Highly Illogical Behavior is the third Young Adult novel by John Corey Whaley, a former teacher turned full time YA novelist. Published in 2016, Highly Illogical Behavior was named an NPR Best Book of 2016, a Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction of 2016, among other accolades. Published by SPEAK, an imprint of Penguin Random House, this novel represents the Young Adult fiction genre often referred to as “Teen Fiction.” Like many YA novels, Highly Illogical Behavior explores the relationships teenagers have with their own developing selves, their changing friends, and their families. YA novels typically explore a coming-of-age story as teenagers learn to navigate the world around them. Highly Illogical Behavior also explores mental illness, another popular trope in contemporary YA literature.

The structure of the novel is told in a third-person omniscient narration, but each chapter focuses specifically on either Solomon or Lisa. Because the reader goes back and forth between the two, Whaley uses dramatic irony to keep the reader engaged in the characters’ development as the plot unfurls. Often, the narrator speaks directly to the reader, as if it’s a journal being read aloud to a group of people. This is also representative of the YA genre, which uses colloquial and contemporary informal language to relate directly to its reader.

Plot Summary

Highly Illogical Behavior tells the story of three teenagers who come together because one of them, an ambitious 17-year-old named Lisa Praytor, wants to get a scholarship for college. Lisa is determined to live a life vastly different from her unstable mother, and she finds her opportunity to write a unique college essay in the story of Solomon Reed, a teenage recluse. Solomon, a kind boy with agoraphobia and anxiety, hasn’t left his parent’s house since middle school—not even to set foot into his backyard. Solomon’s parents are supportive but worried, and Lisa’s entrance into their life starts a new and drastic chapter in Solomon’s rehabilitation. Lisa believes that she can cure Solomon, so she entreats her boyfriend Clark—handsome, athletic, and charming—to help her in her secret therapy of Solomon Reed. Set in Upland, California, a sleepy conservative town, the novel follows the characters as they grow closer. Their relationships are challenged by secrets, inner desires, and outer turmoil, and the novel traces the development of young people trying to figure it all out. Highly Illogical Behavior explores the ripple effect of living with and caring for a loved one with mental illness and questions how much empathy society provides to those who struggle.