“Juliet the Maniac” is a mental health must read

In light of National Mental Health day that just recently passed on October 10, it's essential that we look at literature that accurately depicts genuine cases of mental illness.

Juliet Escoria’s “Juliet the Maniac” is one of the most authentic stories about mental illnesses in young girls since Susana Kaysen’s “Girl, Interrupted” or Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar”.

The hybrid of memoir and fiction, sometimes now deemed as autofiction, covers every kind of topic from self-harm and drug abuse to life inside of therapeutic boarding schools. The narrative is filled with notes, patient logs, and letters as well as depictions of Escoria’s erratic hallucinations, which bounce the narrative in and out of fiction and nonfiction.

Beginning when she was only a 14-year-old girl, Escoria guides us through her time in which she began as an honors student in Southern California to a much different time—struggling to stay in school and away from drugs. Escoria writes in chapters filled with heart-wrenching stories one after another. The hard and quick stories hit you right in the gut and leave you awestruck by the fact that she is only a teenage girl.

Her lighthearted look back on the dark days of her youth ignite a comforting flame in those suffering now and a nostalgic memory for those whose dismal days of drug abuse and self-harm are long over.

Not only do the patient logs describe her well-being at the time, but she also gives a look into how heavily medicated she was and the side effects they created. She reminds us that pills aren’t the quick fix everyone is looking for. She wins our trust with patient logs and charms us with her hair-raising treatment plans and experiences while her blunt internal thoughts pop into our brains like harrowing spirits we can’t shake.

“I didn’t feel suicidal when I was sitting there in that chair, but I didn’t not feel suicidal either. Truthfully, I still wished I were dead, but I was now too lazy to do anything about it. Turns out killing yourself is hard.”

She is unapologetic in her expressing her deepest thoughts and hallucinations. So vivid and distinct you are convinced you are living inside her self-produced universe.

Her candid thoughts and notes she expresses to her parents hit every chord in the misunderstood teen’s brain. Her reminiscent thoughts on her past letters to her parents say everything we want to but just can’t right now.

Novels like Escoria’s are so important for youth to read and comprehend the endeavors those with mental illness are fighting. It’s fresh, and it’s real, and everyone can relate to her developing mind’s logic.

Teenage phases come and go, but what we find in “Juliet the Manic” is much different from the typical teenage story. Her raw and chilling stories of her adolescence make us suffer when she suffers and leave us thankful she lived to write this story.