At a glance
Pages336
First published2010
Setting1970s America, era of desegregation and busing
Reading time~9h
AudienceAdult
ISBN0061984035
About the Author
Susan Henderson1 book reviewed
Up from the Blue
A Powerful Coming-of-Age Story
by Susan Henderson
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for: Readers of literary family dramas — especially those drawn to mother-daughter stories, compassionate fiction about mental illness, and 1970s-set coming-of-age narratives in the vein of The Glass Castle.
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Up from the Blue is Susan Henderson's debut novel about eight-year-old Tillie, whose mother — a 1970s housewife living with bipolar illness — vanishes without explanation, with a dual timeline following young Tillie's discoveries and adult Tillie's reckoning with the estrangement that followed. LuvemBooks' verdict: this is a quiet, emotionally precise literary debut best suited to readers of family drama who value character and emotional truth over plot mechanics. The key caveat is that the mystery is secondary to the emotional portrait — anyone expecting a propulsive whodunit may find it slow, and the subject matter is heavy by design.
- Is it worth reading?
- Yes, for the right reader: advance praise carried in the publisher's materials was warm, with Sarah-Kate Lynch in New Zealand Woman's Weekly calling it an incredibly accomplished, "totally enthralling" debut, and Nicky Pellegrino in the New Zealand Herald praising it as an engrossing, sensitively written portrait of a family struggling with mental illness. Its admirers consistently single out its honest interest in forgiveness — whether a daughter can understand a mother who left and a father who let the silence stand. The caveats: documented reception is modest in scale, the mystery is secondary to the emotional drama, and the subject matter is heavy going by design.
- Similar books
- Readers drawn to Henderson's portrait of a family fractured by silence should consider her later novel The Flicker of Old Dreams, Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You, which likewise opens with a family loss and excavates the secrets beneath it, and Joyce Carol Oates's We Were the Mulvaneys, another story of a family undone by what it cannot say aloud. Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones shares the child-narrated aftermath of a family tragedy, while Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead offers a more recent, acclaimed child-perspective coming-of-age story shaped by a parent's illness. Publisher comparisons also point toward Jennifer McMahon, Katrina Kittle, and Laura Kasischke, and at least one reader reached for Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle as the nearest reference point.
- Who should read this?
- It suits readers of literary family dramas who value character and emotional truth over plot mechanics — those drawn to mother-daughter stories, to fiction about mental illness handled with compassion, or to 1970s-set coming-of-age narratives. It is also a strong match for readers who appreciated Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle or novelists like Jennifer McMahon and Katrina Kittle. Readers expecting a propulsive mystery should look elsewhere.
- Is it a good book club pick?
- Yes — at 336 pages it is a compact, self-contained read, and its central questions are built for discussion: whether a daughter can understand a mother who left, a father who let the silence stand, and whether the stories families tell to protect themselves do their own damage. The 1970s backdrop of desegregation, busing, and early feminism gives groups a second axis of conversation about how era and stigma shaped the family's choices. The main practical caveat is the weight of the material — groups should be ready for an emotionally heavy discussion rather than a puzzle-solving one.
- What should sensitive readers know?
- The novel's emotional core is a mother's bipolar illness and the stigma surrounding it in an era with little language or tolerance for it, and the plot turns on her unexplained disappearance. Readers should also expect sustained family estrangement — the relationship between Tillie and her father has been frozen since the year her mother vanished — and the portrait of a family's shame and silence is unflinching by design. It is a compassionate rather than sensational treatment, but it is heavy going throughout.
- Where should I start with Susan Henderson?
- This debut is the natural starting point — it is the novel that established Henderson's signature territory of family shame, mental illness, and a child trying to make sense of adult silence. Readers who respond to it can continue to her later novel The Flicker of Old Dreams. Henderson also came to fiction with a Pushcart Prize nomination and a visible presence as the founder of the writers' community LitPark.com.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
Is it a good book club pick?
What should sensitive readers know?
Where should I start with Susan Henderson?
Summarize this book
Susan Henderson's debut novel, published by Harper Perennial in 2010, follows eight-year-old Tillie in 1970s America after her mother — a housewife living with bipolar illness — vanishes without explanation. A dual timeline interweaves young Tillie's startling discoveries about what actually happened with grown Tillie, whose relationships remain stuck in the past and whose bond with her father has been frozen since the year of the disappearance. Set against desegregation, school busing, and early feminism, the novel is fundamentally about what a family does — and hides — when one of its members is unwell in an era with little language or tolerance for it.
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Ages 16+
Reading level
Adult
3 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
a parent's bipolar illness and psychiatric hospitalization-era stigma
a mother's unexplained disappearance
sustained family estrangement and parent-child conflict
Best for: Adults / mature 16+ — written as adult literary fiction; its sustained treatment of a mother's bipolar illness, disappearance, and a family's shame is pitched at adult readers.
Skip if you want a propulsive whodunit — the mystery of the mother's disappearance is secondary to the emotional family drama, and the pacing reflects that.
Editorial Review
Up from the Blue is Susan Henderson's debut novel (Harper Perennial), following eight-year-old Tillie after her mother mysteriously vanishes in 1970s America. Part mystery, part coming-of-age story, it turns on family shame and the stigma of mental illness.
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