Piece of Mind

by Michelle Adelman

At twenty-seven, Lucy knows everything about coffee, comic books, and Gus (the polar bear at the Central Park Zoo), and she possesses a rare gift for drawing. But since she suffered a traumatic brain injury at the age of three, she has had trouble relating to most people. She’s also uncommonly messy, woefully disorganized, and incapable of holding down a regular job. When unexpected circumstances force her out of the comfortable and protective Jewish home where she was raised and into a cramped studio apartment in New York City with her college-age younger brother, she must adapt to an entirely different life—one with no safety net. Over the course of a challenging summer, Lucy is forced to discover that she has more strengths than she herself knew.

Genres: Fiction, Adult Fiction, Jewish, New York, Contemporary, Book Club, Mystery

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2016

About the author

Michelle Adelman received her MFA in writing from Columbia University and her MS and BS in journalism from Northwestern University. She lives in the Bay Area.

Reviews

[Lorilin · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Lucy was three years old, she was in a serious car accident that left her brain damaged. Now 27, she is bright, funny, creative, and loving, but she still struggles with her day-to-day functioning. She is horribly messy. She has difficulty following through, planning, or arriving anywhere on time. She can't tell right from left and she can't follow directions, so she can't drive. And the list goes on. To make matters worse, she also suffers regularly from debilitating migraines.

For most of her life, Lucy has been coping by relying very heavily (I would say too heavily) on her father. But when he dies unexpectedly, she is forced to uproot her mostly stable life to go live with her younger brother in his small apartment in New York City. Most of the book focuses on how the two of them struggle to adjust to their new realities. Both have to put their hopes for the future on hold while they pursue more practical matters like, you know, paying rent and buying food. And they also have to learn how to deal with each other now that they are assuming drastically different roles: Lucy's brother becomes her caretaker, of sorts--and he does a pretty good job of it, all things considered--but since he can't possibly mimic the codependent relationship Lucy had with her father, Lucy is forced to push herself, to grow and to learn new things.

Despite the fact that Adelman covers some weighty topics here, the book actually stays very light, and only rarely delves beneath the surface. People die, there is relationship drama, and the book doesn't even have a particularly happy ending...but it all still feels like fluff. The characters feel pain, sure, but nothing unbearable; even in their darkest moments, they still see color.

I commend Adelman for coming up with a unique story (from her acknowledgements section, it sounds like her sister may have been at least part of her inspiration for the character of Lucy). But I do think she could have gone deeper with the characters to really bring them to life. As is, Piece of Mind is perfectly fine, but nothing fantastic. I think there was potential here for something great, though, so even though the book was enjoyable enough, I couldn't help but feel disappointed.

[Keely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Largely, I thought the book dealt with living with a brain injury and impaired cognition with sensitivity and honesty. I was really happy to see a heroine who is from a group that is largely underrepresented. And then...it got a little problematic.

I certainly wanted a happy ending for Lucy, who you grow to like and root for in the book. But when things do start to finally turn around for her, it is largely because people have told her (paraphrasing), "Your brain injury isn't holding you back, YOU are! You just have to want it enough and try harder!" And while that may seem like an uplifting and empowering message, it just isn't true for everyone. It isn't true for many people with brain injuries or other cognitive impairments, and to suggest that one can overcome these obstacles by sheer force of will places a burden on and shames people who already stigmatized. Largely, people with any sort of disability or impairment are already trying as hard as they can. They deserve support and encouragement for their efforts. So while I do believe that a positive attitude and hard work CAN overcome many things, they CAN'T overcome everything. I wish the author had continued to convey that complexity through the end of the book.

[Valerie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't CARE if you've had a traumatic brain injury - you are still shallow, self-absorbed, and utterly annoying. GOD.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had it not been a debut, I would have given this three stars. Decent effort. Toward the end, it felt like she wasn't quite sure whether to do more, thought better of it and decided just to end it. Wished it had sustained strength of the story throughout. Light read, just on the cusp of "fluff". A good choice if you want to breakup the time between two intense reads. Good enough, however, to put the author on your list for future offerings.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

What it's all about...

Lucy has had a brain injury from the time she was three years old. She is now 27. Her mom has died and she and her father live together in their family home. Lucy has many issues but can function...however...she doesn't work, she is messy, she collects scraps of everything and can not bear to throw things away. Her hands are weak, she falls a lot, she went to college and could teach but she isn't great with groups. She is sweet and funny and probably irritating...especially because she is so messy. She has a younger college age brother...Nate...who gets custody of her when their dad dies. The burden on him...financially and emotionally...is too great. He cuts out. Lucy is on her own.

