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This is a story of loss and grief and hope, and how some of the many shapes of love - maternal, romantic, and platonic - affect a young woman's struggle with mental illness and the stigma of treatment.
Seventeen-year-old Catherine Pulaski knows Zero is coming for her. Zero, the devastating depression born of Catherine's bipolar disorder, almost triumphed once; that was her first suicide attempt.
Being bipolar is forever. It never goes away. The med du jour might work right now, but Zero will be back for her. It's only a matter of time.
And so, in an old ballet-shoe box, Catherine stockpiles medications, preparing to take her own life before Zero can inflict its living death on her again. Before she goes, though, she starts a short bucket list.
The bucket list, the support of her family, new friends, and a new course of treatment all begin to lessen Catherine's sense of isolation. The problem is, her plan is already in place, and has been for so long that she might not be able to see a future beyond it.
"Recommend to readers who enjoy realistic fiction, want to learn more about bipolar disorder, or have a similar disorder." - School Library Journal
"An honest, informative, and ultimately optimistic novel about living with mental illness." - Kirkus
"Readers will experience small but meaningful victories and epiphanies alongside Catherine and be drawn to the characters of Kristal and Michael. Fans of Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) and J. J. Johnson's Believarexic (2015) will want to read this debut novel. Grades 9 and up." - Booklist
"Fortunati doesn't shy away from detailing Cath's despair but is very clear that with treatment, there is hope." - Publishers Weekly
This information about The Weight of Zero was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Karen Fortunati is a former attorney, whose experiences on the job with children and teens and personal experiences witnessing the impact of depression, bipolar disorder, and suicide inspired her to write this story of hope for those who struggle with mental illness.The Weight of Zero was just named to the prestigious Indies Introduce list for Summer/Fall 2016. The manuscript was also awarded the 2014 SCBWI Work-in-Progress Grant in the Contemporary YA category. It was named a finalist in the 2015 Tassey-Walden Awards Contest and won the Serendipity Literary Agency 2013 YA First Page/Novel Discovery Contest.
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