Ananda's Fall is a 2023 Middle Grade Novel about a boy facing serious mental health problems due to a history of racialized bullying.
This book provides examples of :
- Absent-Minded Professor: Grandfather is implied to be this during a summer vacation trip to Montreal.
- Abusive Parents: Leonardo's Mom sometimes throws a punch at his face and pulls at the last moment to avoid making contact. Needless to say, he wonders if it actually counts as abuse.
- Asian and Nerdy: Applies to all of the Asian-American and Indo-Canadian characters in various ways.
- Ballet: Izumi is very deeply interested in it, and it helps her martial arts training. A few other characters are involved.
- Berserk Button: Leonardo cannot stand being called Ananda, his birth name.
- Black and Nerdy: Marcus shows up on his school's math olympiad team.
- Bollywood Nerd: Ananda/Leonardo's entire family, including a mom who used to be a physicist, a dad who is a neurologist, a grandma who is a political science professor, and a grandpa who is a math professor.
- Bully Magnet: Leonardo was this in younger grades, and he literally has PTSD because of it. Having been named Ananda by his parents was a major cause of his ordeal.
- Bungled Suicide: Leonardo's mother attempts suicide using an overdose of pills, but Leonardo saves her by calling the police.
- Childhood Friends: Leonardo, Shaan, and Izumi have been friends since kindergarten and the summer before 1st grade, respectively.
- Classical Music: Leonardo is a violinist in the local youth orchestra.
- Designated Girl Fight: Averted when Ashley intervenes to prevent a fight between Izumi and Laila, implied to be motivated by both of them liking Leonardo.
- Driven to Suicide: Leonardo's mother is pushed to attempt suicide by pill after her high school friend is revealed to have committed suicide along with killing her father.
- Dysfunctional Family: The Vaidya family is clearly this.
- Elegant Classical Musician: Leonardo develops a crush on a harpist.
- Embarrassing First Name: Due to trauma from severe childhood bullying, Ananda goes by Leonardo and gets extremely upset and angry when people call him Ananda
- Girly Bruiser: Izumi has a record of punching out many others, including a few people bigger and stronger than her.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Izumi loves ballet and mermaids. She's also a fearsome karateka, thanks to being the daughter of the sensei of a local dojo...and is not above punching people out if necessary.
- Groin Attack: Multiple occurrences, the first one being Leonardo hitting an old bully where it hurts. It is later revealed that Leonardo was punched where it hurts by another boy at a birthday party many years ago.
- Illegal Religion: Dr Piroozad discusses persecution of Baha'is in Iran that includes being banned from schools.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: Izumi punches out two boys and one grown man. One boy gets beaten up so badly that his mouth bleeds.
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: The entire story is about the titular character's PTSD treatment journey after being expelled from school.
- Murder-Suicide: Leonardo's mother's old friend from high school, Marianne, is revealed to have done this to her father. This turns out to be extremely upsetting for Leonardo's mother
- Sleepy Depressive: Leonardo's mother is shown to sleep too much at times, and it becomes particularly bad before her failed suicide attempt in Montreal
- Strong Girl, Smart Guy: To an extent, Leonardo and Izumi. While Leonardo learns karate from Izumi's dad, he's a few dan ranks behind her. More importantly, his lack of athletic prowess causes him to come in last by a long shot when running a mile in PE at school, which leads to the inciting incident in the whole book. Izumi is intellectually capable and even makes her school's math olympiad team, but she's not defined by intellect the way Leonardo is.
- Surprise Car Crash: Leonardo and his mother hit a lamp post when she tries to plug in her phone while driving.
- Swan Lake: There is a performance by a local youth ballet featuring Izumi as Odette and Odelie. Leonardo is part of the orchestral accompaniment.
- The Shrink: Dr Piroozad is the main one, but there is also Stan the MFT. There is even a school-based psychologist named Dr Sabeti.