Why I wanted to read it...

This book sounded really interesting and it was. I loved Lucy...funny and sweet and off key. She loved to sketch and would carry her sketch book everywhere. I loved her but I would not want to live with her. Poor Nate!

What made me truly enjoy this book...

I loved what happened to Lucy as she made friends and learned to maneuver herself through NYC. I loved the way she felt about her cat, Harry. I loved the way she cold identify different kinds of coffees. I loved the way she met and talked to people. These encounters really sort of saved her.


Why you should read it, too...

This is a very special book, I think, about a person with a unique brain injury. Lucy was surprising and probably more capable than even she thought she would be. This was a joyous book to read.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I WAS BRAIN INJURED BEFORE IT WAS TRENDY."

Beautiful and sad. Finding ones own way in a world that isn't made for those with differences is always a story I will gravitate towards. I have a front row seat with my own son, and find such characters endearing. This tends to be happy, things lining up just so, and would that life was copying art in cases of people who really endure the off beaten path of quirkiness or disabilities. It would be a lot easier!
We are all challenged in some way, even if we don't admit it, and I think as Lucy comes into her own she learns this- that even the rest of us screw up and struggle it's just not as blaringly obvious.
One of my favorite parts of the book (as follows) is so small but I loved it!

I had been told many times, mostly by Dad, that my room was hazardous. I could see how cluttered it was, from an objective perspective; he even took pictures once to make sure I understood.
"Grey Gardens," he said, waving photos in my face.
"How would you know?" I said. "You walked out after five minutes of that movie."
"I saw enough," he said.

Endearing. It painted a picture of quirk and chaos! Sometimes loss forces us to grow, as is the case with Lucy. The descriptions were vital to really telling the story of living with a body that doesn't function as it should, for pointing out things so many of us take for granted because they just work without us consciously thinking about it.


When I walked, my feet shuffled, another effect of the injury. I stumbled often, and I had terrible balance. My reflexes and coordination didn't work. I couldn't play a video game, or throw a ball, and I couldn't understand how to toss a Frisbee, but I could walk fine. It's jut that I moved in a slanted line, so I sometimes bumped into the person walking next to me, which usually meant Dad.

In a family where there are siblings, there is so much expected of the youngest. The fact of Nate being younger but 'We both knew he was in charge." when Lucy's father passes, is such a genuine statement. I think of both my own children through the years, my eldest sometimes put out by his little sister's having to take the reigns and help navigate things usually reserved for the eldest- and her pressures too is a balance not many people ever see. I really felt moved by that line, one small loaded sentence. People don't always realize how much a toll it takes to be a sibling to someone with any sort of disability, certainly there are gifts too, but their stresses and feelings have to be validated. They are special people, and tend to grow up to be the most empathetic beautiful human beings, which is why I loved Nate in the novel. The 'dynamic duo' tries their hardest to set themselves right but sometimes you have to crash before you can learn to stand on your own and have a healthy relationship and not suffocate your family while trying to keep yourself afloat.
Things had to happen, life has a way of pushing all of us out of our comfort zone, no one gets a pass out of the struggle of being alive (not even those with brain injuries).
This is a beautiful story.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway, and am so glad I did. The story of Lucy, a 27-year old woman who suffered permanent brain damage in an accident when she was 3, is poignant and sweet.

Lucy lives with her widowed father, a man who loves his family but has made all the wrong choices since his wife's death. He tries to encourage Lucy to get out of the house and find a simple job, even part-time, that will challenge her and provide her with a life other than watching TV, drawing, and reading comic books. Lucy, however, is convinced she will never be able to function in the real world, where she finds it impossible to keep a schedule, remember details, or get organized. She continues to avoid the job search until the day her father doesn't come home from work.

Lucy and her brother Nate, a 21-year old college student, find that their father has left them with noting but debt. They lose the house, car and most of their possessions to creditors. Lucy is forced to move into Nate's studio apartment with her cat, Harry. Nate struggles to fill his father's role and take care of himself and his sister, but he has no degree or skills that would enable him to find a good job and ends up as a waiter. He encourages Lucy to again try to find work and help out, but she becomes confused and lost on her first day out. She ends up at the Central Park Zoo, a place where she feels safe and comfortable, watching and drawing the animals.

But one night Nate fails to come home from work, just as her father did. Lucy is left to try and cope with such day-to-day chores as feeding herself, cleaning the apartment, and doing her own laundry.

