Book Review - Atticus - Juno Jakob (2025 #13)

Atticus by Juno Jakob
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Written during hospitalisation for schizophrenia and depression, Juno Jakob's debut adult novel is a look at the complex puzzle of mental illness, life on a psychiatric ward and the power of love and friendship. In October of 2008, twenty-seven-year-old Dylan Samuel is sectioned at St. John's Psychiatric Hospital following a mental breakdown and diagnosis of schizophrenia. During his involuntary stay and with the help of his psychiatrist, Dr. Francis Romero and a kind hallucination, a fox named Atticus, Dylan navigates the ward as well as the broken parts of his mind and begins a road to recovery.

This book details living with schizophrenia, in particular during hospitalization. It's a hard read in that it's graphic - bad language occurs frequently throughout the book and it's dark. But it feels truthful and although sad at times it is also hopeful.

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