Tag: self-mutilation

Book review: Faking Normal by Courtney C. Stevens

HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2014

For most people, life can be divided into parts, like the beginning, middle, and end of a story. For this YA novel sixteen-year-old Alexi Littrell and Bodee Lennox, there are only before and after.

Before, Alexi and Bodee were relative strangers, brought together only by locker proximity and coincidence, a world of differences between them. Bodee was known more simply the Kool-Aid Kid, an unassuming oddball with weird hair who was the object of ridicule and scorn amongst his peers. Alexi was known more simply a shy, ordinary teenage girl who liked spending time with her best friends.

After, the two teenagers are dealing with psychological trauma far beyond their sixteen years. For Bodee, this means attempting to escape the violent legacy of his murderous father, who killed his mother in a devastating incident of domestic violence. For Alexi, only the self-inflicted scars on her neck give away the sign that someone close to her did something terrible to her. Now she is faking normal and dealing with the crippling aftermath of her rape and betrayal at the hands of someone she trusted. Alexi’s secret is killing her on the inside. In order to cope with the internal pain, she engages in various rituals, including self-mutilation, and she still gets up every morning and pretends like everything is fine. No one in her family notices how much she is suffering every day. Even with all the anxiety building up inside her, she still can keep her family and friends in the dark.

When the Littrells welcome Bodee into their home, Alexi and Bodee form an unlikely bond despite their vastly different backgrounds and upbringings, their reciprocally shared pain forging an indelible link between them. When he moves in with Alexi’s family, he discover the scars on her neck, the ones she inflicts on herself and always tries to hide it. They become friends and help each other to deal with their traumas together. As the two teenagers attempt to seek closure and redefine themselves after all that has happened, Alexi and Bodee may find that there is no greater power than that of love and that there is light to be found at the end of even the darkest of tunnels.

Faking Normal deals with the sexual assault, self-injury, and spousal abuse. It is a story about being honest with yourself and finding courage. It also about understanding that you are never alone, no matter how lonely you feel.

Book review: Therapy by Kathryn Perez

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

Kathryn Perez created characters for this book that were deep, flawed and in some ways broken. She revealed such effortless depth depicting depression, bullying, and self-harm.

Jessica Alexander, the poet protagonist in this YA novel about mental illness is tormented by high school struggles and suffers from self-mutilation. It’s a story about friendship, self-discovery, redemption that is interspersed with heartache. The trials and tribulations of depression add to the facts that she doesn’t fit in in any high school cliques, or have meaningful friendships. She doesn’t know anything about love or hope and allows boys to use her for sex by being easily accessible attracting ridicule from the popular kids. Deep down, Jessica wants to be loved and has no real family to support her. She’s lost. She uses her body and sex to build her own self confidence and self worth making her unpopular and gets her attacked by her bullies. On one particular beating occasion, Jessica is saved by a popular boy.

So, enter Jace Collins, who is a smart, athletic boy with a heart of gold who protects and stands by Jessica’s side and may have his own dark side which allows him to empathize with victims. like the fact that he lost his younger sister to bullying. While Jace is confident, Jessica has low self-esteem and lacks confidence. Her clinginess may ruin what they’ve found in each other. But Jace really sees her and gets her, so he sets their relationship on the correct path to protect her from the same demise as his younger sister. Their friendship turns into a budding romance, but one final thing will tear them apart for six years where Jessica suffers in silence.

Jessica made decisions because she honestly felt that she was doing the right thing.  Seeing how these decisions impacted her life in the future was often times painful and heartbreaking. It’s a sad journey that teaches us life isn’t easy and that you need to learn from your mistakes. But what if one learns to love oneself? Is there a guiding power that once you become a better person sets you on a path of redemption?

This beautifully written, deep, and emotional tale finds Jessica suffering in silence, and after six years is forced to face her past. When a series of unexpected events arise, will secrets be revealed and will lies become truth? Jace crosses paths with Jessica again in the most unexpected way.  Seeing them as adults, the reader sees that Jace is that guy in school that you never got over, the one who sticks with you through the years wondering what they are up to, always a constant within your heart.  There were so many missed opportunities, so much wasted time, and so much heartache.

Enter Kingsley Arrington who throws the reader for a loop and steals your heart. He comes into Jessica’s life at a time where she was so down on herself and her life. He meets Jessica in therapy. She’s there for cutting, promiscuity, and depression; He is there with a plethora of his own secrets. Kingsley shows her unconditional love, kindness and how to truly live life. Result: love triangle. Who will Jessica choose? All the while battling her depression. Watching Jessica’s journey struggling with mental illness as well as the stigma of the disease is devastating yet beautiful.