MIND OVER MONSTERS

What’s a chronic worrier to do when a meditation app brings one’s fears to life?

Seventh grader Lena Lennox worries so much that she literally pulls her hair out, but some of her worries are well founded. Her strong-minded best friend, Regina, has “gone pretty” and turned boy-crazy. Her brisk, problem-solving mother shows little sympathy or patience for Lena’s mental health struggles. And when Lena and other anxiety-prone students from Cranberry Bog Middle School are chosen to test the De-stress-o-rama! mindfulness meditation app prior to schoolwide implementation, they discover that the section on facing your fears actually brings those terrors to life. Surprising herself, Lena, who’s white, rallies the racially diverse, self-dubbed Worriers into action—but can they protect the entire school? This book features hilariously wry metaphors, observations, and dialogue. Its sensitive portrayal of Lena’s struggles with navigating anxiety and relationships rings true. However, overall, the story grapples with its identity: There’s a mismatch in tone between the perceptive mental health theme and the humorous horror of the inexplicably incarnated fears and the kids’ cartoonworthy attempts to dispel them. In addition, the initial lengthy focus on Lena’s worries may lose readers who are in search of horror thrills. While the secondary characters are quirky and fun, especially Lena’s father and brother, the six Worriers besides Lena are thinly developed, and readers may find tracking them challenging.

A thoughtful anxiety story imperfectly dovetailed with a light horror romp.