Ten Miles One Way

March 27, 2017
Although Nest is in a coma after driving a car into a tree, she is very much present in this painful and often beautiful exploration of mental illness. Three years earlier, when Nest and her friend Isaac Kew (nicknamed “Q”) were 17, they took an epic walk across New York City; Nest, who is bipolar, frequently takes such walks during manic states, but this was the first time she let Q come with her. Downes (Fell of Dark) frames the novel as Q’s record of that walk, switching between Q’s grounding commentary (“Just over the bridge comes the part of the city where everything necessary gets done”) and Nest’s narrative, a wilderness of ideas, memories, and reflections on the “Chimaera” of her illness (“She’s the Equator and the South Pole. She’s a desert and the bottom of the ocean. Completely wild. A bit deadly”). Q is fascinated by Nest’s seemingly boundless imagination and more than a little in love with her, but Downes doesn’t cloak the depth of Nest’s suffering nor offer false promises about love’s ability to rescue or redeem. Ages 14–up. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

Starred review from December 15, 2016
While Nest hangs onto life after driving into a tree, Q, her sometimes-boyfriend, makes a written record of one shared day so that people will know she was loved. When Nest is in the manic phase of the bipolar disorder she inherited from her father, she takes long walks to calm the "Chimaera" within. Three years ago, when they were 17, Nest invited Q, aka Isaac Kew, to go along with her through the city streets, instructing him to remain silent. Listening to her rapid-fire ramblings on the first 10 miles of their journey was like walking "with a girl whose own mind was a fever." Alternating with Q's account, Nest's stream of consciousness, liberally sprinkled with classic love poems, reveals her intelligence and a legitimate fear of insanity. She recognizes her own vulnerability as well, pointing out that Q, "tall, strong, and white," can walk pretty much where and when he chooses (Nest's own ethnicity is ambiguous). As Q records their journey, he occasionally pauses to reflect on what he's writing as Nest faces "life, death, and the horizon line." In his second novel, Downes (Fell of Dark, 2015) subtly plumbs the depths of mental illness within the broader context of relationship and self-awareness. Told mile by mile, the story reaches an allegorical climax even as it stops midway through a day that's both harrowing and beautiful. An intricate, unusual love story for readers attuned to compassion. (Fiction. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2017

Gr 10 Up-A haunting story of a teen's experience with mental illness. Nest has invited her sometime boyfriend, Q, on one of the long walks she takes during the manic episodes that are brought on by her bipolar disorder. Over the course of 10 miles, maybe longer, Nest talks and Q listens. Q gets tired, hungry, and sore, but Nest keeps walking, and Q keeps listening. Along the way, Nest reveals her past, including her family life and, most important, her relationship with her father. Her "Chimaera," as she calls her disorder, occasionally takes over, making her forget herself. But Nest continues on and includes Q in her experience. Gradually, with his help, the painful, exhausting revelations surface as Nest faces her issues. Nest's narration is conveyed in a stream-of-consciousness style that reflects her mania with jarring immediacy. Downes expertly breaks up Nest's thoughts by interjecting Q's internal monologue, weaving the two voices into a brilliant story arc. As readers discover more about the facts of Nest's tumultuous life, her narration slowly becomes more coherent. This is a dark, affecting tale about the mind of a bipolar adolescent attempting to run from her own thoughts, and her boyfriend, who listens, learns, and loves her throughout everything.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Nest Fitzgerald believes she has a three-faced Chimera saber tooth, split hoof, and cobra hood within her. Q, the boy who loves her, has seen it; it sped Nest's car into a tree at 60 miles an hour, leaving Nest indefinitely unconscious. In this sparkling testament to the giant love Q has for Nestand the giant love Nest has for the worldQ rehashes the first half of a manic, metamorphic walk the two once shared. Split into 10 sections, one for each mile walked, the narration alternates between Nest's persistent and profound musings and, more infrequently, Q's italicized interjections. A fervent force, Nest recites William Butler Yeats, contemplates town lore, pores over her parents, and acknowledges a family history of wild and debilitating Angers. Through bewitching prose, idiosyncratic detail, and the presentation of a mind simultaneously on the edge of epiphany and exhaustion, breakthrough and breakdown, Downes crafts a tender portrayal of both mental illness and love itself. Part romance, part poetry, and part monologue, perceptive teens will devour this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)