The Year We Fell From Space by Amy Sarig King

When I started reading The Year We Fell From Space by Amy Sarig King I thought oh God I’m going to have a time, since, I assumed that like most middle-grade books it’s not written for my age group, but I believe that the author who is better known as A.S. King wrote it for everyone because younger readers as the story of fiction that is. However, as an adult, I would read between the lines of what’s really going on in the main character life.

In this book, we meet Liberty Johansen whose parents are divorced because her father is suffering from depression, and they can’t cope with his mental health. One phase that hit very close to home was ‘While she talks, I wonder if maybe we should have gone with Dad and not stayed with Mom. Because if something happens to my brain, I don’t want her to kick me out too.’ For a kid to be thinking that if they get sick, they will become unwanted or unloved by their parents or anyone for that matter can be what sent the person into a mind maze without an exit.

I also love how Liberty compared the day their dad left their home to it being the day she left from space that comparison shows us, readers, how rock bottom her life felt about things she has no control over, which makes the situation very real in my opinion. This book spoke about mental health issues perfectly for every age, and I gave it four out of five stars.

Alex