As Zoe’s illness escalates, so does the danger, and a perceived betrayal causes Zoe to desert Hannah to find her, Hannah contacts her crush in New Jersey, introducing a first love storyline. Along the way, Zoe attempts to instruct the ever-practical Hannah in such intangibilities as audacity, insouciance, and love. Wunder believably escalates Zoe’s mania, documenting her lack of sleep and appetite, racing thoughts, grandiosity, and belief that she communicates with aliens. When Hannah’s alcoholic father steals her meager college funds (earned selling hot dogs), and a playboy mistreats Zoe, prompting a manic episode, the two girls embark on a cross-country road trip. A strong setting roots the narrative as the girls bide time in their dead-end New Jersey town. Wunder ( The Probability of Miracles) tackles friendship and mental illness in this nuanced second novel about two best friends: intelligent, grounded narrator Hannah and charismatic Zoe, who has bipolar disorder.
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