Filled with moments of deep emotion and unexpected humor, this understand and wise novel explores the compleixities of living with OCD and offers the prospect of hope, happiness and healing. Perfect for readers who love Eleanor & Park and All the Bright Places.
ADAM’S GOALS:
Grow immediately.
Find courage.
Keep courage.
Get normal.
Marry Robyn Plummer.
The instant Adam Spencer Ross meets Robyn Plummer in his Young Adult OCD Support Group, he is hopelessly, desperately drawn to her. Robyn has an hypnotic voice, blue eyes the shade of an angry sky, and ravishing beauty that makes Adam’s insides ache. She’s also just been released from a residential psychiatric program—the kind for the worst, most difficult-to-cure cases; the kind that Adam and his fellow support group members will do anything to avoid joining.
Adam immediately knows that he has to save Robyn, must save Robyn, or die trying. But is it really Robyn who needs rescuing? And is it possible to have a normal relationship when your life is anything but?
“Achingly authentic.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred
“Toten does a masterful job of bringing Adam to life. . . . Like Augustus Waters before him, Adam Spencer Ross will renew your faith in real-life superheroes and shatter your heart in equal measures.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred
“This book made me laugh, cry, think, and kept me coming back for more.” —The Guardian
“Adam is a protagonist that readers will root for.” —VOYA
“Honest, fresh, and funny . . . Toten employs information about OCD like grace notes in this deft and compelling narrative.” —Booklist
“Adam is a fresh and complex character, and far more than the sum of his symptoms.” —Publishers Weekly
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A book that succeeds on numerous levels
By John Rogers ClarkIV
Navigating the teen years is challenging even when everything in your life is good, but when endless things jump out to bite you, it becomes a scary minefield. This is what life is like for Adam Ross who has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) so severe that it has built a giant all between him and everyone except his mom and step brother Sweetie. That's because they have their own demons. Mom is a hoarder and barely hanging on to the facade that she's a successful nurse at a local hospital. Sweetie loves Adam, or Batman, his super hero persona adopted in his OCD outpatient group. Adam is the only person who can calm Sweetie when he starts to escalate due to his own mental illness. When Robyn Plummer joins the group after being discharged from a residential treatment program, Adam falls for her very fast and very hard. She makes him begin to think about the possibility of something better than letting his mental and physical rituals rule every moment of his life. He starts by finally involving himself in group, getting everyone to adopt a super hero alter identity and then encouraging everyone to walk down the stairs instead of taking the elevator. He even gets everyone to accompany him on a field trip after group to the Catholic church where he was an altar boy before his illness grew so strong he stopped going. Everything Adam does to break out of his own head, he does for Robyn and it not only helps her get a lot better, it has positive effects on other members of the group. Unfortunately, no matter how much his efforts help everyone else, Adam can't stop his own rituals from escalating, so much so that he fears he might even be detrimental to Robyn's emotional health. How they navigate the doubly tricky seas of illness and teen romance, how he deals with his mom's increasingly bizarre behavior and what happens when he finds himself facing a giant crisis that's beyond his ability to hide, make for a sometimes painful, but always gripping read. This book succeeds on a number of levels. It's a great offbeat teen romance, it makes each member of the OCD group seem very real and human, it makes the agony of severe OCD rituals understandable for anyone unfamiliar with the illness and it does a great job of portraying the unique stresses of blended families when there are huge secrets that everyone tiptoes around. I liked the ending and strongly suggest anyone reading the book read the interview with the author at the end because it really helps to understand how and why she wrote this story. This is an excellent addition for school and public libraries.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A Lovable Hero with OCD
By Kathryn
This is a very well-written book that was surprisingly fun, sweet and deep. The story centers around Adam, a fifteen-year-old kid with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). At the start of the story he's joined a support group for fellow OCD sufferers and immediately falls in love with one of the other teenagers, Robyn. The following love story between the two of them is sweet and I enjoyed watching Robyn and Adam help each other with their own OCD problems.Adam is a great main character. He's sweet but constantly unsure of himself, full of anxiety and dealing with multiple problems at home (mostly surrounding his mother, who is dealing with her own compulsive hoarding and depression). Adam's OCD escalates as the book goes on, and he is constantly trying to manage it and hide it. I thought the author did a great job describing just how much OCD can affect a person's life and just how time-consuming it can be (describing, for example, how it would often take Adam fifteen minutes just to walk through his front door at home).I especially loved Adam's support group, which was filled with quirky characters who all form an unlikely friendship. At the beginning of the book each of the members takes on a superhero name, and so we hardly hear their real names. Instead we deal with the likes of people such as Wonder Woman, Thor, Wolverine and Batman. The antics of the OCD support group were always amusing and at the same time provided insight into the different aspects that OCD can have.This was, overall, a very sweet coming-of-age story for Adam with a nice touch of romance and some great side characters. I really have no complaints about it, and it's a great story for anyone interested in learning about OCD.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
A great cast of Superheroes
By Live Outside
3.5 starsThey consist of a group of superheroes, and one Snooki, leaving their tangled selves at the door; they seemed so much alike yet they were very different. The stories that they shared together bonded these teens as they strived to connect to the world but their disorder made them unique as they saw the world differently. Their therapist Chuck gathers them and ignites within each of them, something to inspire them and help them manage what life brings them. Adam thought life had brought him enough until Robyn joins the group. Robyn’s chemistry changes the group and Adam’s focus is now centered on getting better for Robyn. Robyn is now the center of his future goals. Having a mother that is a hoarder and a step-brother who depends on him in his own moments of OCD, Adam has a lot to juggle. Adam’s own OCD issues make his life challenging yet within Adam he has great strengths. Adam is obsession with numbers and has an issue with thresholds but if you look beyond these issues you see this fantastic teen. Getting inside Adam’s head and hearing his rational thoughts on the issues puts things into perspective. His ability to see the complications that arise, his ability to face them and know how they are affecting him was another issue that made Adam a fantastic character. He wasn’t argumentative or in denial, he was standing front and center, telling it like it is. As he tries to become a part of Robyn’s life, the whole group of superheroes were brought into the arena and Adam deals with this in a mature manner. The scenes in the Catholic Church were hilarious as he tries to education them and the scene with the priest that was priceless. I adored Adam’s lists, his honesty and his comprehensive look at his world. Adams emotions were a big issue that I monitored as I read the book, it’s hard to be under the microscope and here Adam was trying to change and his emotions were everywhere. It was an interesting novel, a good last minute pick off the New Release shelf at the library.
