Walking on Eggshells
Posted: January 3, 2025
Author: Jennifer Phillips
Publisher: North Star Editions
After a first episode of psychosis lands him a stay in a psychiatric hospital, all 16-year-old Kai Lum wants to do is reclaim his life. But now that he’s back home, everything is different. He has medications to take, his dad is always hovering and everyone at school keeps staring at him.
Kai’s determined not to let any of that distract him from proving he can make it as a chef. But finding his new normal is harder than Kai expects. His medications have side effects he doesn’t know how to control. His dad pushes him to accept more clinical help and Kai’s best friends are ghosting him.
On top of all of that, Kai isn’t sure if the voices he’s hearing are real or in his head. His life begins to spin out of control as he struggles to know who he can trust. With his health and dreams on the line, he has to decide whether he’s willing to accept help in order to manage his newly diagnosed mental illness.
This book is as real as it gets. It illuminates psychosis, a condition perhaps commonly discussed in mental health circles, but still stigmatized within the general public. Maybe a lack of patience or firsthand experience keeps the average teen uninformed; for many, mental health definitions and issues are no more than a vague set of theories and assumptions.
The first-person point of view is only fitting, as it shows how the brain of a person literally “walking on eggshells” works – how Kai processes and deals with different events.
It is a short read, but definitely a good one. Although its main purpose is to spread awareness of mental health issues, I found it appealing on other levels. The stand-out plot is fresh and distinct, and the characters relatable. The novel does well at depicting the challenge of coping with someone who is struggling mentally. And although the story is straightforward – there are no twists and turns – the mind of someone wrestling with himself is pretty messy, so I guess that supplies enough twists. I hope more books of this genre will be published.
– Kevin Velayo