This was a fascinating book. I'm not really sure what I thought about it, but it has definitely stuck with me. Lucy, the narrator, was hit by a car when she was very little, which left her with brain damage. Because of this her voice is...well, not something I encounter too much in the books I read. I very much enjoyed Lucy, but the plot was just so so. I feel like the author tried to hard to make something happen and should have focused more on the characterization. ( )

After suffering a head injury during childhood, Lucy struggles to adapt to life without a safety net, that is, her brother.

Lucy is a curious mix of intelligence and disability. As a narrator, she is sometimes difficult to understand, but I found myself empathizing with her and wondering just how she would manage. Grief is a prominent theme, but there is also a sense of hope. ( )

This book was so sweetly and movingly told---especially with the author's comments that her older sister, experiencing a brain injury in childhood, provided the drawings in her novel and also the book's inspiration. Written from Lucy's perspective was a revealing way to see the world---both convincing and upsetting in comparison to having a brain that works in what is a more normal pattern. The relationship between Lucy and Nate, her brother, was a big part of the story and beautiful as it developed. ( )

Piece of Mind has its flaws—its weakness of resolution, its underdeveloped secondary characters, its saccharine-sweet storytelling—but at its heart is the extremely captivating mind of Lucy. Lucy is such a perfect blend of sweet and dysfunctional that it's difficult not to feel endearment toward her. Her messy, scattered way of living—the result of a brain injury suffered as a child—ensures difficult relations with everyone in her circle. In some ways, Lucy is a fully-functional adult; in others she is forever locked in her three-year-old frame of mind. Despite her frailty, or perhaps because of it, Lucy is lovable. She is eccentric and electric; her friends and family love her despite her flaws. Similarly, readers may love this book in spite of its flaws, choosing instead to focus on the sweetness that is Lucy.

Without Lucy, Adelman's novel would have suffered altogether too much from contrivances that saturate the plot and secondary characters (Nate and Frank excluded) that were vapid. With Lucy, Piece of Mind did the best it could. In my opinion, that would be 3.5 stars at most. I liked Lucy and I wanted better for her, but I desired a richer story that really put Lucy through the ringer without blaming her. In a different setting, a different universe, I could've really felt some deep empathy for Lucy, a sense of human connection. Here, I merely felt an affection, similar to the way a person may feel for their pet cat. Oh, you made a mess again, you rascal! I wish you'd stop breaking all my breakables, but I don't care 'cause you're so adorable and I can't help but love you. ( )