Challenger Deep is a novel by Neal Shusterman. It was inspired by real-life and family events, with his son providing the illustrations.
Caden Bosch is on a ship, but he's also running for track at school. The captain and the parrot give him conflicting advice as he tries to record the journey with illustrations. One day, he ends up spending the whole night out, much to his parents' fear and concern.
Tropes for this include:
- Ambiguous Disorder: While Caden is diagnosed with schizophrenia, his doctors acknowledge that they aren't completely sure because mental health isn't cookie-cutter. Caden hates the subsequent cocktail of meds because the side effects suck and he isn't even sure which pills are helping him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Towards the end, Caden acknowledges that he's not getting a cure for psychosis and schizophrenic hallucinations. His roommate also died, and deprived him of a counselor he liked. Even so, he is deemed well enough to leave the psych ward.
- The Cake Is a Lie: The kids sarcastically quote this to Gladys when she introduces herself as their new counselor after the previous one is forced to resign, going with Malicious Misnaming and calling her "Glados".
- Insane Equals Violent: Subverted. Caden's parents are actually scared that they find him practically catatonic and would rather if he reacted. He only displays one moment of violence in his hallucinations when blaming the parrot for the cabin boy's death.
- Mind Screwdriver: We eventually find out that Caden isn't on a ship — as far as we know— but is experiencing vivid hallucinations. His decision to recognize that helps him recover, incrementally.
- Sadistic Choice: Caden can either listen to the captain or the parrot about how the journey will go. He strangles the parrot when the cabin boy aka his roommate in the psych ward dies.
- The Scapegoat: Caden's original counselor is fired when a boy dies on his watch, even though as Caden points out, he wasn't even at work when the suicide happened. For this reason, Caden the ship artist strangles the parrot, who's a stand-in for Dr. Poirot. Conversely, the kids in the group treat his replacement Gladys with hostility for the crime of reminding them why their original counselor isn't here.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Much of the story is written through Caden's hallucinations. Even worse, we're not sure if he is actually seeing a parallel universe or not.
- Wham Line: The author's note reveals that Neal's son Brendan, who provided the illustrations, was diagnosed with psychosis.