Lucy is a delightful and sympathetic character, allowing us a glimpse of what it's like to live in a world where everything is a challenge and people aren't willing to make time for someone who thinks and behaves differently. I found myself rooting for her, savoring her small triumphs and lamenting her failures. She's a brilliant spokesperson who guides the reader through the nuances of brain damage that can leave an intelligent, healthy individual unable to relate to a society that prizes conformity above other talents.

I loved this book and highly recommend it.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lucy and Caren

This book would never have been conceived without my sister Caren, who sketched all the pictures, and whose brain helped inspire Lucy's. I am intrigued, entertained, and awed by you every single day.

This beautiful closing paragraph from the author's acknowledgements is quite moving, and gives me pause before criticizing anything about this book at all. The Lucy of the novel is a bright young woman with a talent for drawing, but with many of her mental, physical and coping skills compromised by a brain injury sustained in a car accident when she was three. If she is a version of Caren Adelman, then all kudos to the author for the courage to take on a subject so close to home, and with such obvious love. But the reader sees only the fictional character; what matters is whether she comes over as a rounded human being, and I'm afraid I can't say that she does. Partly, I think, because instead of writing entirely out of public knowledge that she can expect her readers to share, Adelman is also writing out of this private knowledge that many of us may find it hard to imagine. The difference is between inhabiting a character and merely being told about her.

I have no problem with what we are told. At the beginning, Lucy is 27, living with her widowed father, who encourages her to master certain simple tasks and go out to find a job, however menial. But we also know that she will not accomplish much of all this. Then her father dies suddenly, leaving them penniless, and Lucy and her college-student brother have to buckle down and put a life together for real. Most of what happens is small potatoes, though I can see that even tiny victories could be huge for a brain-damaged young woman.

But to inhabit her, you have to engage with the character's mind, and I found that hard. The main problem was her voice. At the beginning, it seemed fresh and charming, as when she is going through her father's check-list and making irreverent comments. But there are many times when her thought process seems highly sophisticated, as when she talks about the concept of a hereafter in Jewish philosophy, and why her father does not share her visions of her dead mother: "Maybe he was missing that extra layer of sensory perception that would allow him to float between two realms." Now I very much doubt that Michelle Adelman would put language like this in unless she knew that her sister Caren was capable of it. But it is hard for the reader to conceive it in fictional terms, to believe that a character who can talk like that is also likely to be flummoxed by a subway turnstile. As a result, I felt I was reading about two different people—the one whom we are told about, and the one who tells us about herself—like images on a stereo slide that never quite cohere.

But then there is the question of the dozen or so drawings in the book. Those at the beginning are vague and rather messy, with occasional animal faces coming through clearly. It was hard at first to know what they add, and I wondered why they were there at all. But as the book goes on, they get darker, more economical, more confident, and many of them include human faces. This speaks to a heartening development on the part of the fictional Lucy, although they hardly seemed all the work of the same artist; again there is this strange quality of non-alignment blurring the message. But not even the best of them is actually very good. This would not matter for someone who knew they were by the real-life Caren, for any achievement is surely cause for celebration, especially if their growing confidence is chronological for her too. But at the time I was actually reading, Lucy's drawings just seemed a little pathetic, and out of sync with the quality the author was surely hoping to create with her words.

In short, if you read the book in ignorance of its inspiration, you will find your interest challenged by puzzling inconsistencies. Learn of its real model, and it suddenly comes into focus—though in doing so, it raises questions about fact and fiction that become surprisingly hard to answer.

[Chris Blocker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piece of Mind has its flaws—its weakness of resolution, its underdeveloped secondary characters, its saccharine-sweet storytelling—but at its heart is the extremely captivating mind of Lucy. Lucy is such a perfect blend of sweet and dysfunctional that it's difficult not to feel endearment toward her. Her messy, scattered way of living—the result of a brain injury suffered as a child—ensures difficult relations with everyone in her circle. In some ways, Lucy is a fully-functional adult; in others she is forever locked in her three-year-old frame of mind. Despite her frailty, or perhaps because of it, Lucy is lovable. She is eccentric and electric; her friends and family love her despite her flaws. Similarly, readers may love this book in spite of its flaws, choosing instead to focus on the sweetness that is Lucy.

