my opinion, some of the best elements of this book are the tone, literary devices and the characters.
The tone of Gravity Journal is very realistic and blunt, Gail Sidoie Sobat does not sugar coat any of the hard events in the story, however, there are also some comedic moments. For example, in the climax of the book Anise contemplates whether to take her own life. Though this part of the book is
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These parts allow the reader to read about how Anise thinks and how her thoughts change throughout the book. For example, towards the end of the book she starts to think more positively as she starts to recover. Also, the parts written in first person allows the reader to see what Anise sees and how she sees it. Anise’s mental illness makes her look at certain things differently and the parts from her point of view help explain what she sees and why she makes her decisions. Thirdly, some of Gravity Journal is written in third person. Third person allows the reader to see the whole situation and not just what Anise sees. The point of view in this book is different than most books making it more interesting to