Review: The Symptoms of My Insanity

The Symptoms of My Insanity

Author: Mindy Raf
Pages: 384
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 18, 2013
Source: Gifted by Steph of Cuddlebuggery

Description from Goodreads:
A laugh-out-loud, bittersweet debut full of wit, wisdom, heart, and a hilarious, unforgettable heroine.

When you’re a hypochondriac, there are a million different things that could be wrong with you, but for Izzy, focusing on what could be wrong might be keeping her from dealing with what’s really wrong.

I almost raised my hand, but what would I say? “Mr. Bayer, may I please be excused? I’m not totally positive, but I think I might have cancer.” No way. Then everyone at school would know, and they would treat me differently, and I would be known as “Izzy, that poor girl who diagnosed herself with breast cancer during biology.”

But Izzy’s sense of humor can only get her so far when suddenly her best friend appears to have undergone a personality transplant, her mother’s health takes a turn for the worse, and her beautiful maybe-boyfriend is going all hot and cold. Izzy thinks she’s preparing for the worst-case scenario, but when the worst-case scenario actually hits, it’s a different story altogether—and there’s no tidy list of symptoms to help her through the insanity.

First Sentence: "I'm standing inside a large fitting room at Lola's lingerie."

Review:

Yet again, my strong desire for a book stemmed from the awesome cover (not the final cover shown above) more than the blurb. Sure, the blurb is funny and all, but that's not what really raised my interest. This turns out to be yet another reminder that I should probably stop seeking out books that I wasn't especially interested in before I saw the cover. Though I didn't precisely dislike The Symptoms of My Insanity and some of it was quite humorous, I had a lot of issues with it as well.

What Mindy Raf does best are the funny, awkward scenes, and those are where she comes closest to capturing teenage life. The horrors of getting fitted for a bra, the discomfort with you body, and getting your long hair stuck on someone's glasses, prolonging an already tense moment. Those things work well, and Raf made me chuckle a handful of times. These small moments, the teasing and the day-to-day stuff are the aspects of The Symptoms of My Insanity that really worked.

For the most part, I feel like this novel couldn't decide whether to be serious or funny, and often ends up being vaguely disquieting, as the lighthearted tone jars with the serious subject matter. Mindy Raf attempts to tackle cancer, sexual harassment, friendship, and slut-shaming, all while keeping things funny, and the darker subjects do not get the respect they deserve.

Take, for example, Izzy's hypochondria, which she develops as a coping mechanism for her mother's slow but fatal cancer. Izzy started out researching her mother's disease, and gradually became a bit addicted to an online web diagnosis site, paranoid that every sniffle or stomach ache is an omen of disaster. Sure, hypochondria can be rife with humor, and Izzy's development of it in correlation to her mother's illness is convincing. What is less convincing is the way that, once a few jokes have been told at her expense and her hypochondria has been pointed out to her by more than one person, poof, it disappears. Awareness of a problem does not immediately conquer it.

Then there's Izzy's mother, who I suppose I ought to be sympathizing with, since she's dying a slow death from cancer. However, she is enormously hard to like, since she tears down Izzy's self-esteem left and right. Izzy's body issues mostly come from her mother, who suspects her of being a lesbian if she wears loose clothes and accuses her of being inappropriate if she wears anything tight. Apparently, if a girl has large breasts, wearing anything form-fitting or remotely low cut is inappropriate. Way to make her feel like her body is disgusting. Yes, Izzy's mom learns lessons about this in the long run, but, again, I felt like the denouement was rushed, and a bit unsatisfying, since it came basically two pages from the end after hundreds of pages of narrow-minded vitriol.

Most upsetting by far, though, is the plot line involving sexual harassment. Izzy ends up in a compromising position with a boy, very much against her will. Despite the fact that he and his friends have similarly harassed two other girls, her friends, Izzy doesn't report him or do anything other than give him the cold shoulder. Izzy and her friends are just sending them off to hurt other girls, because, if they hadn't learned their lessons hurting the two friends, they certainly won't have learned it now.

Along this vein, I don't think the female friendships were handled well. Jenna and Izzy are supposedly best friends, but neither one seems to care for the other at all. Jenna withholds information that could help Izzy avoid pain, all because Jenna felt neglected by Izzy over the summer. Now, I get feeling neglected, but the reason Izzy was so busy was taking care of her mother who was going through cancer treatments, so how about a little leeway. Yes, Izzy could have been more thoughtful of her best friend, but she also didn't know anything was happening. Of course, once Izzy learns what Jenna's issues were, she still doesn't inquire or support Jenna, so there's that. Meredith, who neither liked much at the outset, proved a much better friend to both, even they judged her unfairly.

The language is a bit stilted, and rarely does Izzy really coalesce into a character I had a strong handle on. Her personality doesn't seem particularly set in stone yet, and, if I were to describe her in one word, that word would be naive. So many things are going on that should be obvious to Izzy, like the issues with her crush or Jenna. I called what was up with both of them in their earliest scenes, but Izzy was completely shocked to figure out the truth hundreds of pages later. For all that she's concerned about her mom's health, that, too, takes her time actually believing that she's having health problems, despite the really obvious evidence and her obsession with all things medical.

Izzy's burgeoning healthy romance I did like. In fact, for once, I am wishing for more romance, rather than having that as the weak point in a novel. The scenes in which Izzy speaks with the boy are the ones where the dialog feels most natural, even in the way they end up saying the wrong things and fighting. They banter and have things in common the way that Izzy and the rest of her friends and family do not really seem to. Overall, there was an authenticity of character and emotion that was lacking.

I realize this has turned into a rant, but I did like parts of this novel quite a bit, and I do envision a good future for Raf as a writer. The humor is well done in places, and the tougher subjects show promise. The Symptoms of My Insanity tries to do too much and ends up not quite satisfying overall. Though I didn't end up loving this, I will be open to trying Raf's sophomore novel.

Rating: 2.5/5

Favorite Quote: "Maybe facts and formulas comfort Marcus, but I think that article he read was totally wrong. You don't love chemical reactions or particles or neuron receptors. You love whole people. Including the parts you didn't know were there, and the parts you're waiting for them to become."