YA fantasy with/about epilepsy?

[marydell]

Help me, O flist! I'm wondering if there is a YA book out there that features epilepsy in a cool way--like "I have epilepsy and can also do magic and fly" as opposed to "I have epilepsy and am going to struggle with my self-identity as a disabled person for 140 pages, ultimately making a friend or two and finding acceptance." Not that the latter sort of book is bad, exactly, but it's probably not the right message for the young person I'm thinking of.

Other brain disorders that figure into YA SF/F in a cool way woukd also be good.

Rec me! Thanks in advance.

Comments

[oursin]

Not really YA, as I recall, but I thought Lisa Goldstein's A Mask for the General (which is dystopian fantasy, I suppose) went to interesting places with a leading character with epilepsy, who didn't turn out to be a shaman-figure, which I thought was where it was going.

[fadeaccompli]

In Grail (by Elizabeth Bear) the epilepsy of an important PoV character turns out to be significant in a Good And Useful way... but it's the third book in a trilogy that's definitely not YA. Alas, I cannot think of any other examples.

[readinggeek451]

I did a NoveList search for teen books on epilepsy (adding "fantasy" didn't help), and came up with the following that the descriptions sound promising. Note that I have *not* read any of these:

Throat, by R. A. Nelson
Seventeen-year-old Emma, having always felt cursed by her epilepsy, comes to realize that it is this very condition that saves her when she is mysteriously attacked and left with all the powers but none of the limitations of a vampire. (This one sounds like the best fit for what you want.)

The last book in the universe, by W. R. Philbrick
After an earthquake has destroyed much of the planet, an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the Earth of a distant future.

Prince across the water, by Jane Yolen
In 1746, a year after the Scottish clans have rallied to the call of their exiled prince, Charles Stuart, to take up arms against England's tyranny, fourteen-year-old, epileptic Duncan MacDonald and his cousin, Ewan, run away to join the fight at Culloden and discover the harsh reality of war.

Pagan's scribe, by Catherine Jinks
In France in 1209, Pagan, now an archdeacon, takes on a new scribe named Isidore, a fifteen-year-old epileptic and an orphan, and together they try to survive the siege of Carcassonne.

The last two are historical fiction, not fantasy, but at least they don't sound like generic "problem novel" kind of plots.

[readinggeek451]

Oh, and not epilepsy, but in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, part of the price of being a demi-god is having ADHD. Percy has to deal with that, as well as all the (other) hazards of being a hero-in-training. Those I can recommend from personal knowledge, although they're a little younger than teen.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_n_3?rh=n%3A283155%2Cn%3A!1000%2Cn%3A28%2Ck%3Aepilepsy%2Cn%3A17466&bbn=28&keywords=epilepsy&ie=UTF8&qid=1302732390&rnid=28

(Teens and SF with a search for epilepsy, turns up several of the previous novels, with comments and reviews)

[unhappytriad.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is not SF and it's not a disability, but A Mango-Shaped Space is a YA book whose protagonist has synesthesia, and it's SO DAMN COOL I have to recommend it even though I totally fail at being topical.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Red Shift, by Alan Garner, seems to be considered YA because it's about teenagers. It's a very adult novel in terms of structural complexity and moral complexity. I can admire some aspects of it--the writing is brilliant, and it does interesting things with class--though it's too hard for me to really enjoy. Some people are really sophisticated readers in high school, though.

Beyond the difficulties of reading a book I couldn't understand (perhaps partly because of the cognitive effects of my antiseizure meds), I was uncomfortable with how Garner dealt with epilepsy. The book deals with 3 connecting stories in 3 eras. The characters don't build a time machine to go between them, and they aren't suddenly transported from one to another by some inexplicable magic thingee. The connections are sort of holographic, and the character with epilepsy has access to the other times (other worlds?) during his seizures.