Friday Memes: A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom. 275 p. Poppy/ Little, Brown and Company, February 7, 2017. 9780316260060.
Publisher synopsis: In the vein of It's Kind of a Funny Story and All the Bright Places, comes a captivating, immersive exploration of life with mental illness.

For sixteen-year-old Mel Hannigan, bipolar disorder makes life unpredictable. Her latest struggle is balancing her growing feelings in a new relationship with her instinct to keep everyone at arm's length. And when a former friend confronts Mel with the truth about the way their relationship ended, deeply buried secrets threaten to come out and upend her shaky equilibrium.

As the walls of Mel's compartmentalized world crumble, she fears the worst—that her friends will abandon her if they learn the truth about what she's been hiding. Can Mel bring herself to risk everything to find out?

In A Tragic Kind of Wonderful, Eric Lindstrom, author of the critically acclaimed Not If I See You First, examines the fear that keeps us from exposing our true selves, and the courage it takes to be loved for who we really are.

First Line: Interestingly, this book starts with a chapter 0. Here's the first line:
    My big brother, Nolan, used to say everyone has a superpower. Not a skill you learned, but something you were born with. And it's not always cool.

Chapter one switched back to a traditional font but is headed by curious sentences with the verbs in a comic sans font. I don't have that font available, so I substituted courier.

                         Hamster is Active

                         Hummingbird is Hovering

                         Hammerhead is Cruising

                         Hanniganimal is Up!

I'm in a better mood than the situation merits.

Page 56: Declan says, "You don't know how god you've got it. I wish I had siblings to reduce my time under the microscope and my parents' questions."
     "I can't remember the last time someone at home asked me a meaningful question," Holly says. "With sisters who've been fighting since before I was born, I'm ignored like dining room furniture."