Meh. This was definitely a case of this book just not being for me. I didn't find the drama interesting nor did I find the "mystery" of either Alice or what is driving Ben and his secret....interesting. And I'm a little worn out about kids being misunderstood and thrown on medication and/or thrown in an asylum. None of this, in my experience, works like this. The writing was solid, however, and the story was interesting enough for me to finish to the end.

I'm a complete sucker for anything involving circuses and asylums so I HAD to read this. This book was unexpectedly amazing. The main character is in a coma for six months and dreams about Alice. When he wakes up he is desperate to find her, but starts to question if she is even real. This was a pretty great read, highly recommend.

I love that this book explored the world of mental illness and life in limbo. Alex Dunn provides an interesting take on what happens to us when are not in a state of consciousness but not yet deceased. The book had several typos that became distracting as I read, but the content of the story allowed for a fast read that hit the spot. In exploring the Gray World you learn about life, loss, desire, and the importance of making a connection.

Boy, this was a chaotic ride.  There is no gradual ramp up to the main action of the story, the book starts RIGHT THERE.  And it doesn't really let you go for the entire book.

I liked this book.  I did not like Ben's Mom.  I wanted to slap her every time she made an appearance in the book, and I didn't particularly understand Ben's deep connection to the woman.  I understood his connection to his brother and his friend, but the Mom had wronged him so much, I just don't get it. 

I think this was a good description of how society treats people with mental illness, and once you've had the label of "mentally ill" applied to your person, you can never really remove it and it colors everyone's interacti0ns with you for the rest of your life.  That's a good lesson that more people need to learn.

I didn't like the ending.  Ben deserved apologies from nearly everyone he came into contact with.  It also seems super unlikely that Alice's family would have been completely won over that easily.  I'm a Mom, and I'm telling you I wouldn't have.  Especially given the farfetched way that Alice and Ben met.  Also, the ending seems too easy and too fast.  It's like the author was told to sum it up and end everything RIGHT NOW.  It's too hurried.

I'd still recommend this book--it's a quick read, and has some good messages.  The end just feels a bit flat.

The plot was easy to follow and enjoyable. The start hooked me right away, though the pace lagged in the middle. The author did a good job giving insight to mental illness. I loved the description of the grey world. Just wish we saw more interaction with Alice.

This book was really insightful. It shone some light onto mental health and other unfamiliar aspects of depression etc. The Greyworld was a really original idea that was also engaging and made the plot that much more interesting. 

The only piece of criticism/wishes was the actual time that Ben and Alice have. I wish it was longer in the sense that we could see their relationship develop rather than just move on, making me feel I've missed out. 

However, I thoroughly enjoyed and hope to see more of these kinds of YA novels!

This is a different book for sure! Its different book in a good way! After being admitted to a mental asylum for trying to commit suicide, Ben falls into a deep depression and enters a strange grey world where nothing is what it seems.

What a head trip! The premise didn't disappoint in when it promised a Donnie Darko meets Pleasantville. I really thought the story was great and I liked the characters.

I think I was so drawn to this book because of what was said right at the end of the description to this book.. how could Ben have been in this world filled with gray and fall in love with a girl called Alice when he had been in a coma for 6 months?

I knew this was the type of book for me, I just had no idea what journey exactly I was about to go on. This book was filled with imagination and slightly reminded me of the world building in Patrick Ness' More Than This, another great book full of imaginative ideas, but this one is much shorter and at times I wished there was more to read. I wanted to fall into it completely.

Ben has suffered losses more than his body and mind can bear. It all becomes too much for Ben and in an attempt to escape from his life he tries to commit suicide. The beginning of the novel is Ben in White Waves asylum being committed by his family who want to help him. Once sectioned he thinks on what happened the night his father died and he spirals into an abyss where the whole world is gray and everyone he sees are statues. Ben can't fathom what's going on but he assumes he really has gone insane. He wanders for lifetimes around this gray and depressing world until he finds his first live person.. and she is, and I quote, a "hottie". Her name is Alice.