Without Lucy, Adelman's novel would have suffered altogether too much from contrivances that saturate the plot and secondary characters (Nate and Frank excluded) that were vapid. With Lucy, Piece of Mind did the best it could. In my opinion, that would be 3.5 stars at most. I liked Lucy and I wanted better for her, but I desired a richer story that really put Lucy through the ringer without blaming her. In a different setting, a different universe, I could've really felt some deep empathy for Lucy, a sense of human connection. Here, I merely felt an affection, similar to the way a person may feel for their pet cat. Oh, you made a mess again, you rascal! I wish you'd stop breaking all my breakables, but I don't care 'cause you're so adorable and I can't help but love you.

[Alyisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the first chapter of "A Piece of Mind." Then, the doubts started creeping in. Was this going to be just another one of those books? You know, those books that are really popular right now, in the wake of the success of "The Rosie Project" etc.? Books that feature quirky yet endearing protagonists, whose brains simply operate differently, making social interactions, and life in general, challenging and awkward? I'm not saying I didn't love "The Rosie Project." I'm just sick of reading the same book over and over. But I didn't need to doubt. Sure, this book - and its protagonist, who suffers from brain damage as the result of a car accident at the tender age of 3 - has some of those same elements. But it's also different.

It has enough differences (Jewish religious traditions, loss, grief, sibling relationships, art, drawing, animal-love, NYC, coffee, elderly friendship, etc) that it feels fresh. And all of the details about the polar bears killed me. I recently read "Ida, Always," which is a perfect (picture book) companion read. So my knowledge of the polar bears was already intact, and this story only intensified my interest.

I laugh-cried a bunch, which for me is a good thing.

I dug it.

[Tara Gruwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gives you a glimpse inside a woman with a traumatic brain injury. It started out great and I thought I was going to love it, but I just liked it. I loved this:

"That was something about people. They were willing to provide me with their helping hands when I had fallen on the ground. That was the only plus side of the physical effects. If people couldn't see my mind churning our distraction after distraction, squandering my concentration, they didn't seem to understand why I couldn't pay attention, or calculate the tip on a bill, of finish a task. But if they could witness the way my left foot dragged behind my right, and my clumsiness, because I couldn't stand straight; and my falling, they could feel some compassion for my differences."

if nothing else, hopefully reading the book will help me be nicer.

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book club book. Not a fan. Depressing, should've had another chapter or 2. Unlikeable main character.

[Alison McBain · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some books that are hard to put down, and Piece of Mind by Michelle Adelman is on that list for me. Written in a conversational style, the prose is simple, yet filled with touches of humor. If I can't go to sleep because I have to turn the page and find out what happens next, I'd call the book a success.

The main character is Lucy, who describes herself in the opening line of the novel as, "I was brain injured before it was trendy." The victim of a car accident at age three, she lost enough cognitive function to have problems navigating the adult world once she grows up. She can't organize anything--her closet, a job, a relationship, or even herself. As a result, when her father and caretaker dies of a sudden heart attack, she is left groundless and at the mercy of her younger brother's somewhat indifferent care. This is the first time in her life that she seriously considers what to do with her life. But the choices aren't limitless because of her skill set. She has three loves--her family, her art, and the animals at the Central Park Zoo. Only by figuring out where she fits in with the things she loves most can she determine who she is and where she can go from there.

What I like most about Michelle Adelman's prose is her straightforward style. This translates into believable, if sometimes strange, scenes between the characters that alternately are humorous or melancholy. I think what Ms. Adelman does best is dialogue--she perfectly captures the awkwardness of insincere moments and conversations between strangers. It is where she is truly able to illustrate Lucy's brain injury in a way that shows the character's linear thinking, and how Lucy is unable to process things in the same way as other people.

The book is also peppered with hand-created images, supposedly what Lucy is drawing throughout the story. Honestly, I felt the book didn't need the visual aids to augment the narrative--it might have been better to leave them out and to allow the reader to exercise their own imagination. To me, at least, to show the images in such a concrete way detracts from the text of the story. Also, whereas the narrative has a lot of humor and personality in it, the images do not, and so they don't seem to completely match up with the main character.

But other than that, I thought that this was a fantastic book. I hope you are captured by it as much as I was.

This review was originally published in the magazine Bewildering Stories, Issue # 681.

[Stephy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much. I intially read this because Daisy Ridley signed on to play the lead role for the film adaptation, so I read it without knowing too much (except the description in the back). The main character, Lucy, suffers from a brain injury and the book is following her life after her father's death.
What I liked about it it, is that it was honest. Nothing was sugar coated. Like this is what Lucy goes through every day of her life and how she goes about it.
It was a sweet, book. I highly recommend it!

