The Immeasurable Depth of You

Gr 9 Up–A queer teen living under the weight of intrusive thoughts of impending doom navigates summer on a houseboat with a father she barely knows. Brynn lives with a list of mental health diagnoses (ADHD, OCD, SAD, GAD, to name a few) that she carries like an anchor, sure she is bringing down her mother, as she hides on Tumblr away from other people. After Brynn posts an emotional message in a moment of darkness, her best online friend contacts her mom, and she is sent to her father’s for the summer. If it wasn’t bad enough to find herself on a tiny houseboat in the middle of the Florida Bayou (with countless dangers), her father has agreed to her mother’s one rule—no internet or phone. Alongside the ghost of a girl who finally understands her, Brynn will have to choose whether to confront her intrusive thoughts about her new environment or risk the reality of the alrternative. An author’s note opens the book with a list of trigger warnings and the author’s disclosure of their own lived experience with mental illness. The main characters are white, and Brynn identifies as bisexual. The story weaves together many important topics including suicide, mental illness, divorced families, natural disasters, and grief. Despite the heaviness of subject matter, Mora tells Brynn’s story with grace, authenticity, and hope.