Almost as soon as Ben settles in and starts to enjoy this gray world he is suddenly ripped from it, and away from Alice, breaking his heart. What also breaks his heart is how his family don't believe what he's been through, largely because they have been visiting his bedside daily for the past 6 months. Ben has just woken up from a coma.

The rest of the book is Ben searching to find Alice and to save her from the gray world, trying to convince his family and best friend that he's not insane and that the gray world really does exist. Through every moment of this book I felt that desperation, depression and frustration that Ben was going through. Equally in his family, putting yourself in his shoes would you believe what he was saying?

It also made me question how we treat those with mental health issues. What if the paranoid schizophrenic whose screaming someone's name genuinely believes that the person they yell for is there? Do we try to put ourselves in their shoes or do we dismiss them as being "insane" or "crazy".

This book certainly makes you think, you have to choose whether or not you believe Ben. Is there another universe that people fall into when they slip into coma's or is Ben suffering from a serious mental health issue? 

Read the book and make your own mind up.

Crazy for Alice is a different kind of story and I don't mean that in a bad way.  They author had the ability to develop a character that has depression due to his dad's death in which he was very related but also insert this guy on a completely awesome - and in various ways metaphorical - world. The Gray World. When Ben is feeling so bad he goes deep into his thoughts, so deep that he ends up on The Gray World, there he finds Alice and he's actually happy there.

But then, he's back on normal earth where no one believes in him. Nor his mom or his brother. Everyone thinks he's just sick, mentally unstable. Ben need to get out of the clinic he's in and find his way back to Gray World so he can get together with Alice, but how?

This book is completely awesome in many ways. The story, the characters. You can actually relate to them, this is something I appreciate on a book. And I loved the way Gray World was built, no laws of physics made sense, everything seems like a dream. 

Very good writing and amazing story telling!

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, i want to say the good points. I thought this was a good read. The story takes a unique look on ideas of out of body experiences and other worlds, and links these to our mind's and our body's abilities in ways that i hadn't quite seen in a novel before.

The story started off well, got a little slow around the middle, but it picked up again in terms of how the story flowed. The plot was easy to follow and the dialogue is especially good - particularly the scenes between Ben and his family and how they feel about his mental health. The story was interesting and to the author's credit so were the characters, especially Ben's brother Gavin, whose descriptions and dialogue made it no trouble imagine how the characters would act or look.

Although, while i also understand Ben goes through a lot in this story, some of his behaviour towards Alice makes me question why she would still want him around as he can be quite jealous or obsessive, even cruel. This kind of behaviour is few and far between but still bothered me a tad in those moments.

Lastly, some of the 'twists' were a little predictable, but i still enjoyed reading them as part of the story. 

For these reasons i rated this book a 3/5.

I got this book through my newly revived net galley account and this was the first book i had landed on. I am still not sure as to what attracted me to the book. Perhaps my reason behind picking the book, Crazy for Alice lies somewhere between the impact of the cover and the name or perhaps the synopsis.  But what ever the reason was, i loved this book. Scratch that. I lived this book yes LIVED.. it was that alluring

Girl Interrupted meets The Giver meets Wristcutters: A Love Story. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Crazy For Alice.

This book is really good! I feel like most YA novels are the same and no one really brings anything new to the table, but this book definitely does. The only thing I wish is that this book wouldn't have been primarily in the real world. The grey world is really interesting and I would have liked to read more about Ben's experience there.

When I started this book I wasn't sure I was going to like it, next thing I know I'm finishing it, I read it in one sitting, and I was so deep into the story that a whole day passed and I didn't really realize it.  It was a great story, I felt angry and frustrated on a visceral level when things were happening to the main character.  There was enough action to keep it moving pretty swiftly, and I love that the love story wasn't too overpowering.  I do wish I could have learned more about their adventures in the gray world (novellas please!) it was hard to believe he'd been in there for as long as he was, the part where he was in there was so swift, the book mostly took place in the "real" world. I didn't grow to love alice like he did because I missed out on so much of what they experienced, so I couldn't figure out why he liked her so much, but regardless I still felt the powerful emotions when he was out in the real world.  I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it for sure.