Waiting for Fitz
Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde
Print and ebook, 256 pages
Published March 5th 2019 by Shadow Mountain
Addie loves nothing more than curling up on the couch with her dog, Duck, and watching The Great British Baking Show with her mom. It’s one of the few things that can help her relax when her OCD kicks into overdrive. She counts everything. All the time. She can’t stop. Rituals and rhythms. It’s exhausting.
When Fitz was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he named the voices in his head after famous country singers. The adolescent psychiatric ward at Seattle Regional Hospital isn’t exactly the ideal place to meet your soul mate, but when Addie meets Fitz, they immediately connect over their shared love of words, appreciate each other’s quick wit, and wish they could both make more sense of their lives.
Fitz is haunted by the voices in his head and often doesn't know what is real. But he feels if he can convince Addie to help him escape the psych ward and everything will be okay. If not, he risks falling into a downward spiral that may keep him in the hospital indefinitely.
Waiting for Fitz is a story about life and love, forgiveness and courage, and what’s necessary to let go and learning what is truly worth waiting for.
My thoughts about Waiting for Fitz ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)
First line—"My life took off the comedy mask and put on the tragedy mask at the end of my seventeenth year."
First of all, I just need to say that this cover is amazing. It’s one that you just need to look at for awhile to absorb all that’s there. So beautiful!
Waiting for Fitz is a heart-breaking, realistic look at mental illness, while at the same time being a heart-warming, beautiful love story—a story of two young people accepting one another just the way they are.
Addie and Fitz have an instant connection when they first meet each other in the mental hospital. She’s there for treatment of her OCD and he for schizophrenia. They form a close friendship and a tight bond—a bond that eventually leads to an escape plan. Will leaving the hospital heal them, or make them spiral downward and out of control?
The fact that the author himself was hospitalized for his own OCD gives Waiting for Fitz an authentic feel for the ups and downs of mental illness and will open readers’ eyes to this somewhat mysterious world. It is a wonderful story that should be read by all.
I received a copy of Waiting for Fitz from Shadow Mountain Publishing in exchange for my honest review.
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About the author
Spencer worked at a therapeutic boarding school before earning his MFA in Utah and his PhD in Texas, specializing in fiction. He wrote Waiting for Fitz while working as a Teaching Fellow in Denton, Texas. He is currently an assistant professor of English at Brigham Young University.
Stories have a way of changing lives—Spencer learned that the first time he picked up a Tom Stoppard play and realized that words can nudge the world and build bridges to hope.
Spencer and his wife, Brittany, are the parents of four children. They love to hike, read, watch movies, fly-fish, and bake.
Connect with Spencer
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