Torn Away

Torn Away accurately depicts a teenager going through loss and change. Jersey goes through so much inner turmoil, and it is so poignantly written that it is practically tangible. Teens can easily relate to the emotions and thoughts that run through Jersey, but the story also serves as a reminder that there is always a place one can call "home". Although there are many characters who are cruel to Jersey or abandon her, Brown gives insight into those characters' actions. Everything in the novel is written beautifully, and I really love how Jersey is very independent- she doesn't need a boyfriend to help her find a place where she belongs. The romance is extremely minimal, but very sweet. The main thing I enjoyed reading was Jersey's show more adjustment to her new "homes", and slowly beginning to trust people after experiencing so many betrayals. I absolutely adore this novel, and would recommend it for all teens. I received a copy of Torn Away through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. show less

I got a copy of this from NetGalley and hadn't gotten around to reading it yet, and I guess yesterday was the day. It was so dark and gloomy and cold out! Jersey lives in Missouri with her Mom, stepdad, and little sister Marin. She's a normal teenager, waiting for the end of the school year, thinking her little sister is a pest, and not doing her chores. On this particular day, when her mom and sister leave for dance class, Jersey starts dinner and a load of laundry and sits down to do some homework. The wind is picking up outside and there's a weather alert on the TV, but that's pretty normal for the Midwest in spring. But then the power goes off and the sirens start blaring, so Jersey takes her homework and goes to the basement to show more ride out the storm.
From that point on, I was absolutely unable to put down this book. This book reached right down to my insides, grabbed them, twisted them up, and yanked them all around. It was so visceral in experience, reading this, I felt so much of Jersey's bewilderment, pain, loss, and betrayal. Her hope lightened the load, but then those tiny sparks would get crushed by the weight of reality again and again. I think every step taken in Jersey's journey was logically considered by Ms. Brown and is what very possibly would occur if a child was left devastated and motherless after a massive natural disaster.
Even writing about it today, I'm tearing up, feeling my chest tightening with emotion, remembering the ordeals that Jersey went through. Having had an unusually large tornado tear apart a part of my town, and dealing with the aftermath, I would say that this is a very fine book, and hits very close to home. show less

Before reading Torn Away, I've only ever read Hate List by Jennifer Brown which I loved for the unreserved emotion and realism it brought out on its pages. As the years went by Brown created books much like Hate List in how realistic the stories and lives of the characters she created were. I've always known her as an author that is not afraid to focus on controversial issues that need to be featured in YA literature. Finally, finally after wanting to read another book of hers for the longest time I've rediscovered Brown's uncanny ability to draw me into a story that could very much happen in everyday life with Torn Away.

I knew from the very start what Jennifer Brown was going to do to me. The summary warned me that Jersey's little show more sister and mother were killed when a tornado hit her town. And I saw the unmistakable past tenses when she was talking about her sister. I could feel the tears already welling up in my eyes when the story hits me with heartache right at the very beginning.

"I loved Marin.
I loved my little sister.
But after that day, I would hear myself over and over again: Go away! I would shout at her in my dreams. I would see that trembling lip. I would see the slow blink of her big, pixie-like eyes. I would see her walk away, up on her toes the way she always did, the glint of the rhinestones from her leotard blinding me."

Jersey really sets the stage for the tone of the book by describing her sister and her regret for things she said in the past out of anger and annoyance. As a whole Jersey's story shows how important it is to love while you can because one day everything important to you can be gone. But with that regret and pain she feels as she goes through the journey of finding some sort of resemblance of the life she knew is the idea of hope in starting life anew. With all the bad that the world sends you there is always hope that things will turn out better. It's a tough ride for Jersey that had me at times wanting to battle it out with anyone messing with her and other times in total heartache for what she had to go through.

