Week 15 Review: Pieces of Us

From Goodreads:
Two families. Four teens. 
A summer full of secrets. 

Every summer, hidden away in a lakeside community in upstate New York, four teens leave behind their old identities…and escape from their everyday lives. 

Yet back in Philadelphia during the school year, Alex cannot suppress his anger at his father (who killed himself), his mother (whom he blames for it), and the girls who give it up too easily. His younger brother, Kyle, is angry too—at his abusive brother, and at their mother who doesn't seem to care. Meanwhile, in suburban New Jersey, Katie plays the role of Miss Perfect while trying to forget the nightmare that changed her life. But Julie, her younger sister, sees Katie only as everything she's not. And their mother will never let Julie forget it. 

Up at the lake, they can be anything, anyone. Free. But then Katie's secret gets out, forcing each of them to face reality—before it tears them to pieces.

My Review:
This book was good, but not great. Alex really got on my nerves, he was rude, and mean, and cruel, and what he did to his brother was misguided, trying to "make a man" of Kyle, beating him, making his girl of the day touch him, and other awful things. And Katie wasn't much better, she was pained, what with getting drunk and having her boyfriend and his friend pretty much rape her, well, instead of sleeping with the friend to make him go away, or being with both of them and acting like she wanted them, she should have gone to the police. So I don't blame her for falling apart and needing to go to the home for the mentally unstable. She could have peace and heal there. Yep.

The romance in this book was good, except when it fell apart, Alex takes things too far, and hurts her, and she just takes it. And then just lets Julia come after him after Julia and Kyle fell apart, well, that wasn't good at all.

And their mothers! They didn't know how to raise a child, or 2, and if their lives depended on that, then they wouldn't be living, with Alex and Kyle's mom being a hooker, and letting her johns abuse Alex, and once she got a job, not noticing how Alex abused Kyle, well, at least she starts to make it up to try and get Alex away from Julia, well, yeah. Katie and Julia's mom, she sees everything as shiny and perfect, or how she wants to, she doesn't want to see the bad things. And she just snubs Julia and calls her ugly in her actions and in so many words. And she doesn't redeem herself, she just drops Katie like a hot potato after the video is released, and doesn't even try to talk to her, she blames her, and then just takes up Julia like they've been bosom buddies the whole time. Really hated her.

The ending was OK, but it left pretty much everything hanging, the only thing we really know is that Katie is getting a bit better, and that the boy's mom is going to break up Alex and Julia. I would've liked it to be a bit more resolved.

Other then that, this book was good. I liked reading it, but it wasn't the best book to read.

Author: Margie Gelbwasser
Read: April 8th, 2012
Source: NetGalley
Reason Why: It sounded good!
Publisher: Flux
Published: March 8th 2012

4/5 Hearts

3/5 Books

3.5/5 Stars