Review : Blackbox

Black Box by Julie Schumacher

Genre: Mental Health, Family Life, Contemporary, Depression,

Goodreads: Click

Purchase Link: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Pages: 176

WHEN DORA, ELENA’S older sister, is diagnosed with depression and has to be admitted to the hospital, Elena can’t seem to make sense of their lives anymore. At school, the only people who acknowledge Elena are Dora’s friends and Jimmy Zenk—who failed at least one grade and wears black every day of the week. And at home, Elena’s parents keep arguing with each other. Elena will do anything to help her sister get better and get their lives back to normal—even when the responsibility becomes too much to bear.

Elena was the happy-go-lucky child. Meanwhile Dora I was just try and quiet type. So you can imagine everyone's surprise when Elena tries to commit suicide and lands in the hospital diagnosed with depression. After coming out of the hospital Dora isn't sure what to think of her sister. The family as a whole is starting to crack under pressure. All Dora can think about is trying to save her sister. 

I thought it was interesting getting seeing how Elena and her family was impacted by her depression. Seeing through Dora's eyes as she was watching her sister and trying her best to help her. It was tough seeing Dora goes through what she was going though and being alone through the process. Her family seems to be ripping apart but at least she was able to make a friend in the process. It was interesting getting his perspective on the situation and seeing how he was helping Dora but listening to her problems. It was good she was at least had someone to talk to when she could trust no one else. And that ending. It was so sad and hard to read, and at first I was confused thinking that's it? But then at second thought it really a good ending to the book. Overall if you are looking for a good book that I was an accurate picture of families dealing with family members with depression I think you should check this book out. It was a pretty good book.

Review : I was Here

I was Here by Gayle Forman

Genre: Mystery, Depression, Mental Illness, Death, Teen, New Adult, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary, Romance.
Goodreads: Click
Purchase Link : Amazon
Pages: 270

Synopsis:

Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until . . . they weren’t anymore.

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.

I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss. 

So heres what I thought:

Cody's best friend committed suicide and made sure no one would find out until she wanted it so. It was sent through an email. Cody had no clue her friend was suicidal, she didn't know how her friend managed to get a chemical like the one she used. In fact, she didn't know much about her best friend up until recently when she had lost touch with her when her friend left college. Packing up what was left of her best friends,Meg's, life she comes up to come evidence that leads her to think that leads her to want to search more into her friends life.

I this was a journey of Cody's grief learning about her best friend things she never knew. Not knowing what she was facing she headed on to finding out why her Meg did what she did. This book was sad and depressing at times but hopeful that Meg finds the answer she was looking for. I disliked her mother up until the end. I loved that Meg's family was able to give Cody the normalness of a family she wanted. I loved the Meg was able to get a bit away from her life to meet new people, go on a journey for herself and for Meg to come across secrets. I loved the mystery and I loved the relationship she had with Nick. I loved that what was going on between the two wasn't overpowering the book with romance, although there was just little bits of it to show what was going on with the two. This book was very morbid at some times.

Overall a great story, I really loved it.