6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A poignant and fascinating coming-of-age tale, January 26, 2007
This review is from: Trigger (Hardcover)
Frog farts.
Santa. Shoelaces. Elana Arroyo.
All these words are a jumble in Jersey Hatch's head.
HOUSE IS FINE MORON QUIT ASKING.
He has to remind himself to do the things that you and I take for granted, like thinking before speaking, and climbing a flight of stairs, or not constantly asking aloud if his parents' house is all right.
He didn't always have to do this. He didn't always need an aide at school, and he used to have a best friend, Todd, and decent grades and a place on the football and golf teams.
That was before he shot himself in the head.
Since the shooting, Jersey has lost all of his recent memory. He doesn't remember any of his 15th year and only recalls a portion of his 16th, the portion not spent in a coma, on a ventilator. Now, just turned 17, he is home from the hospital with three very deep scars and a thousand questions. The most frustrating question, the one neither he nor anyone else can answer, is: Why did you shoot yourself? To answer this question, Jersey will have to go through his book of memories and visit with one of the only people who never gave up on him: Mama Rush, his best friend's wise, sometimes curmudgeonly grandmother.
Mama Rush isn't going to make anything easy for Jersey, though. In order to find the answer to the question of why he shot himself, Jersey will have to make seemingly farfetched lists of possible reasons, contact people who would ridicule him, and try to communicate through the seemingly random words that infiltrate his speech. And the one person who might have the key to Jersey's discovery, his former best friend Todd, wants nothing to do with him.
If you liked THE BURN JOURNALS by Brent Runyon, then you'll be fascinated by Jersey's "upward and outward" climb towards memory and recovery. Like Brent, Jersey will never make a full physical recovery, but in his journey towards learning the answers he needs to fill in the empty spaces in his memory, he finds strange new friendships and unexpected alliances. To come to an understanding with himself, his family and his former friends, he will have to take small steps, speak one word at a time, and do his best not to give up when the words become clutter and his curiosity about the shooting makes him do and say irrational things.
Jersey's recovery won't be easy for anyone he is or was close to. And he will find out quickly not only who cares about him, but how.
--- Reviewed by Carlie Webber.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, November 27, 2006
This review is from: Trigger (Hardcover)
Seventeen-year-old Jersey Hatch cannot remember that day in his bedroom with his father's gun, and no amount of questioning from family, friends, or therapists can change that. Why did he do it? He wishes he could answer that question, but if he cannot even remember the actual act of shooting himself in the head, how can he be expected to remember why he decided to do it in the first place? Only through a painful search for answers can Jersey discover exactly what happened and why.
The fact that he lived is both a blessing and a curse. Yes, there is the simple fact that he is alive--a blessing, technically. But after one shoots himself in the head, life cannot ever return to "normal," whatever that may have been. Not only does he have to relearn everything in his life and deal with the fact that his body will never again work as it did before he pulled the trigger, he has to repair relationships. His dad is constantly hovering over him with that fake smile and a bowl of oatmeal; his mother rarely makes a sound; his best friend, Todd, wants nothing to do with him; and the authorities at school seem to wish he was anywhere but on their campus. Can all of these problems really be fallout from his mistake? He was the one who got shot, after all, so how can so many people be so affected by a single error in his judgment? These are questions for which Jersey knows he must find answers in order to find peace.
Author Susan Vaught is a neuropsychologist who works mainly with young people with head trauma. Through her words, the reader experiences the reality of a failed suicide--the frustration of the individual, the ambivalence of his parents, the fury that erupts within the caretaker household, the curiosity of outsiders, and, ultimately, the decision that can only be made by Jersey: rebuild his life or finish the job?
Reviewed by: Mechele R. Dillard
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is one of the best, October 11, 2007
This review is from: Trigger (Hardcover)
I love this book and my thirteen-year-old daughter loves it as well.
It's a positive book and a very nice read for all ages.
I've enjoyed every line of it and I am recommending it to friends.
NH is reading "Fahrenheit 541" and I was asked if I could save only one book ( not counting religious books) which would it be?
"Trigger" was the first book that came to my mind.
Enjoy!
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