Category: Young Adult/Teen Type: Fiction
Pages: 131
Copyright: April 27, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780984723607
A young girl named Dot romanticizes her unique state of despair. Through a series of humorous, melodramatic events, Dot sets on a quest to finally and officially be declared "clinically depressed."
If you are looking for flowers and sunshine, you’ve come to the wrong place. If you are squeamish, frail, or susceptible to uncontrollable cheeriness, put this book down right now and walk away! This book is about doom and gloom and perpetual despair. It is about the dismal thoughts of a hopelessly depressed young girl and her quest to finally be declared “clinical.” Monsters and demons and an endless abyss are what await you here.
If, however, you accept the fact that the world is forlorn and desolate, you may have just found yourself a soul mate. Approach with caution. Be sure to have lots of chocolate chip ice cream on hand, as well as 14 boxes of tissues and the name of a good psychiatrist. Whatever you do, absolutely do NOT read this book unless you are clinically depressed. You were warned.
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Reviews for "Dismal Thoughts"
Reviewed by Heather Strauss
6/10/2012
Upon receiving “Dismal Thoughts” by C. Amethyst Frost, I wasn’t sure what I was in for. I checked out the author’s web page and wondered, again, what I was in for when she states on her blog “I’m a writer. Don’t piss me off or I will write you into one of my books and kill you. Or I might use my journalist’s pen to change your whole life’s profile. Even worse, I have technical writing skills. So I can bore you to death.” I think being written into someone’s book and being killed off would be really neat but am I willing to trash her book to get there?
Alas, I read the book and sighed because once I finished I knew that I would not be killed off in the author’s next book. “Dismal Thoughts” is a story about a young girl (tween/teen??) who is determined to be declared clinically depressed but is having a hard time convincing her parents and other adults that she needs to be taken to a psychiatrist so that she can finally get this diagnosis. This story reminds me a lot of another series that I really love, “Emily the Strange”. I like stories that are a little on the morbid side but that have a sense of humor. “Dismal Thoughts” is that type of story.
Ms. Frost has a fun way with words and I love her descriptions in the book such as “The sky is the color of white underwear accidentally washed with dark clothes”. This book will appeal mostly to girls who are tween/teen who can identify with the main character, Dolores Olivia Tribble (aka Dot). I also really liked Pubert and Molly. I won’t spoil who they are, but they are really fun! My only issue was I couldn’t really figure out how old the main character was. In a lot of ways she was like a teenager in the ways that she was trying to figure out how to get others to notice she is depressed (loved the lists!). But in other ways she seemed rather young (such as having playdates and not knowing what a pediatrician is).
Ms. Frost caught me when I saw the cover of the book and the warning not to read unless you are clinically depressed. I think that Dot is an adorable character who lends herself to more books, possibly a series? As I stated above, my only real qualm was trying to figure out Dot’s age. But that is a very minor qualm. I recommend this book for any tween/teen girl who is trying to figure out her place in this world. This book has a lot of humor and I think that girls will really identify with some of the issues that Dot is facing.
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