The Edge of Brilliance by Susan Traugh **Review**

Volatile and unstable, Amy stands at the precipice. Will she fall into the chaos and despair of insanity or ascend into brilliance and redemption?

Amy Miles is fifteen and crazy. Or, at least that’s her greatest fear. Her severe bipolar disorder, with its roller coaster manic and depressive episodes, is ruining her life. Yet in Amy’s mind it is accepting the pills and therapy—not the disease—that will brand her as ’crazy’.

When Amy lands in a residential psychiatric program, she befriends take-charge Mallory and the two create family and try to salvage the shards of their broken minds. There, Amy discovers that her illicit drug use has robbed her of her ability to dance and she is forced to weigh how hard she is willing to work to reclaim her lost talent and potential. But, despite a promising beginning, when Amy falls back into denial, the tragic consequences cannot be undone.

Amy is left to decide whether to give up altogether or accept her diagnosis and the tools she needs to battle her disease, to learn to dance again and forge a new and improved version of herself. Will she step up to the edge of her brilliance and shine?

***Reader Advisory: This book contains strong language and also includes scenes involving drug use, rape, violence. This book also includes a frank exploration of mental illness and loss of autonomy.***

Review:
One of the reasons I was interested in this book because one of my minors is clinical psychology and Amy has bipolar disorder. This book highlights this specific mental disorder in I think - a realistic and kind way. 
The story for the reader is - we are essentially following Amy, the main character who has the mental illness - around her day to day life as a teenager going through life with this mental disorder. She does not like to take her medication, which I am sure a lot of people go through this. This was such an insightful read for any reader. It was obvious that the author wrote about something she knows first-hand and personally about. The stigma and cliche needs to be taken out of psychopathy and this book does a lovely job of that. This book was honest, readable, and keeps the reader turning the pages.