Trigger

There are a lot of things that Jersey Hatch doesn't know. He doesn't know why exactly his best friend can't stand the sight of him, why his parents are acting so strangely, and he can't figure out just what must have happened that made him shoot himself. Everything he once knew about the year previous was wiped clean on the day that Jersey shot himself in the head with his father's gun. All Jersey knows now is that it's a challenge to walk, to talk, to think. He knows he has scars, that things will never be the same, and that he needs some answers to the questions no one will ask.

We meet Jersey upon his release from his final brain injury hospital. He's headed home to the real world, where life will be much harder. Immediately, we're show more captured by Jersey's sardonic narration that shows through the pieces of his personality that survived his injury at the same time as it shows how his thought patterns are terribly altered and difficult to focus after the fact. He mocks his mom and his doctor and their favorite repeated phrases, is haunted by the ghost of his former overachieving self, "Jersey Before," and rails against his minder at school, the unfortunately named Ms. Wenchel who he quickly nicknames "the Wench." Despite the brain damage that alters his way of thinking and makes his mind cluttered with all sorts of unrelated words that seem to get stuck in his thoughts and repeat over and over, Jersey's narration is clear-eyed and revealing of himself and of the people around him.

Vaught, a neuropsychologist by trade, has used her experience and expertise to write a terribly convincing story. Jersey is a compelling narrator and a sympathetic one. Despite the people he has hurt by trying to take his own life, Jersey's frustrations in bridging the thought to speech divide, his humiliation at his limitations, as well as his quest for the answers that don't come easily make it impossible for us not to feel his unbearable pain. Jersey's search for answers creates suspense that makes Trigger difficult to put down. Yet even as the plot moves toward its climax, Trigger asks us to consider suicide and its far-reaching repercussions and even forces us to consider, by way of Jersey's interactions, the variety of wrongheaded ways we "normal" people view and interact with the mentally handicapped ranging from fear and awkwardness to laughter to downright cruelty. So vivid and penetrating is this theme that cuts to the heart of our insecurities about our behavior around those that are "different" that even as I read it, I was unsure whether it was "right" or not to giggle at the absurd things that get stuck in Jersey's head that he repeats ceaselessly without meaning to, and whether I should feel bad if I did giggle.

Overall, Trigger is a profound, powerful, fast-moving story that asks all the right questions without ever resorting to preaching at us. Though marketed as YA, this book is well-worth reading for young and old alike. show less

Jersey Hatch tried to commit suicide. Except he didn't succeed. The story begins about a year after his attempt. He is going home after months of rehab. His parents try. They try hard, but the Jersey of now is not the golden boy of 'before'. Jersey, haunted by the 'ghost' of his former self tries to remember what actually happened. Jersey is such a likable person, as is Leza, the girl next door and her grandma who genuinely loves and cares about Jersey and tries to help him through this difficult time. Excellent read.

It's been a while since I've read a YA novel & I'm glad I picked this one up. While not a YA full of romance & relationship angst, it was full of real emotional depth & dealt with the subject of suicide in a thoughtful & poignant manner. Jersey was a great character & I felt quite a lot of empathy for him as he tried to figure out what led him to the fateful moment when he attempted suicide. I was on pins & needles with him as he made lists, asked people about himself before & he and his parents tiptoed around each other & what had happened. He basically has one friend left, Mama Rush, the grandmother of his former best friend, Todd & their relationship is one of my favorites in the story. Also in Jersey's corner is Leza, Todd's younger show more sister & I'll just admit right now that I was pulling for a mutual crush situation. It was nice to see that for all he'd been through, being a teenager still remained & he was concerned about his appearance, making a fool of himself in front of girls & having just enough autonomy & independence from his parents. Nothing about resuming a regular life was easy from family to school & not everyone was nice either.

