Thank you so much to the publisher, the author, and netgalley for sending me an e-ARC to read. I gave this book four stars.

I enjoyed the writing and the depiction of mental health and I just think it’s something every one should read

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

Really enjoyed this - loads of brilliance! Loads to think about! I am a massive fan of Neal Shusterman!

Neal Shusterman writes amazing books for Young Adults and Challenger Deep is no exception. This book is full of tension, adventure and drama. It realistically portrays mental illness so that you feel like you are inside Caden’s head. The illustrations by Shusterman’s son adds to the reality of mental illness, creating a haunting atmosphere for the book.

I really wanted to like this book as I love Neal Shustermans writing and have enjoyed so many of his past books, but this one simply did not excite me as much as his other works did.
'Challenger Deep' is definitely an important story with a lot of powerful messages and I am sure a lot of people will enjoy this story and the characters, but I simply could not connect with the characters or the plot and had to push through a lot of the story simply to finish it.
Although I did not like this one, if there are any Neal Shusterman books in the future that sound good to me, I will be picking those ones up to give them a go.

I loved Sytche immensely and I certainly couldn't pass up this little gem from Neal Shusterman.
Challenger Deep is a very intense book indeed, one that confuses the reader, so much so that even I now find myself struggling to put down a thought of my own.
Hard to digest for sure, because Shusterman deals with the subject of sanity, so there you go, that's pretty badass!
Through his writing, though, he's managed to intertwine reality with fantasy beautifully.
You definitely don't want to let this book pass you by. Give it a chance, even if the subject matter may seem a bit 'hostile, I assure you that you will not regret it

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

Ever since reading the Scythe novels, I am a huge fan of Neal Shusterman, and this YA-ish book does not disappoint. You will be very confused at first because it is about a high school student who is also on a ship travelling to the Marian Trench in supposedly different timelines. You slowly find out that Caden Bosch suffers from severe mental disorders, making it hard for him to distinguish between reality and fiction. While he slowly descends into madness, his journey on the ship progresses.

The entire novel is a wonderful metaphor for mental illness and also how healing can take place. Each chapter has wonderful drawings that show how fragmented perception has become. After reading the book you learn that Shusterman's son drew these while being in a mental hospital, which makes them even more haunting.

An important novel, a confusing novel, a touching novel that sometimes went over my head.

5 Stars

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting this book to be like but it was nothing like whatever that was. Challenger Deep took me a while to get into. It felt like it was intentional. The two stories are very different and it is a while before we realise that one is (loosely speaking) Caden's inner world and the other is his life in the outer world. It isn't always clear which is which and we don't know from the start that this is what is happening.

One part of the story takes place on a ship with a very unusual crew. I was fascinated by the relationship between the Captain and the Parrot particularly, and the way that they are both trying to pull Caden in different directions. I spent a lot of the book wondering which of the two (if any) had his best interests at heart. When you realise how it all fits in to the wider story, it becomes even more clever and interesting, but there were still aspects of this relationship that I couldn't fully appreciate until the end of the book, and now I can't stop thinking about them.

In the other part of the story, I enjoyed seeing Caden's view of his parents, how they gradually become aware of Caden's situation, his initial reactions to them and their concern as things progress. We are very much getting Caden's perception of all this, and I imagine the parents would have a very different point of view, but Caden grows to appreciate this.

We see how his condition affects his friendships, which is sometimes hard reading, and the new friendships he makes during treatment. I loved the way he started to open up and finds someone that he can be emotionally vulnerable with, although it is also sad. Calliope has my heart. There is a part with one friend and a jigsaw piece that comes back at the end of the book in a really beautiful way. It was interesting to see how Caden's relationships changed throughout his journey, and how these mirror his journey on the ship.

Whilst reading, we are very much 'lost; inside Caden's brain. He is the person telling the story and we are all along for the ride, which makes for very difficult reading when he is at his lowest. In those parts of the book, he addresses the reader as "you", so we are pulled further in to feel everything that he is feeling. It very much gives the sense that any one of us could be in Caden' situation. I loved the attention to detail of Mental Health Services and the very realistic portrayal of mental health difficulties (though I cannot claim to have any experience of Caden's specific situation).

There is so much I want to say about this book, but it's hard to do so without spoiling it. It is hard to say that this will be a book you enjoy reading, but it is a brilliant, clever and important book. If you do read it, and I hope you will, please come and talk to me about it! I have many thoughts

"Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug".

Challenger deep is a beautifully different and imaginative account of the pain, turmoil, and realities of life with a mental health problem.

Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behaviour. Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images. Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head. Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny. Caden Bosch is torn.

In the beginning, I really struggled to gel with the writing style. It is so unique that I can understand why a lot of people struggle with it. Luckily, I ended up falling in love with the way in which the story is told, but I admit that it didn't grab me straight away. The use of short chapters that alternate between Caden's mindsets was brilliant. They kept me engaged and wanting to just keep reading the book. I adored how Caden's artwork was scattered throughout and juxtaposed the events of the story. It is amazing how powerful an image can be regardless of its simplicity. The afterword/acknowledgments took me by complete surprise. To find out that the book was entirely fictional was mind-blowing and I feel that it made the message of the book even more powerful.
This was a fantastic read that has more dimensions and laters than I could ever count. It won't be for everyone, whether it's because of the difficult topic or the novel storytelling, but I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I really wanted to love the book but unfortunately, I didn't. But this is totally a case of: It's not the book, it's me. I think I just read the book at the wrong time.

