Beamis12

I have never read anything quite like this book before, it is a unique experience traveling along in the mindset of a mentally ill young man. I remember going to the theaters and seeing the movie "Beautiful Minds", I loved this movie, was completely blown away. That is how I felt at the end of this book. First time book for author Nathan Filer, and since he was a mental health nurse in previous years, he knew what he was writing about.

Matthew, our unreliable narrator, has a voice that is very real and very innocent. After a tragedy in his family, from which he never really recovers, the trigger for his illness is set. We follow him as he tries to live in a life that is difficult and strange, for him things are never simple. His stays in a psychiatric wards and how his days are spent there, repeatedly going over the same things again and again, doing the same things , again and again.  His courage and determination to get well, to write it all down so it could maybe make sense. Wanting to have a life, live on his own,  the right to live in his own head if he wants too. Little victories, large set backs all poignantly rendered. It was impossible for me not to embrace this character, by books end we know almost everything about him and want everything to work out for him. 

In the beginning I wondered what was going on in this book but as the reader continues with the story , he is amply rewarded.  More and more things are revealed as Matthews story goes back and forth. Wonderful first novel and look forward to many more.