THE SYMPTOMS OF MY INSANITY

A teenage hypochondriac with large breasts learns to deal with life’s pressure and find self-acceptance in this realistic debut.

Izzy is running out of time to complete her art portfolio, her ever-expanding chest is the brunt of ogling and inappropriate jokes, and her mother’s rare stomach cancer has probably returned. Naturally, the high school sophomore assumes that her body’s idiosyncrasies must be a sign of a developing disease. There’s still some hope for Izzy when popular basketball player Blake shows an interest in her. His affection is a ruse for a hazing prank, however, and when a cellphone photo of Izzy’s bare breast goes viral, she becomes known as “Boobgirl” around school. Her internal questioning of the incident exemplifies what many teenage girls feel about sexual expectations and misguided culpability in sexual assaults. What could be tragic events for Izzy are tempered by her self-deprecating humor, plenty of female support and a chance for real romance. While some readers may be angered over the basketball players’ complete escape from accountability and prosecution, the focus of Izzy’s story is on female solidarity, particularly for women to stop being judgmental of one another. And Izzy does get her own justice in the end.

A female Woody Allen for the teenage set.