Finding Alice [Paperback]

Melody Carlson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2003

Sliding into the Rabbit Hole… Would She Ever Return?

On the surface, Alice Laxton seems no different from any other college girl: bright, inquisitive, excited about the life ahead of her. But for years, a genetic time bomb has been ticking away. Because of Alice’s near-genius intelligence, teachers and counselors have always made excuses for her “little idiosyncrasies.” But during a stress-filled senior year at college, a new world of voices, visions, and unexplainable “knowledge” causes Alice to begin to lose her grip on reality.

As Alice’s schizophrenia progresses, she experiences a disturbing religious “awakening,” believing that God and angels and demons are speaking to her. When others attempt to intervene, Alice is subjected to a wide range of “treatments” even more frightening and painful than her illness.

Powerfully raw and brutally honest, Finding Alice is a story of individual suffering and hope, a family’s shared ordeal, and a search for true mental and spiritual healing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The award-winning Carlson has penned more than 90 books for the CBA market, and her experience is in full evidence here. Using the allegorical characters and imagery of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carlson unfolds the tale of Alice Laxton, a smart, talented senior at Oregon's Portland State whose life is about to be irrevocably changed by the onset of full-blown schizophrenia. As Alice moves deeper into paranoid delusions, her alarmed mother attempts to have her "demons" cast out by the pastor at Salvation Center, the family's fundamentalist church, then takes her to a mental hospital. After rebelling against treatment, Alice escapes to the streets. She soon acquires a sickly cat, predictably named Cheshire. The "Cat Lady" Faye offers healing for the kitty, a temporary home for Alice and the keys to finding wholeness again-and possibly romance with her nephew, Simon. As Alice gropes toward mental healing, she also finds spiritual healing from her distorted view that schizophrenia is a punishment for her sins. The excellent choice of first-person narrative draws the reader into close identification with Alice, and her bizarre illusions and paranoia feel poignant and believable. The pacing slows a bit toward the end, and some of the scenes where Alice temporarily hooks up with a group of hippies are reminiscent of Carlson's novel Looking for Cassandra Jane. But kudos to Carlson for tackling this disturbing topic in ways that should broaden an understanding of schizophrenia and have crossover appeal to both the CBA and general market.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Sliding into the Rabbit Hole… Would She Ever Return?

On the surface, Alice Laxton seems no different from any other college girl: bright, inquisitive, excited about the life ahead of her. But for years, a genetic time bomb has been ticking away. Because of Alice's near-genius intelligence, teachers and counselors have always made excuses for her "little idiosyncrasies." But during a stress-filled senior year at college, a new world of voices, visions, and unexplainable "knowledge" causes Alice to begin to lose her grip on reality.

As Alice's schizophrenia progresses, she experiences a disturbing religious "awakening," believing that God and angels and demons are speaking to her. When others attempt to intervene, Alice is subjected to a wide range of "treatments" even more frightening and painful than her illness.

Powerfully raw and brutally honest, Finding Alice is a story of individual suffering and hope, a family's shared ordeal, and a search for true mental and spiritual healing.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press; 1 edition (September 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578567734
• ISBN-13: 978-1578567737
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #383,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Melody Carlson has written around 200 books for teens, women and children. That's a lot of books, but mostly she considers herself a "storyteller." Her books range from serious issues like schizophrenia (Finding Alice) to lighter topics like house-flipping (A Mile in My Flip-Flops) but most of the inspiration behind her fiction comes right out of real life. Her young adult novels (Diary of a Teenage Girl, TrueColors etc.) appeal to teenage girls around the world. Her annual Christmas novellas become more popular each year. She's won a number of awards (including the Rita and Gold Medallion) and some of her books have been optioned for film/TV. Carlson has two grown sons and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab dog. To find out more about Melody Carlson, visit her website at http://www.melodycarlson.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book review of what I lived through!, October 18, 2003

By 

Gail K Kroll "ECLECTIC READER AND LISTENER" (Northbrook, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finding Alice (Paperback)

It's almost as Alice lived my life of two psychosis. Yet? There are some differences. I cried through it, laughed through it, and got anxious as she often does through it. Do you want to KNOW what going through a mental disorder can do to you? READ THIS BOOK AND WALK THOUGH ALICE'S ORDEAL! In fact Alice had it WAY better than I did! She's only now a senior in college. I am fifty years old now and was 19 and 23 when my illnesses were full blown. Thank you Melody Carlson for letting me escape some of my terrible past and reaffirm the spiritual healing that God can bring to me besides my psychologist = (talk therapy)and psychiatrist = (medication check-up)!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book on mental illness, February 13, 2004

By 

lor369 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding Alice (Paperback)

This book is about a young woman, Alice, who struggles with schizophrenia. At first, her mother's church tries exorcising the demons out. When that didn't work, she is dragged to a horrible mental hospital where she is doped up. She then escapes to the streets, until she is led to a kind woman (Faye) who takes her and her cat in. She then finds help at the Golden House through Faye's nephew, Simon.

This book is very thoroughly researched, with different treatment approaches presented, from the tradition approach, used at Forest Hills, to a more progressive approach, used at the Golden House. Carlson talks about all the different symptoms and things people with schizophrenia deals with. I've visited some of the websites listed in the back of Carlson's book and have found that what she has in her book is in line with what is on the website.

Carlson also talks about the view that some churches hold on mental illnesses. Some churches believe that mental illnesses are caused by sin problems. Unfortunately, that point of view is not helpful to the person with the mental illness and that is brought out in this book.

I also liked how Carlson told the book from the first person perspective. This gave the reader an idea of what all Alice was going through, her feelings, fears, and how she perceived the world. All this gives an accurate description of what a schizophrenic goes through.

And I wish we had more treatment places such as the Golden House for people who are mentally ill. Patients are treated with so much respect and dignity, as opposed to some of the traditional mental institutions where patients are treated more like animals than humans.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Skillful and Unique, December 25, 2007

By 

Allyn "pianogirl" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Finding Alice (Paperback)

For some, the frightening descent into full-blown paranoid schizophrenia is rapid. Alice Laxton, an intelligent and seemingly "normal" senior at an Oregon university, finds her life spinning out of control after a break-up from her boyfriend triggers the beginning of a long list of eerie symptoms. First, Alice begins hearing the insistent voice of "Amelia." Then she begins to suspect that everyone is plotting to hurt her. Finally, the cruel tricks that schizophrenia plays on her mind take her places she never imagined...back to the confines of her strict fundamentalist Christian home, to the streets, and to strange places of healing that Alice never believed she'd find.

Carlson has done a masterful job crafting this novel about schizophrenia. The first person narration works perfectly, giving Alice's voice a poignancy it would not have had otherwise. As Alice narrates her story with the perfect mixture of realism and intelligent eloquence, readers will feel as if they are living through schizophrenia along with her-fighting to figure out what is real and what is merely a part of a diseased imagination, wondering if a broken life can ever be truly repaired, and sometimes being forced to accept kindness from unlikely sources. And speaking of those unlikely sources of kindness, the supporting characters in this novel (in typical Carlson fashion) are well-drawn and unique. But beyond being a novel that is easy to get lost in, "Finding Alice" is also an enlightening look at mental illness in the context of a Christian worldview and a brave exploration of a subject that seems to be rarely addressed in Christian fiction. Kudos to Carlson for choosing to forgo the cliched "Western frontier" settings and instead writing about a fresh subject with universal relevance. If you enjoyed "Looking For Cassandra Jane," you will definitely find this genuine, hope-filled story equally satisfying.