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my reviews I no longer recap the synopsis, because so many others, including the original posters, have already done it. If you want to know what the book is about, you can just read above. I just review based on my gut reaction.

I was left with so much hope for Lucy's future. I don't know anyone with a brain injury, so I don't have personal experience for the truth of how her injury was portrayed in fiction. I just know that I have ... hope.

Lucy is going to thrive.

[Donia · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are effective ways to tell stories or write stories about damaged people that we care about. This book is not one of them. Other authors have written books about either themselves or others that have "brain disabilities" and have managed to draw the reader in. Though I have tremendous understanding and compassion for real life individuals challenged by brain injuries my only reaction to this book was irritation. It needed a better editor and or story teller. I understand this is a real life relatives' story. More the tragedy.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Lucy was three years old, she was hit by a truck. She’s still living with a brain injury from that accident in the executive function of her brain. She lives with her dad who makes lists for her so she won’t forget to do certain things, which she often does.

She also has trouble being organized and neat among other skills. Then suddenly her dad dies of a heart attack and she goes to live with her younger brother. He knows he has to work hard to make enough money for the two of them to stay afloat, but he’d much rather remain in college.

That’s enough without spoiling the story. This is Adelman’s debut novel and it’s a humdinger. I could not put it down. The author managed to put on paper how Lucy spent her days, what bothered her, what made her want to be alone, and how her beautiful drawings helped her cope.

I highly recommend this book to anyone. It knows no boundaries for readership.

[Sherry Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, could have had a better ending.

[nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

Piece of Mind is a very compassionate and thoughtful debut novel. There were times it felt a little aimless, but it worked, as the two main characters, Lucy and Nate, struggle with their own feelings of aimlessness and lack of direction. The reader is with Lucy and Nate as they deal with losing their father and adjust to living together in Nate's small apartment.

I thought this book dealt with the issues with sensitivity and respect, but it never really got into the deeper aspects. When I'm reading a book like Finding Audrey, for example, I am expecting a lighter, fluffier take on mental illness. When I'm reading a book like this one, an adult contemporary literary debut, I'm expecting more from it on that front. I'm expecting a little bit of grit. So, it was different from what I expected in that sense, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I really liked Lucy as a protagonist. I thought she was incredibly fleshed-out and all of her attributes and flaws were realistic and rounded. Nate struck me as a very true character, as well. I think that was my favourite thing about this novel - all of the characters seemed like real people to me and were very authentic; I could connect them to other people I knew, or parts of people.

My only big issue came near the end, when the prevailing theme seemed to be "YOU are the only thing holding you back! you can't do these things because you dont WANT it enough!" and I mean...positivity and hard work are very good things, but personally I can be as positive and work as hard as I want, and I'm still going to struggle with depression and anxiety to varying degrees. That's just a fact. The same goes for Lucy, on a much larger scale. I'm not saying that if you have a mental health or developmental issue, that you should use it as an excuse, but I do think it's problematic to say a person's mental and developmental realities only exist because they let them. Come on.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://oneblogtwobroads.com/2016/02/0...

When Lucy was three, she was hit by a car, causing damage to her brain. Now at 27, she struggles with executing decisions. It takes her a long time to even figure out that something needs to be done without her mind taking her to some other place. She lives with her father who makes sure she’s on the right path. When he suddenly dies, she ends up living with her younger brother in his little apartment and this throws her into a strange and new world. She walks to the Central Park Zoo and finds an affinity to the polar bear there. She loves to draw, especially the animals. Lucy also loves coffee, which takes her to a little coffee shop and a meeting with the young man working there. It seems he was in a brain injury group that Lucy had just left and he knew about her. They strike up an odd friendship that leads to something more. Is Lucy ready for the next step in life or is she still trying to figure out her place in the world?

With such a serious topic, the book is really a lighter read than I thought it would be. Watching Lucy discover who she really is, is the treat of this book. I was so worried about her in the beginning (without giving anything away), I was very proud of her at the end. It was a joy to receive and a joy to read. It left me feeling very optimistic for Lucy and her brother. I hope that Ms. Adelman revisits her life in a future book.

I happily received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was extremely well done. It's rare to find a book that seems to do mental instability well. I just recently finished Silver Linings Playbook which dealt with anger issues and mental breakdowns, and then followed it with this--one centering on a basically functional adult woman who has trouble with prioritizing. It doesn't sound like much of a problem maybe, but it really is when dealing with day-to-day functions. Having to pack for a move, for example. Getting dressed or washing hair instead of drawing. Letting her messes accumulate and saying things others may misconstrue.

