LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions will release “Words on Bathroom Walls” in select theaters on Friday, August 21. Adam and Maya grow closer and closer, and their feelings for each other grow deeper and deeper. At the same time, the drug Adam has been taking starts failing, and it's making him more anxious, making his symptoms more vivid and less easy to hide. He's trying to hold it together the best he can, but with pressure from all sides, he's unsure how much longer he can keep his secret before people start to think of him differently, and their relationships change, something he fears more than his illness. Though it might be the Bodyguard who causes the most laughs. Primarily since, anytime Adam is prepping to hear something he may not like, the Bodyguard is always ready to hit someone with a bat. Making it a bit of a running gag as the film goes on. Getting Beth’s Side of Things This book really made me think. I realized how even our best intentions get outweighed by our inner fears and prejudices, no matter how hard we try. I also never thought about how a person living with an illness might feel if someone with the same illness does something wrong; in this case, Adam's feelings and those around him after the shooting in Sandy Hook, since the shooter was schizophrenic. What a powerful scene, one which really opened my eyes.

When you have cancer, people are sympathetic. They feel something for you, and people even hold races to raise money for your cure. It’s different when people are afraid of what you’ve got, because then you get some of the sympathy but none of the support. They don’t wish you ill – they just want you as far away from them as possible.” warning: why do I have to start this review with a warning ? I am perfectly fine. I am not a crying-emotional mess because of how amazing this book was, nor am I thinking about drowning in choclate, while trying to forget about it, nor am I.......You have been warned.Aware that the film is arriving as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic, Freudenthal believes films can be “great generators of empathy” and is hopeful his film will influence everyone to “look at people with schizophrenia without preconceived notions and judgment.” There was so much to like about this book. Julia Walton is a fantastic writer, and her characters were truly fascinating, even if they didn't always behave the way you hoped they might. Adam was insightful, sarcastic, and sensitive, but I didn't find him or his friends more erudite than typical teenagers. I also loved the fact that Walton had her characters react in what you think would be realistic ways to the situations around them. Crazy enough, it’s the best part of the book that makes it the worst part as well. It shows you how ignorant one might be. It made me ashamed of myself when it came to my brother. It made me feel like I could have done more to be there for him, shit even now.

Adam is a pretty regular teen, except he's navigating high school life while living with paranoid schizophrenia. His hallucinations include a cast of characters that range from the good (beautiful Rebecca) to the bad (angry Mob Boss) to the just plain weird (polite naked guy). Another big positive of this novel for me is the main relationship. I found Adam and Maya's relationship to be one of the most realistic high school relationships I have read in YA, and a very healthy one at that. Of course, a large theme in this novel is that Adam refrains from revealing his diagnosis to Maya, and secret-keeping is not exactly a "healthy" behavior in relationships (but come on, it's young adult fiction), but they are consistently respectful of each other, entirely supportive, always willing to aid the other and go out of their way to comfort and defend each other. I appreciated that they actually began as good friends and developed into romantic feelings for one another over time. Personally, it was very reminiscent of my own relationship in high school, which is always pleasant to read. There is one passage in the beginning of the novel where Adam refers to Maya as "the cure" because his illness is more manageable when she's around, which is of course a theme I am vehemently against in mental health fiction. That being said, I feel the author chose this wording specifically to denounce this concept as the story progresses because Maya is most definitely not a cure for Adam's schizophrenia, she is merely a positive figure in Adam's life who brings him happiness as he provides the same for her. I would not at all consider this book to fall under the trope of "love-cure" - In my opinion, it's a great example of how to write love stories into mental health fiction. It can sometimes feel, when we see films like this, that there is a love interest for good intentions. Meaning, they are meant to show that being diagnosed with this or that doesn’t mean you’ll be alone, are unlovable, and often the girl who alleviates the situation is thinly written. That isn’t the case for Maya. Adam’s love interest, Maya, is Filipino! She also comes from a family who doesn’t have a lot of money in contrast to the middle/upper class characters usually seen in YA contemporary. I was worried at first that she would end up being a manic pixie dream girl but she recieves a lot of development over the course of the novel and is overall amazing. While starting a new school is always daunting, he's determined to keep his illness a secret so nobody treats him differently or starts to worry they can't be around him. He also has to struggle with keeping a brave face for his mother and stepfather, both of whom worry about him, but Adam knows that even his stepfather is a little concerned about their safety if things go awry. It's a lot of pressure, but he believes the drug will help him weather it.

If the above doesn’t make all you nerds fall in love with Adam, you’re probably wasting your time here. Now, this was probably one of the worst portrayals of schizophrenia I've ever come across. It's portrayed almost as a fun personality quirk. Adam's only symptoms are hallucinations. Other than that, Adam shows no signs of psychosis. Schizophrenia is not a goddamn acid trip. It's not about having imaginary friends. It's about a wide range of disturbing and debilitating symptoms. Delusions, flat affect, disorganized thinking and speech, loss of motivation and ability to feel pleasure. Adam suffers of none of these. He is on a trial for a drug that is apparently being tested for "difficult cases", so with hardly any clinical signs of schizophrenia, how exactly is Adam's case difficult? Nevertheless, I never really connected to the story. I didn't particularly enjoy reading it, but I also didn't dislike it. It was just a whole lot of "in the middle", which is kind of almost worse when a book doesn't make you feel anything? I also never really found the plot in the novel - Adam is eased into his meds, and then he's eased out of them. Not much happens. Which, of course, is fairly standard in the life of a mental health patient. But does it make for a good book? I'm not sure. aSecrecy |0https://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85119431 |vJuvenile fiction. |0https://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99001687