When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez Published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA on February 10th 2015
Pages: 304
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
13 Reasons Why meets the poetry of Emily Dickinson in this gripping debut novel perfect for fans of Sara Zarr or Jennifer Brown.
A Goth girl with an attitude problem, Elizabeth Davis must learn to control her anger before it destroys her. Emily Delgado appears to be a smart, sweet girl, with a normal life, but as depression clutches at her, she struggles to feel normal. Both girls are in Ms. Diaz’s English class, where they connect to the words of Emily Dickinson. Both are hovering on the edge of an emotional precipice. One of them will attempt suicide. And with Dickinson’s poetry as their guide, both girls must conquer their personal demons to ever be happy.
In an emotionally taut novel with a richly diverse cast of characters, readers will relish in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and be completely swept up in the turmoil of two girls grappling with demons beyond their control.
When Reason Breaks is one of the books I’d been talking about last week when I said there were quite a few books coming out that deal with mental illness and suicide. The book starts off with one girl attempting suicide, and the reader has no idea which of the two main characters it was. From the start, you know that this book will be dealing with some heavy issues. I am going to try to keep this short and sweet, and if you’d like a more in depth chat about mental health and YA, you can find that here.
What Worked for Me:
- I felt that the mental health piece was appropriately portrayed, and that the aftermath was dealt with well too.
- There were many relationships playing out during the book. We get to see romantic relationships, familial relationships, and platonic friendships all evolving and struggling and forming throughout the book, which is quite realistic, especially in a high school setting.
- There were some very, very poignant lines in the story. Lines that I know other people will relate to, because I related to them. One such line* really, really stuck with me:
She needed Ms. Diaz to care because somebody had to. And it had to be someone who wasn’t required to because they were family or receiving a paycheck to be “concerned about her well-being”. -Elizabeth, page 103
- The writing was really lovely, and even though I am not a huge poetry fan (fine, I do not like it at all), the Dickinson poems really worked in context. I’m Nobody! Who Are You? really was appropriate in this situation and stuck with me the most.(Random fact: my 10th grade English teacher, whose name was Sister Andrea- I remember because she was scary- made us memorize I’m Nobody, and I do think of it from time to time. )
What Didn’t:
- Honestly? I think this book would be a home run for a younger crowd. I think this book is a fantastic read for a younger crowd. I will purchase this book for my own daughter one day. Sadly, I am not that crowd. I think it just falls a little more on the younger end of the YA spectrum.
- Maybe because of the last point, I found it to be very predictable, and even a bit cliched at times. I knew who was attempting suicide, I knew pretty much exactly how all the twists would turn out.
- I know that this was done on purpose and had a point, but having the characters named Emily and Elizabeth (whose real name was Emily) was really hard to keep straight. Especially in POV switches. The good thing was that the girls were different, so it wasn’t impossible to tell apart, but sometimes just a minor aggravation.
- I would have liked to get a better picture of each girl’s struggle and life. Especially Emily’s family situation, it was brought up frequently, but never really delved into in great detail.
Bottom Line: This book has an awesome message, especially for a younger teen. There’s a bit of everything: Friendship, family, love, heartbreak, and of course, mental health issues. A solid read for a younger group, but still told an important message for everyone.
*Quote taken from uncorrected ARC, subject to change in final publication.
For your question, poetry so not my thing. I’ve always wanted to get into, because I love words like a lot, but most of it just goes straight over my head, you know? I just don’t want to have to think so hard to figure out what something is supposed to mean!
I’m glad you enjoyed this and I love the idea that the book is written so that you don’t know which girl tried to commit suicide, but I totally understand books being just a little too young for you. I just read a fantasy book that was more MG then YA and I just couldn’t get into it the way I knew I would have years ago. Still, I might have to check this one out, though I can see where the Emily/Elizabeth thing might get confusing and iritating. 😉
Me too! I don’t “get” it. Just tell me what you are trying to say! I am not a mind reader, and symbolism just doesn’t do it for me. At all!
I think this book would be so great for a younger reader. I just knew all the stuff before it happened. It was predictable for me, but I think it’d work so well for a 13-14 year old.
Also, I dislike when books are more MG than YA! This one was definitely YA, because there was some talk of sex and alcohol and the like, but when other books do that it drives me nuts!
Sometimes it is a struggle to down from the description which books are more ‘young YA’ and which are more ‘mature YA’.
The character name thing is a bit weird . . . surely the names should be entirely different to stop the reader getting confused? How odd!
Yes, exactly! I think even though there was definitely YA subject matter, it didn’t have as wide an appeal as some YA.
As for the name thing, I think it was done so that the reader WOULD be confused between the characters, almost as in “these girls were more alike than they realized”? It was still hard to follow sometimes!
I love that quote becauze it is true. When it is family, you tend to not believe them because you think they are required. So that quote is really the truth. Great review 🙂
Thanks! And yes, I felt so strongly about that, and I loved that this book kind of “knew” how that felt 🙂
Poetry isn’t my favorite, but I liked it more when I was younger. Sounds like this book is great for younger YA readers!
It really is, I think it is quite well done too for the younger crowd 🙂
That’s the reason why I think seeing a counselor doesn’t work unless you’re ready for it to. I’m not that much of a poetry fan either, we studied a lot of war poetry, mainly Wilfred Owen, and I think my favourite was ‘Disabled’, since I can still remember it. I studied Carol Ann Duffy in 6th Form and ugh my brain went dead, especially when it came to the essays and comparing it against each other and noooooooooo. Made me wonder why I ever chose to do English Lit. Hey, no shame in not liking it as much because it seemed a little more for the younger YA. Yeah, and if it mentions the family situation a lot but don’t actually go into it, you don’t get the full picture properly, so get that.
I think the counselor has to be a good fit too. I have FELT like a paycheck with some counselors and that never sits well with me.
I don’t know how you do English Lit (which I know, sounds weird coming from a reader- but it’s SO different!), I couldn’t do the poetry OR the old stuff. My eyes glaze over with poetry 😉
It hate mentioned but unexplored topics, and I’m not a poem-person, so this book might not be for me. Thank you for sharing and great review!
Kim @ Divergent Gryffindor: BLOG || VLOG
Thanks so much! I agree, it was a bit frustrating for me. The poetry wasn’t a HUGE part of the book, definitely not enough that I couldn’t get past it!