Review by Cid V Brunet
Arsenal Pulp Press. May, 2025.
294 pages, paperback.
CAD $19.95
ISBN 9781551529813
YA.
Autofiction / contemporary realism
My favorite thing about this theory is that it means Gung Gung is still alive in a million other worlds. In a bunch of those other worlds, I don’t have mental illness. Somewhere out there is an un-fucked-up Mira eating guilt-free McDonald’s with her Gung Gung after another day of normal high school. If that’s not science fiction, then I don’t know what is.
Léa Taranto’s debut YA novel, A Drop in the Ocean, brings readers into the life of teenaged protagonist Mira, who has been institutionalized at the Residency Adolescent Treatment Centre for obsessive compulsive and comorbid disorders. Drawing from her own lived experience, Taranto has written this auto-fictional novel straight from her heart. Through Mira, Taranto has penned a fiercely loyal and loveably articulate protagonist who is brutally honest, full of empathy, and impossible not to root for.
The narrative balances more typical teenage escapades, like getting an impulsive stick-and-poke tattoo, against realities specific to Mira’s situation, like having to make a safety plan to go for an off-ward sleepover at her own home. Mira’s psychiatrist, Doctor Grant, challenges Mira to use cognitive behavioural therapy, which Mira jokingly refers to as “craptastic brain torture,” to fight her cognitive distortions. While she struggles to integrate new ways of thinking to intervene against her own intrusive thoughts, compulsive rituals, and self-harming behaviours, she makes friends, falls in love with her crush, Nick from Ward 1, and mourns the death of her beloved Gung Gung. Readers are right there with Mira, witness to her grief, self-hatred and inner-turmoil alongside her tenderness, curiosity, and her profound insights into mental health. ADITO can be read as a multifaceted love story because it is Mira’s love for Nick, for her family, and for herself, that fuels her motivation to heal.
A lover of fantasy novels and an avid journaler, Mira dreams of becoming an author one day. Her embodied writing style and awareness of her readers gives the novel a diary-like intimacy reminiscent of Anne Frank’s, The Diary of a Young Girl. Like Anne, Mira’s writing style creates an incredibly close proximity between her and her reader; she holds nothing back.
ADITO made me rethink everything I thought I knew about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD); it teaches while defying stereotypes and smashing stigma. Because Mira refuses to sugar-coat her reality, this book does include scenes of self-harm. However, these deeply affecting scenes are highly nuanced and essential to understanding the particular challenges that Mira faces. This novel could be a wonderful companion for anyone who has OCD or wants to learn more about it. In fact, any teenager who is struggling might feel especially seen by this work as Mira gives voice to the kinds of struggles that are rarely described, let alone discussed with such vulnerability and literary flair.
This endearing novel will leave you with a unique joie de vivre as Mira allows herself to change, and to be changed by the people she loves, as they love and care for her. As Mira’s Poh Poh says to her, “Life is change.”
Cid V Brunet (they/them) published their debut memoir, This Is My Real Name with Arsenal Pulp Press in 2021. Currently, Cid is completing an MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia while working as a freelancer and editor. When not working on their upcoming historical fiction novel, Cid enjoys time with their new dog, weightlifting, and caring for an ever-growing collection of houseplants.
If you want to read more from Léa and Cid, check out this interview they carried out this summer!
YOUNG ADULTING 