Review: When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez

Book Title: When Reason Breaks

Author: Cindy L. Rodriguez

Published Date: February 10th, 2015

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's

Genre: YA Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Pre-Order Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

Disclaimer: I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

In high school I loved Emily Dickinson's poetry so when I saw that this book had an Emily Dickinson connection, I knew I had to get it. Plus, look at that cover you guys. I mean, really pretty cover. We all know how much of a sucker I am for pretty covers. Books like this tend to be a hit or miss for me, so to say I was nervous is a bit of an understatement.

The book is a very slow moving book, and to be honest, I did get bored sometimes. I wanted some feelsy moments, but those did not arrive until the end of the book. In fact, the end of the book was beautiful & hopeful, which made me happy.

The girls are very different from each other. Emily's family is "perfect" Her dad is a politician, which of course means no one is allowed to make a mistake or else he could lose supporters. He has someone monitoring his childrens' activity on social media. Emily begins a secret relationship with a boy, Kevin. In doing so, she begins to neglect her friends. Abby and Sarah, and that infuriated me. I hate when friends essentially dump you because they have a boyfriend. I also felt badly for Kevin because he had to sneak around to see Emily, which I would not have been okay with, no matter what the reason.

Now, I really liked Elizabeth. She had more of a firey personality which jived with my own personality. Her father had left the family not long before, and her mother had sunk into a deep depression over this. I felt sympathy for Elizabeth, as she had to be mother and father and big sister to her younger sister, Lily. Elizabeth is still so angry at her father for walking out on her, her mother and her sister, and she's struggling hard to handle it on her own.

This book didn't totally win me over until the end of it. I loved the ending, it made me feel all the feels, and cry all the tears. I do think people need to read this book. I do think it's important to stay connected to others like Ms. Davis did throughout this book. I am giving this book 4 stars and I would definitely recommend it.