YA Graphic Novel “A Haunted Girl” Explores Mental Health Topics Through Horror Lens

a-haunted-girl-graphic-novelCo-writers and father-daughter team Ethan Sacks (Star Wars: Bounty Hunters) and Naomi Sacks join forces with fan-favorite artist Marco Lorenzana (Incredible Hulk) for a YA graphic novel that explores real-world mental health struggles through a fantastical lens in the upcoming, A Haunted Girl. It will hit shelves this May from Image Comics.

The graphic novel will also contain an AFSP guide to suicide prevention resources, as well as a guide from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) on free therapy access options. Both organizations contributed sensitivity reading to ensure the depictions of mental health were authentic.

This thought-provoking graphic novel has garnered early buzz for its hard-hitting themes and in-depth exploration of anxiety and trauma and was featured on the American Foundation (AFSP) of Suicide Prevention blog, CBS Morning News, Montreal CBC news radio, Mashable, and more.

In A Haunted Girl, readers meet Cleo, a 16-year-old adopted Japanese-American whose anxiety and depression drives her to suicidal thoughts, is fresh out of the hospital and trying unsuccessfully to reintegrate back into her old life. What she doesn’t know is that her real struggles are just beginning as she finds herself encountering an increasingly terrifying succession of ghosts. Is she losing her grip on reality… or is the explanation much, much worse? A Haunted Girl channels terrors—both otherworldly and real-life—that come with anxiety and depression.

A Haunted Girl (ISBN: 978-1534397774) will be in 6×9 paperback format and available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, May 22 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Indigo on Tuesday, May 21.

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