Rainbow in the Dark
HarperCollins · Hardcover · August 10, 2021
The Wizard of Oz meets Ready Player One in this darkly comic YA novel about identity, depression, giving up, and finding your way home.
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- Who it’s for
- A darkly comic, game-like journey pairs absurdist humor with a sensitive look at depression and identity.
- Themes
- Identity and memory, Depression and suicide, Finding a way home
- Pacing
- Fast
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Start with this bookAbout this book
The Wizard of Oz meets Ready Player One in this darkly comic YA novel about identity, depression, giving up, and finding your way home. High school senior Rainbow is trapped with three other teens in a game-like world that may or may not be real. Together, they must complete quests and gain experience in order to access their own forgotten memories, decode what has happened to them, and find a portal home.
Continue reading
As Rainbow’s memories slowly return, the story of a lonely teen facing senior year as the new kid in a small town emerges. Surreal, absurdist humor balances sensitively handled themes of suicide, depression, and the search for identity in an unpredictable and ultimately hopeful page-turner that's perfect for fans of Shaun David Hutchinson, Adam Silvera, and Libba Bray's Going Bovine.
Surreal, Tender, Unsettling
A darkly comic, game-like journey pairs absurdist humor with a sensitive look at depression and identity.
Come here for
- Quests and returning memories in a world that may not be real
- Humor that sits beside serious themes without making them easy
Expect
- A sustained, unpredictable search for a way home
- An ultimately hopeful tone around difficult material
Where it sits
| Depression for Teens | 67% |
|---|---|
| Mental Illness for Teens | 41% |
| Teen Suicide | 41% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- YA Adventure
- Contemporary YA Fantasy
- Dark Comedy YA
- Mental Illness for Teens
Show all 5 publisher categories
- Teen Suicide
- Authors
- Sean McGinty
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- August 10, 2021
- Format
- Hardcover
- Theme
- Identity and memory · Depression and suicide · Finding a way home
- Reading lane
- YA Adventure