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Category: Social Issues

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Rae by Chelsea Rae Swiggett

[ 173 ] August 17, 2010

Please join us for the TLC Book Tour of teen authored memoir series Louder Than Words! Know a teen who is interested in writing for the Louder Than Words series? Have them submit their story here.

Reviewed by Vera (Luxury Reading)

Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety, and Social Phobia, part of the Louder Than Words series, is the story of Chelsea Rae Swiggett as told in her own words. As far back as Chelsea could remember, she felt different. The sounds of airplanes kept her up at night, worried that one might crash into her house at any minute. Family road trips were a source of constant anxiety as Chelsea imagined dozens of different ways to die in a car. High school was its own ordeal. Transferring to a new school for freshman year, Chelsea hoped to make a fresh start, but her fear of social interactions led her classmates to believe that she was at best extremely socially awkward and at worst mute.

As Chelsea struggled to step outside her perceived comfort zone and be more social, the result was just more uncomfortable silences and missed opportunities to form bonds with her peers. Her admissions to her mother that she was different were met with “you’re just shy”; Chelsea finally met with a psychiatrist when she blurted out that she was depressed, and was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

Constant anxiety was a new concept for me, and reading Rae gave me a better understanding of what it’s like to live with this disorder. Chelsea was very honest in describing her feelings and experiences, and I think her story is an important read for anyone. Those who don’t know much about the disorder will hopefully learn to be more sensitive towards individuals suffering with anxiety. For those who deal with anxiety on a daily basis or who have family members that do, Rae will show them that they are not alone and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

[amazonify]0757315275[/amazonify]Giveaway:
Here’s the big giveaway you’ve been waiting for! One grand prize winner will receive copies of all 3 Louder Than Words books we’ve reviewed here – Alexis, Hannah and Rae! (click on the names for our reviews)

Another winner will receive a copy of Rae, courtesy of the publisher!

Mandatory entry: Please comment on this post with your e-mail address.

Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via e-mail, follow or subscribe to the feed. You must verify the subscriptions. (1 entry each)
- Enter another current giveaway and tell me which one you entered (1 entry each)
- Share this giveaway on a social network of your choice. Click the “Share/Save” button at the bottom of this post (1 entry each)
- Become a fan on Facebook (2 entries)

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on September 3rd.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by HCI Teens. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: Hannah by Hannah Westberg

[ 118 ] August 10, 2010

Please join us for the TLC Book Tour of teen authored memoir series Louder Than Words! Know a teen who is interested in writing for the Louder Than Words series? Have them submit their story here.

Reviewed by Jenna A.

“At least this chaos filled the emptiness. I longed to be void of emotions again.” – Hannah

Hannah Westberg is a 19-year-old living with boderline personality disorder. In her self named memoir, Hannah discusses growing up with and around mental illness, and brings her trials and tribulations to light.

Hannah’s story starts the readers at the very beginning, indulging us in the assorted stories of her mother, father, sisters, brother and friends. Hannah grew up not knowing normal from abstract, black from white. Her mother suffered from schizoaffective disorder, abandoning Hannah and her siblings, forcing them to live with a depressed father, and an unwanted stepmother.

Such chaos only worsened things for Hannah, and she continuously battled with drug use, suicidal thoughts and difficult relationships. In her memoir, she lets the readers in on her roller coaster of a life leading up to her rape, stints in mental wards and bouts of self mutilation.

[amazonify]0757315283[/amazonify]Well written and emotionally charged, Hannah shows us the power of truth, pain, and strength with a maturity beyond her years. The story is serious, yet the knowledge that the author has lived through this pain and has written this story for others like her to share in is extremely refreshing. I would reccommend this book to anyone who has ever loved someone with a mental illness or experience it themselves.

Jenna lives in a small town in Ohio with her fiance and cat Osiris. Along with her passion for reading and the literary world, she is also a painter, poet, fiction writer, and amateur photographer.

Giveaway:
1 winner will receive a copy of Hannah, courtesy of the publisher!

Mandatory entry: Please comment on this post with your e-mail address.

Extra entries (please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 posts for subscribing):
- Subscribe via e-mail, follow or subscribe to the feed. You must verify the subscriptions. (1 entry each)
- Enter another current giveaway and tell me which one you entered (1 entry each)
- Share this giveaway on a social network of your choice. Click the “Share/Save” button at the bottom of this post (1 entry each)
- Become a fan on Facebook (2 entries)

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on August 30th.

