Customer Reviews

Damage

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I don't know why I picked this book up, but I'm glad I did. This has to be the most intense book I've ever read. Don't let the fact that it's written in second person (y'know, like "You get up and you put on your shoes") scare you off. That only makes you feel like you are right there in Austin's head, looking out. Except Austin is trying to get away from himself, so he has to think of what's happening as happening to someone else, not to him. Lot's of other great characters like Austin's best friend Curtis and his girlfriend Heather who is obsessed with keeping the surface of her life perfect and when she finds out Austin isn't the perfect guy she thought he was, he doesn't fit into her plans. Read this book! I promise you won't be able to put it down.

Having finished "Damage", I can only conclude that the author must have been severely depressed at one point in her life. Nobody could write about the illness so realistically unless she experienced it herself. I know, because I've been there.

It looks like everything's going for Austin. He's a football star. He's good-looking and has good friends. He just got a beautiful new girlfriend. But Austin has a secret -- he's depressed. So depressed it's difficult to get out of bed in the mornings. He lies there and stares out the window and thinks about suicide. But he's afraid to tell anyone about his problem, not even his girlfriend Heather, whose father killed himself when she was little.

The author never gives a main reason for Austin's depression, which I like, because in my experience depression never has a single cause. You get hints about his dead father, but that's it. Many people might be annoyed by this, but I am not.

I like the ending too: Austin tried to tell Heather his problem, but she freaked out, and he ended up opening up to somebody else who had been concerned for him since the very beginning. You get the feeling that Austin's friend is going to help him, and he'll start rising out of the black pit he's in.

An excellent novel. A. M. Jenkins tells it like is. I'll be sure to read all of her other books; I just hope they're half as good as "Damage".

In this novel, Austin Reid is the "Pride of the Panthers" on his football team. Ever since his father died of cancer when he was three, he has been secretly suicidal and depressed. He has always been good with the ladies, but now he's finally got the attention of the prettiest girl in town, Heather. Every day after football practice he takes Heather home. But when he starts to wonder about his relationship with his father, things get a little crazy. The cruel drills of his militant football coach don't help either; successfully demonstrating just how intolerant a male can be of weakness. I enjoyed that the book was written in the second person, as it was more interesting that way. I also enjoyed Austin's best friend Curtis, because he knew all along about Heather --- he was good with people. I enjoyed that once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down.
I didn't like that the book didn't really have a main event and it just went on and on about Austin's life. I also didn't like that the book mostly took place in his house or at football practice. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. It grasps your mind and you feel like all events are actually taking place in your life. This is a must-read novel.

This book pulls no punches in describing what it feels like to be clinically depressed. Football hero Austin tries everything he knows to feel better, including hooking up with the beautiful Heather, but he can't shake the nothingness he feels, and it nearly destroys him. I was especially impressed by the book's refusal to bow to typical bibliotherapy answers; Austin doesn't consult a professional or even tell his best friend how he's feeling. Most teens wouldn't, either. DAMAGE tells it like it is, and in so doing, gives readers a way to understand.

The reviewer below seems to have misread the ending of this wonderful book. Austin's problems don't "miraculously disappear." Austin finally faces the fact that he has a problem and takes the first tiny steps toward helping himself.

I understand why a teacher or a caring adult would want the book to show Austin taking that next huge step toward healing by seeing a professional therapist of some kind. But please trust the reader. Teenagers are smart enough to know that the end isn't where things stop. With a well-written book, they know enough about the character and situation to project into the future and determine for themselves what path Austin will take.

I am a middle school Reading teacher who has read Damage and since you implored parents, teachers and professionals to respond, I am doing so. I realize where you are coming from with some of your concerns, but I feel some of your comments are rather extreme and are broad generalizations. For example, "Parents are to blame for the condition of this world and the youth of today", that is a rather broad statement, one in which you include yourself? Are there not other factors that influence our youth? I wonder whether or not you read the book in its entirety before you judged it and also find it interesting that you state "I'm sure [any other] book by this author [isn't] showing the youth anything but trouble." Have you in fact read any other books by A.M. Jenkins? I think you missed the entire point of Jenkins' book. Nowhere in her book is the message sent that she condones underage drinking, sex or mental depression in teens. As you are the parent of three teens/young adult boys you surely are well aware that Jenkins is merely capturing the tone and language of today's youth. Even the most well-bred, church-going young man is susceptible of sexual thoughts in regards to young woman. This book isn't overtly sexual or graphic. Regardless of whether it is right or wrong, underage drinking and sex occurs on a daily basis. Shielding our youth from discussion about it only makes it that much more desirable or appealing...the "Forbidden Fruit" syndrome. By bringing it out into the open and educating our youth we impower them to make the right desicions for themselves. You said yourself that you had to go through the issues this book discusses yourself the "hard way"; I believe Jenkins hope is that teens will read this and understand that they needn't do it the "hard way"...there are options. Perhaps, if you had read this when you were struggling as a teen, you would have realized that you're not alone and you didn't have to make the same mistakes that some of the characters did. Over 19 million Americans suffer with mental depression and this book sheds some light on how even the people we deem to "have it all" are not immune to it. As I tell all of my students, not every book is for every person. The reason so many students have posted reviews is because it speaks to them on their level. Perhaps this book didn't strike a chord with you for a variety of reasons, i.e. you no longer suffer with depression, you are an adult and no longer agonize over the things young adults do, you are married with children so sex isn't this alluring, secretive activity that it once was, etc. I recommend one reads this book if they are interested in learning more about how depression creates those feelings of disconnectedness and isolation.

