Saving Beck by Courtney Cole - Review

 

Reminiscent of the beloved novels by Mary Kubica and Jodi Picoult comes a chilling portrayal of a son’s addiction and its harrowing effects on both him and his mother from New York Times bestselling author Courtney Cole. SAVING BECK is now available! Check out the tour below, and pick up your copy of SAVING BECK today!

 

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Author: Courtney Cole

Publication Date:  17 July 2018

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Series:  StandAlone

Genre:  Contemporary Fiction

Age Recommendation: 15 and Up

Rating: 5 Stars

Book Description:

There comes a time when offering your life for your child’s doesn’t work, when you realize that it’ll never be enough.

The cold needle in his warm vein was a welcome comfort to my son at first. But then it became the monster that kept us apart.

Heroin lied, and my son believed. It took him to a world where the last year didn’t happen, to a place where his father was still alive. What Beck didn’t understand was that it couldn’t bring his father back from the dead. It couldn’t take away his pain, not permanently.

You think it can’t happen to you, that your kids, your family, will never be in this situation.  I thought that too. But you’re wrong.

Step into our world, and see for yourself.  Watch my golden boy become a slave to this raging epidemic. Watch me try and save him.

Drug addiction comes with a price.  Trust me, you’re not equipped to pay it.

Don’t miss this heart wrenching, evocative, yet hopeful novel—it will leave you forever changed.

     

My Review:

This is one of  those books that's almost impossible to review.  It's poignant making it difficult to say anything negative without coming across a heartless.  Luckily I don't feel like I have any true negative feelings toward this book, except for dang-it, I don't like to cry when I read, haha.  

This is one of those book that makes you think: Would this be me?  Would I become this?  Would I react like this?  It makes you wonder how deep pain can go and how far are you willing to let it burrow into your soul.  What are you willing to do to make the pain stop?  How would you grieve? This book is a good reminder to all of us that it doesn't matter how strong you are. It's not about being weak.  It's not about the bonds that you have with family and friends.  Anxiety doesn't care. Depression doesn't care. Addiction doesn't care.  They can take anyone, anywhere, anytime, and once you're wrapped in their arms escape is a matter of life or death.  

This is a book that comes from the heart and soul of the author.  She is able to create such a realistic story because she has lived this truth, the truth of a child with an addiction.  It's hard to imagine the pain and fear that a parent goes through watching their child killing themselves in the hopes of stopping their pain and knowing that the child has to make the decision to live on their own, that we as the parent can not force them. Ms. Cole paints it vividly and heartbreakingly. Her pain and the pain of her child flow off the page and straight into your heart. You will feel in some minuscule way that you walked beside Beckett and Natalie, that you suffered with them. It's in the way Ms. Cole describes the small things that bring the book to life.  The number of times Natalie paces the hospital waiting room, the blend between reality and hallucination while Beckett struggles through addiction and sobriety.  The desperate beleif that 'your' child isn't falling apart, that everyone is is just making things up. The pain...for me it always comes back to the pain. It is in every corner of this book, even when there is happiness, the pain, regret, fear, it lingers.  

Saving Beck is a reminder that life is fragile and it only takes one moment to change it all.  What will we do with our moments?  How will we react to them and to others?  How do we change the current environment the has allowed opioid addiction to become an epidemic?  How will YOU look at the world differently now that Saving Beck has given you a small look into addition and the toll it takes on the addicted and their family. What is your truth and how willing are you to be honest about it?

Saving Beck is not a light read. It is emotional from the moment you start the dedication to well long after you close the back cover.  It's a book that will leave a little of it's pain in your heart, but I promise you that you need it there.  You need to see, to feel, to begin to understand so that when all is said and done maybe we can make a difference.

~ HAPPY (well....anyway) READING ~

     

 About Courtney Cole: Courtney Cole grew up in rural Kansas and now lives with her husband and kids in Florida, where she writes beneath palm trees and is still in love with the idea of magic and happily-ever-after. She is the author of Saving Beck.          

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Courtney Cole’s SAVING BECK – Review & Excerpt Tour Schedule:

July 18^th

★ Chiara's Book Blog ★ – Excerpt

Ramblings From This Chick – Excerpt

Suey Library – Review & Excerpt

July 19^th

Between The Lines – Review & Excerpt

Read Love Blog – Review & Excerpt

White Hot Reads – Review

July 20^th

Book Starlets – Review & Excerpt

Sinfully Wicked Book Reviews – Review & Excerpt

Whoo Gives A Hoot – Review

July 21^st

Catty Jane Book Lovers – Review & Excerpt

KDRBCK – Review & Excerpt

Reading Between the Wines Book Club – Excerpt

July 22^nd

Little Read Riding Hood – Review & Excerpt

Roxy's Reviews – Review

Simply Crystal – Review & Excerpt

July 23^rd

Brittany's Book Blog – Excerpt

Reads All the Books – Review & Excerpt

Two Books in a shelf – Review & Excerpt

July 24^th

All Things Dark & Dirty – Excerpt

Vagabonda Reads – Review & Excerpt

Written In Red Book Blog – Review

July 25^th

Book Sniffers Anonymous – Excerpt

Evermore Books – Review & Excerpt

Liezel and Angie’s Book Blog – Review

July 26^th

Becca the Bibliophile – Review & Excerpt

Just Me & My Kindle – Excerpt

Margaux – Review & Excerpt

What Is That Book About – Excerpt

July 27^th

A Literary Perusal – Review & Excerpt

Book Bitches Blog – Excerpt

Nose Stuck In A Book – Review & Excerpt

July 28^th

Audio Killed the Bookmark – Review

Books, Booze, & Brunch – Review & Excerpt

M&J's Book Blog – Review & Excerpt

Shakespeare's Wench Book Blog – Review

 

Brutal Youth by Anthony Breznican - Review and Giveaway

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Author: Anthony Breznican

Publication Date:  2 June 2015

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, Griffin

Genre:  Contemporary YA, Fiction
Age Recommendation: 16 and up

Rating: 4 Stars

~ I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ~ 

Book Description:

Three freshmen must join forces to survive at a troubled, working-class Catholic high school with a student body full of bullies and zealots, and a faculty that's even worse in Anthony Breznican's Brutal Youth.

With a plunging reputation and enrollment rate, Saint Michael’s has become a crumbling dumping ground for expelled delinquents and a haven for the stridently religious when incoming freshman Peter Davidek signs up. On his first day, tensions are clearly on the rise as a picked-upon upperclassmen finally snaps, unleashing a violent attack on both the students who tormented him for so long, and the corrupt, petty faculty that let it happen. But within this desperate place, Peter befriends fellow freshmen Noah Stein, a volatile classmate whose face bears the scars of a hard-fighting past, and the beautiful but lonely Lorelei Paskal —so eager to become popular, she makes only enemies. 

To even stand a chance at surviving their freshmen year, the trio must join forces as they navigate a bullying culture dominated by administrators like the once popular Ms. Bromine, their embittered guidance counselor, and Father Mercedes, the parish priest who plans to scapegoat the students as he makes off with church finances. A coming-of-age tale reversed, Brutal Youth follows these students as they discover that instead of growing older and wiser, going bad may be the only way to survive.

“If you thought high school was hell, has Anthony Breznican got a story for you…Every bully who stalked you, every sadistic teacher who ever terrified you, every stupid prank, every hopeless crush and false friend: they’re all here, along with a few kids who hang together and try to do the right thing in a brutal environment? By turns funny and terrifying, Brutal Youth is an unputdownable tour-de-force, a Rebel Without a Cause for the 21st century.”— Stephen King 

My review:

 I went into this book with a lot of trepidation, not because I thought it was going to be a badly written book, I knew it would be well written.  No I went into it with trepidation because I don't particularly like books that make me cry buckets of tears.  I don't like reading about people being abused (in what ever form that abuse comes), especially people who feel they have no way to fight back.  I am a stalwart HEA kinda gal and I knew that there was no way this book could be an HEA and that had me anxious. I was also quite concerned about the religious tone of the book.  Being a Catholic I feared this would turn into a bit of Catholic bashing.  I was actually a no go for this one, but my friend Amy over at LadyReader kept telling me I had to read this book, that I needed to read this book and then it showed up in the mail and I gave in.

 You can well imagine the day I picked it up to start reading.  The brush of my hand across the cover, the audible nervous swallow as I pulled back the cover and felt the paper as it slid across my fingers when I began to turn the pages,  the acceleration of my heart as I read the dedication,

To Jillo 

for my wildflower,

these cruel shadows

 the deep breath when I realized that these children would have been in high school when I was.  The book is set in what would have been my Junior year, making this book an even more profound read for me.  And finally the knowledge that I would not come away from this book unscathed as I read the first sentence.

The kid had taken a lot of punishment over the years, so he had much to give back.  

The year: 1991.  

The setting: A once prestigious now run down, under budgeted, private catholic school in the suburbs of Pennsylvania.

The cast: A Principle who is lost, teachers who are uncaring, unprofessional, abusive, a 'superintendent (of sorts in Father Mercede's) whose greed out weighs his honor, parents who are so caught up in their own world and unhappiness that they can not be bothered with their children, and children who have seen too much, who have hurt too much, and who have been given a pass to create their 'Lord of the Flies' scenario at their school.  

"Everybody's pissed off and wants to fucking hit somebody, but this whole system has only one rule: You can't hurt anyone who can hurt you back. So Sister Maria can't clock Father Mercedes, the teachers can't tell Sister Maria to fuck off, and the students can't punch out the teachers. They have to take it out on someone else. That's you and me. We're at the bottom of the pyramid."

 - Hannah

So, this is the thing about this book, did I cry, yeah.  Did I ache for these children, most definitely, did I laugh some....what I did most was rage.  I raged against the adults that condone this behavior, I raged against a system that turned a blind eye, I raged against the churches greed over the welfare of others, and I raged at the pain these children suffered, the pain that almost ALL of them suffered.