I must admit that while I understood Jersey's mother was scarred from what he'd done, I found that I understood & empathized with her the least. I kept wanting more explanation from her to get a better handle on her but in the end, I just had to accept that it wasn't coming & be content with that. I did think Jersey's father was portrayed very well & I found that I only found one thing that he didn't do highly questionable but the way the story proceeds was entirely necessary. It was frustrating that often Jersey would ask a question about Before & the reaction he received from others was basically, "Really? How can you even ask that?" Many times, I just wanted to scream "Why doesn't anyone just tell him what he did or how he was already?! Don't you know he doesn't remember?!" I get that he had to work it out & that was the point of his journey but I honestly felt like someone would have just told him. I suppose the case could be made that all those he asked had their own fallout from his attempt so they were of course, dealing with their own feelings as well. I also felt desperately that his family should have had a nearer therapy date than six months out from his rehab hospital discharge. That struck me as woefully inadequate given the situation. I hope that isn't true to life & was just done to maintain the story structure of Jersey & his family working out some important things.

I won't give up the major plot points but suffice it to say, it's a page turner to the very end. There isn't a neat tie up of happy endings for each story thread but it is hopeful & believable. show less

This book is intense. The author has worked with brain-injured teens and her character's story of recovery from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head is realistic and heartbreaking.

Well, that doesn't make you really want to read it, does it?

Read it because the writing is brilliant. (Ever wondered what it would be like to think with a brain injury?) Read it because you'll connect with this character in a way that you might not have thought possible. Read it because you'll likely never forget this kid. One day you'll see someone acting a little odd, and you'll think of Jersey Hatch, and you'll see the person behind the odd behavior. Read it if you're a parent, and if there's a teenaged boy in your life, give it to him to read, too.

We first meet Jersey Hatch on the day he comes home after a year in the hospital. Jersey tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head. Not only does he not remember pulling the trigger, but he has also forgotten the year leading up to the event. Jersey, who had once been a star athlete and honor student, now struggles with physical and mental difficulties. His old friends shun him and his parents don't want to talk about anything important.

With the help of the outspoken, no-nonsense Mama Rush and her granddaughter, Leza, Jersey sets out to unravel the mystery of Before to discover why he tried to kill himself.
Finally, he is left with a choice that no one can make for him. Is it better to end it all or to go on living in the show more hope that life will get better?

This is not a happy book or an easy one to read, but it is absolutely stunning. And so realistic that I felt like I was inside Jersey's damaged head. If you're a teen, or if you've ever been one, read this book! Frog farts! Hoochie mama! show less

This is my SSR book for Q3. I have
read 304 pages.
This book is about a teenage boy named Jersey Hatch who is recovering from an attempted suicide. The author describes his life and every thought from a first-person perspective. It is very interesting to see what his thought process was like as he changed from a normal high-school jock to a mentally challenged student with minimal friends. I also enjoyed seeing Jersey grow as a person, especially one trying to recover from such a devastating incident. I also enjoyed how his biggest struggle of all, besides recovery, was to realize and figure out why he had attempted suicide in the first place. It amazes me to discover that he attempted to kill himself over such a small detail of his show more life--an overreaction of something that was merely nothing. There really was nothing that I didn't enjoy in this book because I feel that it was tremendously written and a great read for a teenager like me. I did finish reading this book because it was a book that I was able to relate to very well. As a young boy who had previously lost an extremely close loved one, reading this book brought back good memories of me and my cousin. As I continued to read on, it almost allowed me to somewhat completely understand what really had happened when my cousin had died. This was a great book, and I recommend it to anyone who likes reading books about teenagers facing and overcoming problems. show less

Susan Vaught wrote this book cleverly; when I first started reading it, I was bothered by Jersey's repetitive and strange speech, and it was maybe the 4th or 5th page before I realized it was the after effects of the brain trauma. This is a great book about attempted suicide and the events before and sfter it. I think it shows teens in the best possible way that the possibility of NOT dying in a suicide attempt can be the reason to want to live - and not for the reasons they might think. An excellent book.