Hello everyone! Welcome to a new edition of Saturday Pages!
This week's first review is all about one of those rare contemporaries that I've loved and that came highly recommended by quite a few of my book & blogging buddies! This was my first Jennifer Brown book and it won't be the last for sure! I read this one at my unplugging weekend.
Torn Away by Jennifer Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm not usually a big reader of contemporary books, YA or otherwise really, but when a book comes highly recommended from fellow book lovers and blogging friends, then I know I must give it a try. And this one I decided I needed to get once I saw Giselle from Xpresso Reads' review!
This is my first Jennifer Brown book and it won't be the last one for sure! This is not a fluffy read by any means, but a very emotional one as we follow Jersey's very tough journey.
Torn Away starts with Jersey being a regular teenager, annoyed with her younger sister, more than willing to be left alone to just veg out in front of the TV. Then a tornado alarm sounds, and given how used she and the rest of the people in her town are, at first she doesn't really pay attention, even with the news insisting in it, but she finally goes to the basement when the weather outside starts getting ugly. And ugly it does get, as the tornado touches down in the town and travels through it destroying most of her neighborhood.
When it is all over and the tornado leaves, Jersey finds herself with very little, her home half destroyed and more questions and fears than certainities. She is alone and she doesn't know if her mother, lil sister and stepfather have survived or not. She has to try and find some refuge while she waits for news on her family and tries to find out what to do next.
Jersey has to deal with massive losses and not only that but she gets no real support, not from her stepfather who cannot deal with his own grief, and even less with his biological father and his family. Her journey is one of reconciling herself with her loss, with what he thought he knew about her family, her mother and the past, and learning how to live again, after having lost "everything".
This book made me sad, angry, frustrated and hopeful. Made me smile and made me weep and by the end of it, I was more than happy that I had got to spend some time with Jersey through the pages. Wonderful book, well deserving of 4.5 stars.
View all my reviews
This week's first review is all about one of those rare contemporaries that I've loved and that came highly recommended by quite a few of my book & blogging buddies! This was my first Jennifer Brown book and it won't be the last for sure! I read this one at my unplugging weekend.
Torn Away by Jennifer BrownMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm not usually a big reader of contemporary books, YA or otherwise really, but when a book comes highly recommended from fellow book lovers and blogging friends, then I know I must give it a try. And this one I decided I needed to get once I saw Giselle from Xpresso Reads' review!
This is my first Jennifer Brown book and it won't be the last one for sure! This is not a fluffy read by any means, but a very emotional one as we follow Jersey's very tough journey.
Torn Away starts with Jersey being a regular teenager, annoyed with her younger sister, more than willing to be left alone to just veg out in front of the TV. Then a tornado alarm sounds, and given how used she and the rest of the people in her town are, at first she doesn't really pay attention, even with the news insisting in it, but she finally goes to the basement when the weather outside starts getting ugly. And ugly it does get, as the tornado touches down in the town and travels through it destroying most of her neighborhood.
When it is all over and the tornado leaves, Jersey finds herself with very little, her home half destroyed and more questions and fears than certainities. She is alone and she doesn't know if her mother, lil sister and stepfather have survived or not. She has to try and find some refuge while she waits for news on her family and tries to find out what to do next.
Jersey has to deal with massive losses and not only that but she gets no real support, not from her stepfather who cannot deal with his own grief, and even less with his biological father and his family. Her journey is one of reconciling herself with her loss, with what he thought he knew about her family, her mother and the past, and learning how to live again, after having lost "everything".
This book made me sad, angry, frustrated and hopeful. Made me smile and made me weep and by the end of it, I was more than happy that I had got to spend some time with Jersey through the pages. Wonderful book, well deserving of 4.5 stars.
View all my reviews
I have this book on my iPad and can't wait to read it, it sounds great!
ReplyDeleteIt was fantastic, very emotional! Cannot wait to hear what you think of it when you read it!
DeleteAw, yay. <3 Great review sweetie. I'm so glad you loved this one :D Pretty cover. I don't think this would be interesting enough for me, lol, as I don't love the genre :p Buuut. Tornado? Sounds good :D Hih. Thank you for sharing. <3
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty great and I'm not usually a fan of contemporary!
DeleteThank you sweetie!
I've been very interested in Brown's work ever since I read a few chapters of Hate List by her and was mesmerized. I don't willingly step into dark books, but there is something special about Jennifer Browns books. Great review, Pili!
ReplyDelete-Mari
I agree that her books are something special! I think I might be reading Hate List next, very intrigued about how she'd deal with such a them!
DeleteThanks Mari!
Hmmm, I've never heard of this one O_O Contemporary though, perhaps that's why. It sounds like this one really made you feel, whether positively or negatively. Now THAT'S a good read!
ReplyDeleteFabulous review, Pili! <333
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
Thanks Alyssa! And yeah, this was one of those awesome contemporary reads! And you know I'm not a big fan of contemporaries!
DeleteI'm so glad you loved this one! I don't think I've ever cried so many times throughout a book before. I LOVED it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't cry proper ugly cry until the final part, previously I was in shock, teared up a bit at first then got too angry to cry and then ended up wailing by the end of the book... real awesome book!
DeleteHuhuhuhu, this book. THIS BOOK. This book was so beautiful and heart-wrenching. I remember reading it and feeling so much hurt and sadness and anger for the main character. It's really well-written and very emotionally... scarring. If that's the word. It made me remember the typhoons that happened here and the death and grief it left in its wake :(
ReplyDeleteIn any case, awesome and heartfelt review, Pili <3 <3
Faye at The Social Potato
Thank you, Faye! I agree that the book manages to make you feel so much, even if you haven't experienced any sort of natural catastrophe, but I can only imagine how someone that had lived to something similar will feel!
DeleteAn amazing book indeed!