This book touched me on so many levels, I have no choice but to give it 5 stars, despite (or because) the emotional rollercoaster it sent me through. I love how Pat's mental instability is portrayed so gently and yet real, that it gives a good insight on both what it's like to have a mental illness, but also what this means to friends and relatives who are dealing with such a person. The big revelation was of course foreseeable, but for me it was not the point to uncovered what happened, but rather experience firsthand what it did to Pat and - as a result - the people close to him. With a quote from the book: "...a trip through this world can be a wildly different experience, depending on what chemicals are raging through one's mind."
I was a little worried that the ending will spoil the story with a cheesy romantic ending (which would have no place in Pat's current live, of course), so I was relieved to read an ending which was as happy as it can be under the circumstances.


Update: I watched the movie after reading the book and was quite disappointed. The actors were all great, but I didn't like how the story was altered to only show the shallow surface of what Pat and Tiffany are going through emotionally. I also loathed the fact that in the movie, Pat got better all by himself and then had to reach out to the more unstable Tiffany, instead of the other way around as in the books, where she only achieves that by breaking him. The movie was enjoyable as such, but I would not recommend it to people who read and liked the book.