A BLUE SO DARK by Holly Schindler

A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(from Goodreads)

Fifteen-year-old Aura Ambrose has been hiding a secret. Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura's dad left them. Convinced that "creative" equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent. But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination. Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears.


This book is told through the eyes of Aura, whose mother has schizophrenia.

Aura is only 15 (I think I said 16 or 17 in my vlog), but she didn't have her license yet. Anyway, her father left a few years ago when he couldn't deal with her mothers health issues anymore and started a new life and family for himself, and thus didn't want to be involved in Aura and her mothers anymore.

This left only Aura and her mother to fend for each other. At first Aura's mother was doing OK, but slowly, and then faster and faster it started spinning out of control! Her mother was off her meds which helped to keep her stabilized and this was taking its toll on her.

Poor Aura was left to take of her mother all by herself. She called her father once and her best friend, but neither of them wanted to be bothered or could be bothered. With no one there to help, Aura started missing a lot of school, driving illegally to get chores done (since her mom couldn't) and just trying to keep the bills paid and the house from burning down (which almost did happen).

Aura was trying to keep her mothers sickness a secret because she didn't want her mother to be taken away like her grandfather was years ago for the same thing. There was a lot of hostility between Auras mom and Auras grandma because of that and so Aura was doing what she thought was best.

Before you knew it though, everything got too much for Aura and her mom spiraled down and way out of control and Aura had no choice but to go call her grandma and involve her.

This story is about loyalty, family, friends, mental health and what we do for the ones we love.

Aura was a very strong character for being able to take care of her mom the way she did, but I also was a little annoyed with her at times because when things were getting really bad, I was yelling at the book..."Tell someone! Tell someone!"...I really like Auras grandmother too because she was def a strong lady who wasn't too proud to admit to her mistakes and try to make amends. And she doesn't quit trying when she met with resistance which I really admired.

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