Browsing library shelves I came upon this book, The Symptoms of My Insanity by Mindy Raf. I have to be honest I wasn’t really immediately drawn to this book at all like most ones I read, but after looking at my growing mountain of cliche teen romances and coming of age stories I decided it would probably be beneficial to step out of my comfort zone and branch out a little. Although this book does have a bit of a different twist, it’s surprisingly not to far from my usual reads but, in no way was that disappointing. Truthfully, when I saw this book the title and cover actually kinda appeared to be creepy to me even though that is definitely not an element in the book. After finishing the novel now I realize that the plot turned out to be completely unexpected and pretty far off from my initial assumptions.

The story starts out with Izzy, a spunky high school hypochondriac constantly paranoid with her hectic life. She’s got guys to chose, friendships to fix, her ill Mom to worry about and decisions to make. Not to mention an Italy art contest deadline looming over her head and her constant anxiety about every possible symptom she experiences known to man. Throughout the book she must make some pretty tough decisions and quite a few of the times it’s not the right ones which calls for some sacrifices too.

Izzy is quite a complex character which makes the makes it kind of hard to know what shes thinking sometimes but actually I don’t think she even knows half the time, but that’s all part of the fun. Actually one of the most interesting parts of the whole thing is seeing her mature and change as a person over the time. She finds herself and goes deeper and more inspired in her artwork than ever before.

Overall I surprised myself and actually ended up enjoying this book a lot. It’s different but also doesn’t stray to far away from the normal teenage girl, coming of age novel. Which, sorry for the cliche, but happen to be my favorite. Izzy is a easy to relate to and fun to read about. Her point of view adds edge and interest to the book when she speaks of her fears, and thoughts. Mindy Raf is a fabulous author who really knows how to make a character realistic and genuine. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially with a similar taste to me. Hope you like it as much as I did.

xox. Happy Reading!