For a young person navigating complex emotions, mental health challenges, and the search for belonging, this story offers a powerful journey of self-discovery and acceptance.
A parent should reach for this book when their teen feels overwhelmed by their own intense emotions and the weight of the world's problems. It is an unflinchingly honest and ultimately hopeful story about Olive, a 16-year-old girl diagnosed with OCD and anxiety. After a mental health crisis, she starts a new school with a mission: to prove people are inherently kind, believing this will cure her. The book directly addresses mental illness, therapy, and the messy, non-linear path to recovery. For older teens (14+), it's a powerful tool for normalizing mental health struggles, providing validation for those who feel too much, and sparking conversations about self-acceptance and the true meaning of kindness.
Some profanity and strong language appropriate for the characters' age and emotional states.
Substance ReferencesMild
Minor scenes involving underage drinking at a party.
Romantic ContentMild
A romantic subplot develops between characters, including kissing.
Sensitive Topics
The book deals directly and explicitly with mental illness (OCD, anxiety, depression). It includes realistic depictions of intrusive thoughts, panic attacks, and compulsions. There are non-graphic references to a past suicide attempt. The approach is secular and clinical, positively portraying therapy (CBT) and medication as tools for management. The resolution is realistic and hopeful; Olive is not 'cured' but learns coping mechanisms and finds genuine support, accepting that recovery is ongoing.
Ideal Reader
A teen, aged 14-18, who feels overwhelmed by both global issues and their own internal world. It's for the high-achieving, perfectionistic, or deeply empathetic teen who feels a crushing responsibility to 'fix' things. It would also be profoundly validating for a young person diagnosed with or questioning if they have OCD or an anxiety disorder, as well as for friends seeking to understand.
Parent Prep
Parents should be prepared for frank discussions about mental illness, including specific symptoms of OCD and anxiety. A key backstory element, 'the incident,' refers to Olive's past suicide attempt. While not graphic, it's a serious topic. Parents may want to preview chapters where Olive experiences panic attacks to understand the intensity. This book is not one to be handed over cold; it works best as a conversation starter. A parent notices their teen expressing extreme anxiety about the news, or engaging in black-and-white, catastrophic thinking. The teen might say things like, 'Everything is terrible and it's all my fault,' or become obsessed with one specific 'solution' to their problems. The parent is worried their child's empathy has turned into a source of debilitating anxiety.
Age Experience
A younger teen (14-15) may focus on the social plot: making new friends, the 'Camp Kindness' project, and the budding romance. They will relate to the feeling of being an outsider. An older teen (16-18) will likely connect more deeply with the sophisticated mental health representation, the critique of toxic positivity, and the nuanced journey toward self-acceptance over a simplistic 'cure.'
What Makes It Special
This book's brilliance lies in externalizing an internal struggle. Olive's 'Camp Kindness' is a perfect, tangible metaphor for her OCD. It avoids romanticizing mental illness, instead showing the frustrating, messy, and hard work of recovery. It uniquely critiques the 'be kind' mantra, exploring how it can become another pressure point for anxious minds.
Read plot summary
After a significant mental health episode, 16-year-old Olive moves to a new town and is diagnosed with OCD and general anxiety disorder. She becomes convinced that the world's unkindness is linked to her own mental state. She starts 'Camp Kindness' with new friends, an experiment to prove people are fundamentally good, which she believes will cure her. However, her obsessive, all-or-nothing approach to the project strains her new relationships and pushes her own mental health to the brink, forcing her to confront the reality that recovery is a complex, internal process, not an external project.
This overview was generated by AI based on the book's content and reviews, and may not capture every nuance.
Discussion Prompts
1
Olive's 'Camp Kindness' project is her attempt to fix herself by fixing the world. In what ways did the project help her, and in what ways did it reflect the patterns of her OCD?
2
The title asks if we are all 'lemmings' (followers) or 'snowflakes' (uniquely special and fragile). How do Olive and her friends grapple with these two labels throughout the story?
3
Dr. Anvi tells Olive that recovery is not a straight line. Find a moment in the book where Olive makes progress and another where she has a setback. Why is showing both important?
4
Compare the friendship and support Olive receives from Kian versus Jamie. What did each friend offer her that was different, and what did she need most from them by the end of the book?
