The Impossible Knife of Memory

by Laurie Halse Anderson

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/01/the-impossible-knife-of-memory-by.html#more
The Impossible Knife Of Memory depicts the very real and debilitating post traumatic stress disorder. Hayley's father Andy suffers each day as a result of four tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq, numbing the constant pain with alcohol and reliving each vivid detail over and over again. On the surface, it reads as a contemporary young adult novel dealing with what is seen as a mental illness, but watching the storyline unfold is confronting, heartbreaking and will leave you on edge. Through years of seeing the war through her father's eyes, Hayley isn't a well adjusted girl as much as she cares to believe. At home, she walks a fine line between coddling her father and doing what she can to make both their lives easier. Andy won't seek intervention, leaving Hayley to shoulder far more responsibility than any teen girl should need to endure.

I've never encountered a returned soldier, nor personally know one. I can't imagine any amount of training could prepare anyone for the atrocities of war and sadly it doesn't seem as though PTSD is openly discussed. Seeing Andy's illness from his teen daughter's point of view allows the reader to experience that fine line between sink and swim, and it's confronting to say the least. I spent the majority of the book waiting for what seemed to be the inevitable, I was emotionally spent. Laurie Halse Anderson has created far more than a contemporary teen novel, it's an emotionally charged psychological contemporary novel that will stay with you long after the final page.