It was a fascinating look inside a mind that fundamentally functions differently than mine. Really the book is just about her day-to-day existence when a wrench is thrown into the mechanics of it. I actually hope this is a fairly accurate representation of the thought processes because it was like reading a character study of sociology. I loved my sociology classes, so all the better.

I am optimistic about her life too, which I appreciate about the novel. I'm not left worrying about whether she will be okay, or whether she will self-destruct. She's a bit different and functions oddly enough to throw people off, but not enough to make her unable to function properly.

[Heather Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quiet, deeply moving coming-of-age story with an unusual protagonist. Lucy is a 27-year-old victim of traumatic brain injury ("I was brain injured before it was trendy," she wryly notes) who lives a sheltered life with her doting and overprotective father until his sudden death. When it's revealed her father left nothing but debt, she's uprooted from her childhood home to live with her younger brother, a struggling college student, in his cramped Manhattan studio. In Lucy's off-kilter but disarmingly honest narration, the book follows her as she's finally forced to figure out what she's capable of with no one to run interference between her and the real world. In parallel we see, through Lucy's increasingly less self-centered gaze, the slow unraveling of the brother she thought was perfect. Michelle Adelman convincingly brings to life a damaged woman forced to find an inner strength she never knew she had, and explores a sibling relationship as warm and flawed as it is believable.

[Renee Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting! The story is told from the point of view of the main character, a woman who suffered a brain injury as a toddler, and the author manages to build a great character who is at once fascinating from a clinical standpoint yet familiar and understandable. Although she is intelligent, strong willed, and personable, she is stuck in a childlike state in many ways and is unable to live alone or hold down a job. The author did such a good job portraying Lucy's train of thought when she was following a logical course of reasoning, and then derailed on a tangent!
On another note, some people will find this unsatisfying if they require a great deal of closure (my husband!--who needs every string neatly knotted) because it concerns a specific period of life. You aren't going to follow Lucy into her old age and death, so take it for what it is, no more!

I didn't really read this 3 times, but if you typo your date or edition & then fix it, it registers a multiple read.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a disclaimer, I received an ARC from the publisher.

"Look, people think there's some kind of cosmic significance for everything that happens. But in my experience the universe doesn't stop. It doesn't make exceptions. It just goes, and it's up to us whether we want to go with it."

The main character of "Piece of Mind," Lucy, is brain damaged. But aren't we all? No? Metaphorically, maybe? Sure. Lucy is faced with many challenges and many opportunities to fail at all of them. She excels at failing at many of them. However, her many failures provide her with opportunities to come to understand who she is in relation to everything around her.

I also liked:
"I'm not a cat person, really, but with Harry, it was like he knew he was supposed to be with me. Sometimes I think he hides a journal where he keeps tabs on things, so he can pull it out and remind me later. I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote. He has the soul of a poet."

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The haunting and beautiful story of a young woman injured when hit by a truck, and now considered "brain injured". She doesn't have "executive functions" which, among other basic skills, relate to organizing, prioritizing, reasoning, disciplining, goal setting, time managing and impulse control. She is "challenging". Maybe even "challenged". But never disabled.


Having been raised by her father, she is heartbroken and utterly lost when he dies. The death puts an end to her brother's college plans as he assumes responsibility for his sister. During the day, when he is working, she begins to make a life for herself. You will be absolutely amazed by this young lady and the wonders she is able to accomplish and the living she is able to do!!

[Linda Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great debut novel that follows the path of Lucy, a young woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury early in life. After the loss of her father she needs to find a way to make her own way in life, to survive without excuses that have kept her wallowing. This was reminiscent of the Rosie Project and Best Boy, but with an engaging female protagonist.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michelle has written a lovely book about a very interesting protagonist. I don't think I've ever read a book from the perspective of a character like Lucy, and Michelle creates a compelling internal dialogue as we see her grapple with the challenges life throws at her.

[Jen Steed Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! The story was sweet, and the protagonist, Lucy, was endearing as all get out. The only weird part was the lack of characterization of her brother, Nate. He seemed "thrown in" a bit, and his character was confusing. All in all, a really good read.

[Alison Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written, captivating story about a young woman living with brain trauma. Her perspective is fresh, honest, and funny. The book reads really quickly, and I am excited to see more from this author.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some parts were uplifting, but otherwise it wasn't what I expected it to be. I had pictured it to be a quirky, maybe a little dark/sad at times type of story but it turned out to be more depressing than quirky. The ending does provide closure and reassurance that Lucy's life is going to be ok.