Books I've Read: Break to You

 

Continuing on my Neal Shusterman kick, I read this book he co-wrote with two other authors.  It's set in a juvenile detention facility which I was interested in since A Stranger to Kindness also has some parts set in a facility like this.

Or, not quite like this - this centre houses both boys and girls, but they are strictly segregated with the common areas being used by girls and boys at separate times.  Which opens the doors for a clandestine romance between inmates when a girl accidently drops her journal in the library and a boy discovers it.

The pair then write back and forth, using the journal to get to know one another and to fall in love.  And then to set in motion a daring plan to actually see one another in the flesh.

I enjoyed this book and feel like the depiction of detention is more realistic than in some other books I've read with similar setting.  The characters were interesting and diverse and I particularly liked the contrast between the boys' behaviour and that of the girls. 

I learned some interesting things too, like the fact foster kids with nowhere to go sometimes end up in detention centres.

The planning and the way everyone on both sides of the prison worked together to get this pair of wannabe lovers together was probably very unrealistic, but made for a very satisfying story nonetheless.

The only thing I found disappointing, was the ending which seemed very abrupt and not entirely satisfying.  I felt like it was almost like the authors were leaving things open for a possible sequel, but not quite...

But overall, I enjoyed this very much and raced through it far more quickly than I've read a book recently.

So I'd recommend it.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Bestselling author of Scythe and Challenger Deep Neal Shusterman, here with coauthors Debra Young and Michelle Knowlden, tells an intense yet tender story of two teens, trapped in impossible circumstances and unjust systems, willing to risk everything for love—no matter the consequences.

Adriana knows that if she can manage to keep her head down for the next seven months, she might be able to get through her sentence in the Compass juvenile detention center. Thankfully, she’s allowed to keep her journal, where she writes down her most private thoughts when her feelings get too big.

Until the day she opens her journal and discovers that her thoughts are no longer so private. Someone has read her writings—and has written back. A boy who lives on the other side of the gender-divided detention center. A boy who sparks a fire in her to write back.

Jon’s story is different than Adriana’s; he’s already been at Compass for years and will be in the system for years to come. Still, when he reads the words Adriana writes to him, it makes him feel like the walls that hold them in have melted away.

This fast-paced, highly compelling tour de force novel exposes what life is like in detention—and reveals the hearts of two teens who are forced to live in desperate circumstances.