Caden Bosch

Caden Bosch is the 15-year-old narrator and principal protagonist of the novel “Challenger Deep” by Neal Shusterman. Caden is, by all accounts, a normal teenager. He has a loving mother and father, a sweet younger sister, and good friends, including Shelby. He does well in school, is athletic and artistic, and well-liked by other students and teachers. But through the course of his sophomore year in high school, Caden succumbs to a never-named mental illness which slowly manifests over time. Caden first loses focus, then the ability to concentrate at all, followed by restlessness and increasing abstraction in his artwork. At the same time, Caden begins to have visions of the Captain, begins to “feel” things around him, stops eating, and becomes paranoid. Caden’s parents ultimately have Caden committed to Seaview Memorial Hospital.

At Seaview, Caden meets with Dr. Poirot, Carylye, and others to undergo treatment...