OCD Love Story

Starred review from June 3, 2013
When Bea’s therapist decides she would benefit from group therapy, Bea is sure that if she starts talking about her “little anxieties about driving and missing my ex-boyfriend, these people will feel approximately a thousand times worse about themselves.” But Bea isn’t just an over-cautious driver and a blurter; she’s afraid to be around sharp objects in case she suddenly harms someone and is basically stalking the couple that has therapy before her. And then there’s the fact—exciting and mortifying in equal parts—that the group includes Beck, an adorable compulsive hand-washer Bea met while he was having a panic attack. Debut novelist Haydu doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulties of OCD or reduce her characters to a symptom list. Bea and Beck, who readers see through Bea’s sympathetic and knowing eyes, get worse and better not according to a predetermined outline but according to their individual trajectories. That they do so while trying to build a relationship with someone who’s seen them as they
really are, to move past shame into intimacy, makes the story that much more touching. Ages 14–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Gelfman Schneider.

June 1, 2013
Haydu's debut novel for teens is not for the emotionally faint of heart, but those who can withstand it won't ever regret accompanying Bea, a high school senior recently diagnosed with OCD, on a profoundly uncomfortable and frenetic journey dominated by her increasingly manic compulsions. When Bea kisses a strange boy during a blackout at a school dance, it's clear she's a little eccentric, but it isn't until her therapist slips several pamphlets about OCD into Bea's hands that readers will recognize her more extreme tendencies for what they truly are. Haydu is a masterful wordsmith, and readers will likely find themselves ready to crawl out of their skin as Bea's need to perform certain rituals, even at the risk of alienating those she loves, becomes all-consuming. The one bright spot in Bea's life is a budding romance with Beck, the boy from the school dance, who resurfaces in Bea's group-therapy sessions. He's plagued by issues of his own, and Bea finds comfort in a new relationship with someone who also has "one foot outside the border and into crazytown." They are about as dysfunctional a pair as two people could be, but they're also heartbreakingly sweet and well-suited for one another. A raw and well-crafted alternative to run-of-the-mill teen romances that also addresses tough mental health issues head-on. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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August 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Bea, a high school senior, struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder. She wants to think of herself as a regular teen with a few interesting quirks, but as readers discover more about her past, it is clear that her problems run deeper than she is willing to admit. She falls for Beck, a boy in her therapy group who washes himself constantly and must do everything in groups of eight. Beck likes her, but he doesn't know that she spends her spare time eavesdropping on a musician and his wife, often following them back to their apartment building. Haydu has created a believable protagonist in this beautifully written first novel; however, it is sometimes difficult to view her with sympathy rather than alarm as her stalking behaviors escalate. And she is terrified that she will hurt someone, either by accident with her car or on purpose with a knife or other sharp object. Bea's head is constantly buzzing with intrusive thoughts and the irresistible need to perform the rituals that ease her anxieties. Revelations about both teens suggest that traumatic events in their lives triggered their OCD. Therapy figures prominently as Bea has breakthroughs and learns to manage her condition, but despite an upbeat conclusion, there are no magical answers. Beck and Bea's romance is sweet, though troubled. While this is not an easy story to read, teens fascinated by mental-health issues or unusual romances will find it hard to put down.-Miranda Doyle, Lake Oswego School District, OR

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