34 Pieces of You (Reprint)

by Carmen Rodrigues

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Carmen Rodrigues pens a chilling dark and emotionally powerful novel, that will deeply move readers beyond the telling. Remincent of Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why, 34 Pieces of You is a haunting mystery of a young girl's fatal overdose. Ellie is an exceptionally intriguing and complex character. There seems to be a dark cloud surrounding her, revealing something very broken and dangerous. She's full of painful depression and the absence of any hope to act as a healing balm for her fractured soul.

The only person who seems to know anything about the hidden world of pain that Ellie hides beneath her exterior, is her older brother Jake. Once he moves away to college, she really starts to unravel bit by bit, piece by piece until one night it goes too far. Ellie begins to really spiral out of control one by taking too many pills with her friend Sarah and not waking up, leaving her friend to cling on for dear life and deal with the guilt in the aftermath from the fall out of her death. There are 34 strips of paper and each one of those strips, unravels the mystery of why Ellie comitted suicide. Unfortunately, each one of those strips of paper, also hold a great weight of guilt heaped onto those who cared about her and couldn't or didn't see the signs or witness the clues as to what exactly was going on in her world.

34 Pieces of You is a powerfully shocking and incredibly gripping novel that many young adults could benefit from reading. It is a beautifully written heart wrenching tale of painful youth, full of dark agonizing hidden secrets, and growing up. Rodrigues does a magnificent job of creating a world that stays true to the youth of our time without employing the help of gimmicks or devices meant to come across as cool or hip. It is a wonderfully written and powerfully thought provoking novel, that will leave readers emotionally spent. Carmen Rodrigues packs an incredibly overwhelming amount of shock, pain, and terrible secrets into this story. She is definitely an author that readers will want to keep an eye out for, as she handles senstive subjects such as drugs, suicide, sexual abuse, and so many more issues in such a realistic, raw, and honest way.