Look for our review of Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety, and Social Phobia on August 17th for a chance to win all 3 books in the series!

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by HCI Teens. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt

[ 1 ] August 29, 2009

Reviewed by Katie L.

A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt is the story of Simone, a high school junior in a suburb of Boston. Simone has known since she was able to understand words that she was adopted. Her mother is a lawyer with the ACLU and her father is a cartoonist who spends most of his time at home trying out new recipes on his family. Simone has never felt a reason to meet her birth mother. Her history is here with her mother, father, and brother who look nothing like her. Simone has accepted the fact that her biological family tree is bare until her birth mother shows up and sends her life in a different direction.

Simone is bumping along through life – helping her mother canvas for the ACLU, joining the Atheist Student Club to protest a political issue she only just heard about yesterday and still barely understands, studying for SAT’s, dating, partying – when she finds out that her birth mother, Rivka, is asking to meet.

While gathering information for a school newspaper article she is writing, Simone learns the story of Rivka and the story of her adoption. This opens her up to meeting Rivka and trying to understand her better, which in turn leads to another bomb being dropped. Through this change, Simone starts to learn about who she is and she realizes that where she came from is a big part of where she is going. This is a story of amazing family love and support and of taking all of the good and bad in one’s life to create an identity for oneself. It is laced with acceptance, faith, and maybe a few PG anecdotes here and there.

A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life is obviously directed at young adults as the main character is in high school and deals with high school situations (parties, gossip, school social clubs, crushes), but I think it can span through several generations. The underlying theme is one that everyone deals with throughout his or her life. The humor and wit of the main character is not at all childish and Simone includes the reader in on her every thought throughout the story. It actually reads more like a diary which immediately pulled me in and kept me interested in the life of this teenager until the end of the book.

This is Dana Reinhardt’s first book and she has done a great job at taking her readers through every emotion one can go through while reading this book. The thoughts and feelings of this teenager are very realistic, neither too dramatic nor filled with rainbows and butterflies. I felt exactly how Simone felt when she felt it and when the book was over, I was a little sad that I had lost a friend. I’m very excited to read anything else that Ms. Reinhardt puts out.

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Review: After by Amy Efaw

[ 0 ] August 14, 2009

Reviewed by Jennifer R.

After by Amy Efaw is a wonderfully well-written young adult book that explores the case of a teenage mother who gives birth and then leaves her newborn in a dumpster.

I want to start out by quoting something the author wrote in her notes at the end of the book. The author’s note is a few pages long and explains her inspiration for writing the book as well as the research she did. Amy Efaw writes:

“… in an attempt to alleviate the growing problem and give pregnant women a way to anonymously abandon their babies without fear of prosecution, Texas was the first state to enact what would later be termed “safe haven” legislation. That was in 1999, and since then, all fifty states have now passed similar legislation. Yet news outlets all over the U.S. are still reporting these “dumpster baby” stories with alarming regularity. So, why is this still happening? After attempts to answer that question.“

The novel starts out with a baby being found in a dumpster. Devon, 15, is soon after discovered to be the mother who abandoned her baby. Devon has, up until this point, been the picture perfect student with good grades and extra-curricular involvement — all this despite her less than perfect home life. Though the novel is written in third person, we follow Devon’s point of view through her experiences in court and then jail and thinking back to what has happened — all of which Devon has only a few memories of.

What I loved about this book was that Devon felt like such a real person. Her reactions to her environment and her actions were so genuine, and Efaw does a great job at making the reader feel for Devon. That’s not to say this is a book about seeing the mother as a victim or the prosecutor as callous but, rather, it’s about just getting into the thoughts and mind of the mother and trying to understand the motivations behind her actions.

After has an interesting psychological aspect to it (trying to determine why Devon did what she did) but doesn’t delve too deeply into the topic — just enough to add to the storyline. It is an easy read, but this does not in any way take anything away from the intensity or authenticity of the novel.

Jenny is a social worker in her late twenties who lives with her husband and Jack Russell Terrier in the central Florida area.  In her “free” time she loves reading books of all genres.  She also reviews books on her book blog TakeMeAway.

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