When the Bough Breaks
By: Kay Lynn Mangum
Rachel
Fletcher she was the usual teenage girl. Worried about her weight, and had that
usual crush on the high school quarter back. She hung out with her friends, had
a happy family and a great life. That was changed though, when her dad died the
year before she went into her first year of high school.
For a
long period of time she had to deal with her mom’s depression and her brother’s
alcoholism. Then before Rachel realizes, she has a new stepdad Bill, who is
completely different from her deceased father. Her dad was funny; he lightened
a room just by walking into it, and was just amazing. But Joe, he’s serious,
not exciting and to her he’s changing her mom completely. Rachel also has a new
stepbrother, who is just few years older than her. It’s weird for her though,
because she feels like she has a connection to him. With that Rachel starts to
realize how it might not be her against the world after all.
You can
connect this book with a very important thing; the effect death brings on a
teen when a close family member dies. Really you can see how a person turns to a
specific thing to get their mind off of the pain, especially teens. For
example, “When the Bough Breaks” Rachel, the main character turns to her poetry.
She expresses her feelings through writing, and doesn’t share them. She keeps
them personal. Also she uses her religion; she relies on it and studies it for
something to lean on. So many teens do that, they use something that makes them
feel better, and takes their mind off of the sadness. They take a great helpful
activity and just jump into it. Sometimes though they’re not always the best
ones to jump into, like Rachel’s older brother, Ryan with alcohol. He drinks it
because he believes it’ll make him feel better, or better yet feel nothing. And
lots of teens have done this. They turn to drugs, alcohol, smoking, and other
harmful substances to make them feel nothing. Because they don’t want to deal
with the pain you feel after a death, but in doing so it soon leads to
addictions and more problems that follow. But with this book you can see the
real toll the death of a family member at a young age really affected these
teens.
People will really like this book,
especially ones who like poetry. The main character in this story writes
different types of poems and also uses a couple of really famous poems to
express her feelings. Also “When the Bough Breaks” it talks about inner beauty
and that it doesn’t matter the shape or size it’s all based on the inside. It’s
the fact that you’re kind and embrace a loving heart. Along with that I think
most people will love how this book connects with “The Secret Journal of Brett
Colton” Kay Lynn Magnums first book. It’s not exactly a sequel, it’s more they
go to the school at the same time. Only this time you see the main character of
the other book in a different perspective.
Lastly
Kay Lynn Magnum is such a phenomenal author. You can tell when they’re her books;
because she has this style where the story is about someone whose family member
died, very recently or a long, long time ago. She sort of writes like Nicholas
Sparks, because in his books he would always have at least one character be
diagnosed with a type of cancer or Alzheimer’s or just would have it end in a tragic death. And that’s how she sort
of writes. Except the deaths usually happen at the beginning and you don’t know
the character that well yet. Furthermore I mainly like how she has no sequels.
She just leaves the story off and makes you imagine what happens next. And I’ve
just always loved books that do that. Magnum wrote this book in such a
realistic way that I just love it so much and she has become one of my new
favorite authors. And I think anybody who reads this book or one of her others
will think so too. I give “When the Bough Breaks” an A+.
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