Third Quater Outside Reading Book Review

Total Constant Order by Crissa-Jean Chappell. Harper Collins Publishers, October 2007. Genre: Realistic Fiction

Fin, 15 year old freshman girl, has been forced into the life of living with divorced parents. After being moved from the town in Vermont where she had grown up, to southern Florida, her parents have decided to separate. With all these hard changes, Fin has developed obsessive compulsive disorder, a genetic disorder known as OCD. This problem of hers causes Fin to have voices in her head making her listen, count objects, and perform rituals to make sure she's "safe" from harm. While at her new school, Frances as she was born named, is sort of an outcast and has trouble making new friends. However, a secret pen pal she meets in the bathroom, named Thayer becomes her new mate. The two are both troubled from life and rely on each other for friendship and moral support.

"Plenty of kids, OCD or not, will...find the exploration of disorder and identity thought-provoking." ALA Book list

Fin goes to therapy since her mom has noticed her drastic changes in mood and activities. There, she is diagnosed with her disorder and her therapist teaches her to cope and eventually being able to cut out her rituals from her life. While seeing her therapist, Fin admits the troubles she and her mother have and comes to find out that her mother was the one who passed down OCD. Since the two living together brings out a lot of stress in the house, Fin goes to hang out with Thayer quite often where he gets her to smoke pot since he is a troubled kid himself. The two friends eventually grow to like each other.

""And how did you feel about that?" she asked.
"Stupid. I mean, what a waste of time. Why can't art mean different things to different people? It's like asking us to see the world the same way, which is impossible.""


This book was alright to me. It helped me understand more how people with OCD live a harder life and can relate to feeling how much of an outcast they feel. Also I liked how Chappell really got to the bare details of how much anxiety they have. Personally, I don't think I could ever live like those people. Meaning having the constant obsession of making sure everything is right in your mind. Though, I'm sure those people wouldn't like it either and it's just a thing they have to live with and get through. I also liked how the author really developed Fin in the book since she had to suffer through such changes in such short time.