Krista reviews: Fig by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
Love and sacrifice intertwine in this brilliant and provocative debut of rare beauty about a girl dealing with her mother’s schizophrenia and her own mental illness.
This book crossed my path at an unexpected time in my life. I went into it almost blind, only having skimmed the summary and catching a few of my favourite keywords. What I found was a story that was so powerful it still remains in my thoughts to this day (weeks after I have finished it): a story that I wanted to re-visit and tell others about.
Fig begins her tale at the age of 6 and continues it until she is 19, a year that she is dreading. Her anticipation of that date carries an almost ominous feeling throughout the story. The majority of the narrative is from a younger perspective, and Fig tells it like it is. When her mother becomes mentally ill, she faces being separated from her. Her main focus becomes how to make her mother better again, and how to get the family to return to the days before it all went wrong.
Fig struggles not only with family issues but her adolescence in general. She has never had any close friends, and in her small town she is teased because of her mother. Her father also feels the emptiness in the household and turns to his routine of running the farm and worrying about finances. This leads Fig to spend more time with her grandmother, whom she has never really liked, and her uncle who she admires but who has a tendency to not sit still for too long.
This story was so beautifully written. Being swept into Fig’s world as she tries to figure out how to make things better was a very emotional experience. I don’t usually cry when I read, but this one has me as close as I’ve ever been. There were so many sides to Fig as we see the different way the characters cope living with mental illness. Not only has this book become one of my favourites of the year, but also one of my all-time YA books ever.
Can you tell that it’s a book that I recommend you to read too? I HIGHLY recommend it.
