Bitter End

by Jennifer Brown

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Bitter End is a book that will take the reader on a rollercoaster full of emotions, so powerful that it will leave them feeling raw, conflicted, and filled with such awareness that they won't be able to ignore it. This is a novel that I personally feel, every young adult and adult, should be reading and the lesson it provides is one they could greatly benefit from.

Jennifer Brown does not hesitate to tell the story of a young girl, Alex, who finds herself in an abusive relationship, dealing with jealousy issues, physical violence, and hurtful words that are just as effective as every pinch given. Her turn of phrase is excellent if not poetic in a sense and lends itself well, to the strong character development and the darker more rich and complex theme of abuse. This probably one of the most realistic portrayls of domestic abuse in young adult literature, aside from Deb Caletti's more recent novel, Stay.

The story does well to illustrate the simple of act of falling in love with someone, then realizing later that they really aren't the person you fell in love with. They came with flaws and sometimes, those flaws possess more of a hurtful nature than a loving quality. So many questions about the inner working's of the main protagonist come to life, because Alex is so convinced that Cole would never hurt her - could never hurt her. So, when he does, she takes it and she makes excuses for why he did it when there are no excuses. She even blames herself, most of all.

Alex wants to believe with all of her heart, that there is no way possible in the world, that he would ever truly want to hurt her and that every time he says he's sorry and that he will change - that he will make up for it, she believes him. She is a complex character and I applaud Jennifer Brown for bringing her to life and giving her such a strong and powerful voice big enough to stop the abuse, that's more realistic than any I've read before.

This is a novel that has so much strength and spirit and bravery, that it is almost necessary or should be mandatory even, to read it and learn from it and to learn how to break the cycle of abuse. It is a cycle and until it's broken, until it's made very clear that it is not going to be tolerated or accepted, it will continue to happen as long as these young girls and women are too afraid to be strong enough for their ownselves.

It's very clear to me that Jennifer Brown had a clear vision for the story that she wanted to tell and she should be applauded for exposing the horrific and realistic truth about domestic violence and how it can destroy lives and all of the people involved. This is why, I am giving it the full five stars, because it was that compelling and it was that realistic, but most of all it was that important.