I think this is a very powerful and ambitious story and I think a lot of people will appreciate this story. Unfortunately, I was pretty much lost for more than half of the story and I wasn't enjoying the first half as much as the second half when everything started to make sense. One thing that bothered me the most, and affected my enjoyment of the book, was the disconnection I felt throughout the whole story.
It's definitely a very educational and important read and even though I didn't enjoy it as much as I would've liked to, I can still recommend it.

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found it really hard to get into. I had high hopes for this, which is a shame.

This book was confusing but in all the best ways.
I was gripped throughout and encouraged to read much more of Neal Shusterman's work when i'd finished the book.

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

Neal Shusterman is so incredibly talented. He still remains to be the ONLY author to have ever given me literal chills reading a scene from one of his books. This book has taken the book community by storm because it does something pretty special relative to mental health, challenging the need to label people and put them into boxes and instead just forcing you to see what it looks like to be in a mind of someone with mental illness.

With that said, the book is mostly split into the real and the imagined; as is the nature of the illness within this novel. I found this quite difficult to follow sometimes, particularly as the real and imagined began to slip into each other, but that is absolutely the point of the message. For me, this had less impact than I think it would for someone who could directly relate to mental illness - I actually can't imagine how much of a relief reading a book like this might be for someone who completely understands it - but for me it did serve a little as a means to confuse me more than anything.

Regardless, this book is impressive and very very special. It just didn't make me feel what I wanted it to, but I would urge you to read reviews from those people who can directly relate with this message because they undoubtedly did move me beyond imagining.

ARC provided from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

It was the author, not the title or blurb that drew me to the book. Then, having read the blurb, I was expecting something else altogether, but then again Neal always manages to surprise me and keep me engaged. With Challenger Deep he's addressed the issue of mental health differently to other books on the subject, normalising it and giving you a glimpse into a hidden, secret world with empathy and realism..
I always tell my students that books are a safe place to experience situations you will hopefully never find yourselves in, as well as showing you a world that other people occupy, and this is a prime example of such a situation. This is a silent, invisible and oftentimes lonely life situation that readers will hopefully .find enlightening.
The time shifts take a little getting used to but Neal has managed to make it work.

This was such a confusing, heavy but interesting read! It took me a bit to understand what was going on but after a while I really came to appreciate it! I loved the writing as well.

I haven't read many of Shusterman's books in all honestly. I have read Scythe, the first book in the Arc of the Scythe trilogy and I absolutely adored it and have been meaning to get around to the rest of the trilogy, I just haven't had the chance yet. But then I saw this pop up on Netgalley and the premise really drew me in and I just knew I had to read it.

I can't lie, when I first started it I was a little thrown. Mostly the book is made up of very, very short chapters that flit about from one place to another very quickly. One moment, Caden is at school, trying hard but failing to keep up with his friends conversations. The next he is aboard a ship and trying to keep up with the captains demands. I found the complete flips sometimes quite hard to wrap my head around, but once I got used to it it was okay. Once I got into it the book itself was such an intense and all consuming read that you just cannot put down. The fact that the chapters are so short only adds to this as the old "ooh, just one more chapter before bed" leaves you a little unsatisfied as they're so short it actually turned into another ten or fifteen chapters before bed... Following Caden as he struggles with his mental health is a real journey and one that I really enjoyed being along for the ride. It's a weird book because some of it makes little to no sense at all... the chapters on the pirate ship for example... Sometimes I read a few of them a couple of times thinking I'd read it so quick I had missed it, but they literally make no sense at all and I think this is intentional, as sometimes these thoughts that invade our minds make no sense either.

It is an incredibly thought provoking read, dealing with a rage of hard hitting topics, suicide included and there are some really hard hitting moments that actually made me have to put the book down for a few moments just to compose myself to carry on. I don't profess to be a mental health expert, but there were certain aspects of this book that really hit home with me from when I was younger and some of the thoughts I had after my mum passed away. This book felt like the most realistic depiction of mental health that I have read for a while and for that I must commend Mr. Shushterman.

It was very poetic, just the way it was written, the structure of some of the chapters.

I also saw when googling the book that Disney are making it into a film for their Disney+ service so think it will be interesting to see how they interpret and make it for a wider audience.

Overall I really enjoyed this and would highly recommend it to others! It is out right now so do go and check it out!

This is one of the best books about mental illness that I have ever read. It is portrayed so well and I can tell how much research has been put into it.

The story was a little confusing at first. From chapter to chapter Caden tells the story from his point of view. In some chapters he is at home or school and in some chapters he is on a sailing ship.

The chapters on the pirate ship make little sense which really adds to the story. It shows just how harrowing mental illness can be.

There are lots of hard-hitting issues in the story which made it a difficult read at times.

This is definitely worth a read.

I couldn't connect with this story at all. I enjoyed the rawness of the depiction of mental illness but other than that, I think a lot of it went over my head.