An estimated 19 million American adults suffer from depression and depressive disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Approximately 4% of adolescents get depressed each year. Up to 2.5 percent of children and 8.3 of adolescents suffer from depression beyond "just being a teenager." William Styron exposed the adult condition in Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness. Now, A.M. Jenkins has done the same for adolescent depression. If you think teenagers have nothing to be depressed about, you probably repeatedly say, "Get over it," to depressed adults. Just pass us the Prozac.

Austin Reid, Pride of the Panthers, might seem to have it all, including Heather, his school's most desirable girl...so why is he so numb about everything?

A.M. Jenkins beautifully illustrates the contrast between Austin's suicidal feelings and his awkward teenage Pilgrim's Progress, and drives the point subtly home by making the people around Austin, including his best friend Curtis and the perfect Heather as well as the adults, damaged and vulnerable too. Buy the teacher, parent, teen, friend, or high school counselor a copy of Damage. It may save someone's life.

In this novel, Austin Reid is the "Pride of the Panthers" on his football team. Ever since his father died of cancer when he was three, he has been secretly suicidal and depressed. He has always been good with the ladies, but now he's finally got the attention of the prettiest girl in town, Heather. Every day after football practice he takes Heather home. But when he starts to wonder about his relationship with his father, things get a little crazy. The cruel drills of his militant football coach don't help either; successfully demonstrating just how intolerant a male can be of weakness. I enjoyed that the book was written in the second person, as it was more interesting that way. I also enjoyed Austin's best friend Curtis, because he knew all along about Heather --- he was good with people. I enjoyed that once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down.
I didn't like that the book didn't really have a main event and it just went on and on about Austin's life. I also didn't like that the book mostly took place in his house or at football practice. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. It grasps your mind and you feel like all events are actually taking place in your life. This is a must-read novel.

The book Damage was not only one of the best books I have read so far this year it is one of the top 10 on my favorites list. The book is fictional but there is truth and reality in the contents. I thought the author did an absolutley terrific job and I can't wait until the next publication. I loved the second person and how captivating the plot was. The football hero goes into depression thing is amazingly true in most small town situations. This book is a must read for anyone.

"When you open your eyes, the joyless feeling has already crawled onto your chest. The ceiling of your room presses down onto the mattress. The air settles in your lungs so heavy that it almost too much trouble to breathe". This to me is the best introduction to start a book, even if it is not a very good thing, it just has a lot of details and it is so clear that you can imagine that that was happing to you. Austin seems like he is a pretty cool kid, he has some troubles in his life but every adolescent does when they get to the age of 15-20. He has some cool friends they try to help change his life but it is just does not work this book will go through some of the troubling things that teens go through and some of the good things they go through.


He is getting ready for football this summer because he made the commit that "two-a-days start Monday," For some reason it makes him a little happy. Austin is a ladies man and just broke up with his girl and him and Curtis goes to a little malt shop and Austin sees his old girl friend there and he still thinks she looks good. From the sound of things she sounds like she has been around the block once or twice. Dobie is her name and the way Curtis talks about her she is a shank.


Not every thing was bad, some things are good, Austin does the bad thing under a tree inside of a car and you know that that made hem feel a little better. Now he is spending more time playing football then worrying about all of the other things. I thought that he was finally moving on until one day he called his girl. This is a passage that came right from the book, "Did you ever have this feeling like you're not sad or anything, but like something's squeezing the back of your eyes"? To me that could sound like he is going to kill his self or he might even think about hurting some one else, I know but I think that I will let you find out by reading the book.


Now there is more complications with Austin, have you ever had a really bad day and you think that every body is against you and you thought that no body loved you or you thought that there was just no reason for you to live again then you thought or you are thinking like he is thinking. This book is just like somebody followed Austin around recording every thing he says and does, word for word, movement for movement, it is so detailed that this is now my new favorite book.


This book is a sad but true book. What I mean when I say sad but true book is that this book does have a good but through the whole book it was leading up to something but something or someone does something and it changes his whole life. This book has the best plot and it has the best characters in it, to me it is the best book and if you have not read it yet you should because it is the simplest book to read but it is the most detailed and the truest book.