"Everybody is somebody's bully."

This book will break your heart, there is no way around that.  This isn't an HEA, this isn't a feel good book.  This is a look into a subject that until very recently, with the advent of social media, has been swept under the proverbial rug.  It is a subject that until recently was encouraged as being 'team building', strengthening, a part of growing up.  I remember distinctly walking into my Freshman year in high school and participating in what was known as FISH Week, something that in this day and age would be utterly frowned upon.  This book can be as the title says brutal.  It is a harsh look into the reality of bullying.  It is heartbreaking and thought provoking, it is a book that will stick in your memory for years to come.  

I know you are wondering if I am ready to shake Amy for bringing this book into my world, haha.  No.  This is one of those books that deserves to be read, should be read by everyone.  Is it ultimately my preferred type of read, not at all, but the thing about this book is that what ever your reading preference is, it is irrelevant because this book is more a dissertation on society than a simple fiction story.  Yes, this is a fiction read, but in the end there is nothing fiction about what goes on inside these pages.  They may not happen to the extreme that we see in this book, this is the world of bullying brought down into a microcosm where everything happens.  Every type of bullying, every type of emotion is pulled into this small private school and is boiling over.  It allows us to see how each character reacts, giving us a look at how bullying (in all it's various forms) affects different people.  The ones who want to fight back (Stein), the ones who want to hide (Davidek), and the ones who try to overcome (Lorelie).  Anthony's characters are so well developed that you feel every ounce of their pain.  You could literally pick up the book, flip to any page (having no idea what is going on) and find yourself lost in their world, in their mind.  The characters simply come to life in your hands.  

I loved that despite my love for HEA's this book didn't cater to me.  I appreciate that we have to walk away from this book knowing that while some acts are forgivable/excusable some are not.  People need to be held accountable, not everyone can walk away and find forgiveness and redemption.  The one thing that I didn't like is was the way the teachers were written.  Not because I don't believe they can be bullies as much as children (because I well know that they can, I had one like that), but because they were almost cartoonish in their behaviors.  While the school like I mentioned earlier is a microcosm and everything is heightened, the teachers, in particular Ms. Bromine, were so over the top that they made me not only angry but frustrated because they didn't feel right with the energy of the book.  

In the end, I think this book is a must read for contemporary literature fans.  I think it would be a fantastic book for AP English classes in high school and literature classes in college to breakdown and discuss.  I think this is a great read for teens and parents to read together and talk about.  It is a book that gives an opening to both parents and teens to discuss their dealings with bullying.  I know for parents (who are my age) we dealt with hazing/bullying and for many we don't look at it the same way people do now. When we were in our middle/high school years like I mentioned earlier the behavior in this book was deemed acceptable and I would tend to say for many it was never anything more than a few laughable moments, but the truth is for others it was harsh and brutal and it changed lives.  We need to be open in this discussion because bullying is more prevalent than ever and it is in my opinion so much harsher than ever.  One thing this book does is take the social idea of bullying now and put it back in an earlier time.  You are seeing what today's type of bullying (was for some) would have been if put back in the 90's before the advent of social media.  This book shows the harsh reality that children live with everyday now, only instead of being pushed under a rug or condone by the adults around them, most adults never even know its happening because social media has brought a secret-ness to it.  It is no longer out in the open, it is behind closed doors and glowing in the light of a computer screen.  

So read this book, think about what it is saying to you, to us.  Talk to your children, talk to other adults...let this be an opening to a broader conversation.  Check the internet for Anti-Bullying projects near you...I will leave you with these two sites as a place to start:

http://antibullyproject.com

http://www.projectantibully.com

~ HAPPY READING ~

About The Author:

Anthony Breznican was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1998. He has worked as a reporter for The Arizona Republic, Associated Press, and USA Today. Anthony is currently a senior staff writer for Entertainment Weekly, covering Star Wars, Marvel, the Oscars, and whatnot. Brutal Youth is his first novel.

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Follow The Tour:

October 5^th– Christine Abee – Review

 October 5^th– Ramblings of a Perpetual New Girl – Review / Interview

October 5^th– Reads All the Books – Review

October 6^th– Marla Miller – Author Interview

October 6^th – Heather Ann's Book Reviews – Review

October 6^th – Baps Book Blog – Guest Post

October 7^th – Pixie Vixen Book Reviews – Review

October 7^th – A Universe in Words – Review 

October 8^th – Bookish Babes – Review

October 8^th – Karin Baker – Review

October 8^th – The Pirate Tree – Review

October 8^th – Bookish Lifestyle – Review

October 9^th – Melissa Martin's Reading List – Review / Interview

October 9^th – A Diary Of A Book Addict – Review 

October 9^th – Triple T Tots Tweens and Teens – Review

October 9^th – Dizneeee's World of Books – Review

October 9^th – Fangirlish – Review

 “Surprise, surprise—the good guys don’t always win. Sometimes, they’re lucky if they just get to keep on being the good guys.”

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