Halfway House

I thought the author did a wonderful job of exploring how mental illness affects the family and friends of those afflicted. I feel I truly gained an understanding and empathy for those who are affected by a mental illness.

Katherine Noel's exhilarating novel, Halfway House kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. This novel explores the depths of mental illness and the stresses that it places on the family attempting to support their beloved family member. In this book, seventeen year old Angie struggles to get control of her once perfect life after the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Angie starts out in the book being a star athlete, scholar and popular teenage girl. On one day both Angie's life and the lives of all of the members of the Voorster family changed forever. Angie started her cycle with becoming hospitalized, place in a group home, and then attempted to return to her once normal life. Both Angie and her family try to convince themselves that she would be able to regain her once normal life. While Angie goes through the motions of her old life and struggles to cope with her new existence, the dynamics of the family quickly change. Angie's father, Pieter Voorster withdraws from his wife and family and throws himself into his work. Jordana Voorster also withdraws from her husband and family by getting her needs met through an affair with another man. Once the family learns of the affair, the family continues to withdraw from each other, although from the outside they continue to appear to be intact and functioning as a family. The youngest child, Luke finds comfort in his girlfriend Khamia and her family. Luke for many years seems to almost resent Angie for all of the attention that her new diagnosis of mental illness brings to both his family and his peers at school. Luke later becomes Angie's biggest advocate and protector. Luke takes on the role of ensuring his sister's safety and happiness, above the needs of others around him. This book tells a powerful story of a woman longing to regain her perfect life as a teenage prior to being diagnosis with mental illness.

I happened to come upon this book in the library. I couldn't put it down. The characters are well formed and following their thoughts and experiences is truly like being in a different place and time. I look forward to other works by the author.

I stayed up late into the night reading Halfway House until my eyes stung, then started early the next morning, in my eagerness to return to this story, these people. The gift of Halfway House is the strength of its characters. They are true to themselves in their smallest actions and biggest moments of drama. They make mistakes, they love hard, they are real and unforgettable. On one level, this is a book about mental illness and its repercussions. But it's not the story you may have read before, in which a person is depicted as a victim of mental illness, that diagnosis (whatever it may be) taking the place of character. Rather, the writer shows how Angie's manic depression is one facet of who she is, and while its repercussions shake the whole household, the lives of her parents and brother are equally multi-faceted and well developed. Another thing I admire in its fresh treatment of mental illness is the way that the book shows the cyclical nature of Angie's disease as she goes on and off medication. This is the rare novel that manages to be both sprawling and focused. The chapters remind me of short stories in the sense that many of them hinge on quiet moments with large consequences. Yet tension builds from chapter to chapter, which is why I found the book so hard to put down. I simply loved it.