There needs to be an open discussion about mental health. And what better way to stand up to the stigma than to read fiction books that portray the topic perfectly. Readers appreciate to have characters that we can connect with and see as real people. So for Mental Awareness Month, here is a list of books that portray mental illness more realistically:

All the Bright Places – Jennifer Niven

Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell

Everything Everything – Nicola Yoon

The Awakening – Kate Chopin

The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

Every Last Word – Tamara Ireland Stone

It’s Kind of a Funny Story – Ned Vizzini

Looking for Alaska – John Green

 White Oleander – Janet Fitch

Beloved – Toni Morrison

The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides

Thirteen Reasons Why – Jay Asher

The Rest of Us Just Live Here – Patrick Ness

A Court of Mist and Fury – Sarah J. Maas

More Happy Than Not – Adam Silvera

The Silver Linings Playbook – Matthew Quick

The Catcher in the Rye – J.D Salinger

Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Challenger Deep – Neal Shusterman

The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky

Finding Audrey – Sophie Kinsella

Dancing on Broken Glass – Ka Hancock

Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson

Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

The Grownup – Gillian Flynn

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte