Pages

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Blog Tour: Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde

Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde

Book Description:

Addie loves nothing more than curling up on the couch with her dog, Duck, and watching The Great British Baking Show with her mom. It’s one of the few things that can help her relax when her OCD kicks into overdrive. She counts everything. All the time. She can’t stop. Rituals and rhythms. It’s exhausting.

When Fitz was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he named the voices in his head after famous country singers. The adolescent psychiatric ward at Seattle Regional Hospital isn’t exactly the ideal place to meet your soul mate, but when Addie meets Fitz, they immediately connect over their shared love of words, appreciate each other’s quick wit, and wish they could both make more sense of their lives.

Fitz is haunted by the voices in his head and often doesn’t know what is real. But he feels if he can convince Addie to help him escape the psych ward and get to San Juan Island, everything will be okay. If not, he risks falling into a downward spiral that may keep him in the hospital indefinitely.

Waiting for Fitz is a story about life and love, forgiveness and courage, and learning what is truly worth waiting for.

Rorie's Review:

This type of story is one that I normally don't read and I wasn't sure what to expect. This is definitely not a fast-paced, action packed story. Instead it reads more like a memoir and is fairly slow paced throughout most of the book. There is a part near the end that had me on the edge of my seat, but after that issue was resolved it went back to being slow paced. I don't think that this is a bad thing for this type of story, just be aware that that is the writing style. 

I learned a bit about mental health challenges by reading this book, and it gave me even more things to think about. I think it would be a good book for teenagers and even adults to read who are either dealing with mental health issues themselves or they know someone who has those challenges. This story does not have a happily-ever-after, all the problems are solved ending, but it is a good, realistic ending. 
 
This was a well written story and one that I would recommend to others.
 
Andrea's Review:
 
I was somewhat nervous about this book because of the unpredictability of mental illness. Was it going to be depressing and have a sad ending? Thankfully it has a happy ending. There is definitely tragedy, and it’s dealing with heavy issues, but Addie’s first person telling and her humor lightened things considerably.

This is the first thing I’ve read by Stephen Hyde. He did a great job of writing from a teen girl’s point of view (which I had been worried about because many don't have the skill to pull that off). The story is well written and engaging. I was able to connect to some of the characters and really felt for many of them.

I loved the support Addie’s mom gave her. It was exactly the opposite experience of at least one of the other characters, so that contrast really made you feel so many emotions. 

The description of the mental hospital was very interesting. I like how normal things seemed in the ward at times, and then Didi would yell out some show title. :) 

I can see myself reading this again, and I recommended it to my teenage daughter (who also liked it and thought Addie's situation was very interesting). Waiting for Fitz is clean with one mild swearword and some brief violence.
 
Tarah's Review:
 
I generally roll my eyes when I see a review on a book that says, "poignant", but honestly, this story really was. It was a very touching story, and reading the author's notes and realizing this was, to some extent, his experience, made it even more so. I honestly didn't think the author could pull off writing from a teen girls perspective, but he nailed it on the head.



I loved how Addie would surround herself with words and play with them, and Fitz was right on it with her. The book quotes Tom Stoppard who says, "I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." I enjoyed that this book wasn't as depressing as I was expecting it to be, but instead it was filled with hope (mostly, but the non-hopeful times were realistic).
 
I'm glad we got to see the relationship with Addie and her Mother. I loved that her mom would play Comedy or Tragedy with her and seemed to try really hard to understand her daughter. The love that she showed her was amazing, and it makes me want to be like that with each of my kids.
 
I already have someone in mind that I think would love this book, even though she normally only reads non-fiction. I also think this would be a great book for a book club to dive into.  
  
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91sHBSRRSnL.jpgTitle: Waiting for Fitz
Author: Spencer Hyde
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Published: March 2019
ISBN:1629725277
Source: We received copies from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
 
Purchase: Amazon | Deseret Book 

No comments:

Post a Comment