OCDaniel

OCDaniel (2016), a young adult novel by American author Wesley King, follows Daniel Leigh, a teenager with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), who struggles with the symptoms of his condition along with his social rejection for being odd. More than anything else, Daniel wants to be “normal” and to meet the expectations of his father. Daniel’s world changes when he befriends Sara Malvern, a selectively mute girl known to the school as “Psycho Sara.” Daniel and Sara embark on a mission to solve the mystery of her missing father. Along the way, learning that eccentricity has its own intrinsic value, Daniel comes to embrace his identity.

Plot Summary

The novel begins in the middle of a hectic school year, made more complicated by Daniel’s efforts to hide his OCD behaviors from his peers. Thinking his condition makes him “crazy,” he hates that he is obsessed with counting and numbers, which bind him to a strenuous daily routine. He calls his compulsions “zaps,” because they feel like uncontrollable jolts of electricity that force him to act. Daniel plays for the Erie Hills Elephants as a substitute punter, a title he finds is a glorified way of saying “water boy.” Given almost no time on the field during practice, he methodically stacks water cups to distract himself, hoping that no one notices his obsession with getting the stacks perfectly right. Though his best friend, Max, is sympathetic to Daniel’s OCD and doesn’t judge him for it, Daniel cannot help but feel constantly scrutinized. Meanwhile, Daniel vies for the attention of a beautiful classmate named Raya Singh.

One day during a game, Daniel is called up to kick for the Elephants. He believes that he is finally getting a big break and will prove his ability. However, even after he scores a winning touchdown, the bullying does not relent. A school outcast, Sara Malvern, sends him a letter asking for his help in looking for the person who killed her father. She signs off, mysteriously, as “Fellow Star Child.” Though they have never actually spoken to each other, Daniel has an uncanny feeling that Sara understands him.

The teenagers break into the house of Sara’s primary suspect, John, who is also her mother’s new boyfriend. They inadvertently are trapped in John’s house as he returns home from work. Sara and Daniel find that John did not commit any murder. Sara’s father, who lived with severe depressive disorder, died by suicide via an overdose of prescription pills.

Though Sara is despondent about the news that her father took his own life, she opens up to Daniel, telling him that she lives with OCD as well as depression. The knowledge that another person has his condition helps Daniel feel more “normal.” At the end of the novel, Daniel and Sara become best friends. The tragedy of Mr. Malvern helps them understand that not all mental illnesses are obvious or present externally, and they become thankful for their eccentricities, which led them to find each other in the first place. OCDaniel presents differences in a positive light, reclaiming terms like OCD and “weird” and suggesting that departures from the norm hold immense value in society.