Jersey's story lets you follow her through the start and aftermath of the tornado hitting her hometown as well as how it affected Jersey herself through the course of the book. Jersey is initially sent away to live with her biological father. Following that she is sent to her grandparents' house. She has never met any of these family members. It was always her, her mother, her sister, and her stepfather. She soon discovers some truths and half truths to the tales her mother told her about them which has her questioning how much she really knew about her mother. I liked that there was so much focus on Jersey's memories of her mother and sister. She tried to encapsulate them in her mind so as not to forget. Her image of Marin never wavers but her mother's does. It was interesting to see her develop somewhat of a whole new relationship with her mother now that she was gone.

Almost the whole time Jersey was living with her father and his side of the family I was upset. I couldn't believe how horribly she was treated - like she and what she lost didn't matter. The mental abuse she endured made me want to scoop her up and take her far away from the people who were supposed to be her family. I could feel the unfairness and anger Jersey must have felt. There was this palpable struggle with her emotions she faced throughout the entire book that left me empathizing with her plight. She held on so tight to this pent up anger inside her that I was worried that she would never let go.

"It was like the tornado had ripped through my house and torn me away. It was impossible that they could understand the rage inside me. The confusion and guilt and surrender. The hard edges that had begun to rub open, raw sores onto my heart. Because even I didn't understand it, and I was the one living it. And besides, if they really understood what it felt like to be inside my head, my heart, right now, they would run in fear. They would leave me alone."

I was really happy to see Jersey had at least some friends she could talk to about her situation even if it was by phone or text. She really needed support when she felt like she had none. Although I wish some of her friends would have focused more on her problems than their own, they did try in their own way to help a friend in need. It was sad to see her relive memories not only of her family but of her time with her friends because we don't know where her life will take her. By imagining these memories while actively trying to grieve for her losses, Jersey's situation becomes all too real. Here's this everyday normal girl who only a little while ago was perfectly happy. In an instant everything changed. How unfair is that?

While reading this book I couldn't help but think of hurricanes touching down in Florida and how when natural disasters happen they happen to other people and we still go about our day like nothing's happened. But I guess that happens with everything in life. Someone may have lost a loved one but we don't know them so we don't sympathize. Torn Away really makes you think about other people lives - what they may be facing and what you may in fact face one day as well. The simple fact is you cannot predict the future. You can never fully plan the future because you never know if something with blow your life right off its course.

Torn Away really made me feel. I felt defensive and angry and sad and happy (all the emotions) when it came to Jersey and what she had to deal with. It's one of those books that puts life in perspective. It's one of those books you look back on when you feel lost so you can find again what life is really all about. It's one of those books that shows you life goes by in a flash so you better make it the most of it while you are still here.

Note: The quotes from this ARC may not be in the final copy. Though they should be. show less

Read it in one night... Cried like a baby... It's AMAZING and heartbreaking

Jersey has lived through a natural disaster and she's lost everything... literally everything. Her home, her town, her family. Now she's being taken in by relatives who don't really want her and who she really doesn't know. She's learning things about her mother's past that she never knew. And finding out hard truths about her future.

My Thoughts:
THIS BOOK!!! You know how there are some books that make you cry at the end? Well this is not one of those books. This is one of those books where you sob the entire way through. Okay well at least I did. I was a hot mess while I read this book. Luckily I read the entire thing in one night in the privacy of my own room... show more because if I would have taken this to read out in public, I would have severely embarrassed myself.

This book is about Jersey who lives in Missouri, and has just lived through a devastating tornado. It literally flattens a large portion of her town. And now she's all alone. Her mom and little sister were at dance class and they never made it home. It was so heartbreaking to read about this little 5 year-old girl dying before she ever got to really live a life. Then after that the book is permeated with ALONENESS. Jersey is left with no belongings and no one who even cares about her at all. I just wanted to crawl into this book and give her a big hug!!

This book weirdly made me feel a lot like how I felt when I read The Fault in Our Stars and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. It made me question humanity and wonder why we treat each other like this!! I know there are good people out there, but seriously there aren't enough! So many people let this girl down, it made me sick. I don't want to give too much away or ruin the surprise factor for you... but I was pissed off and sad at the same time for most of the book.

Jennifer Brown's books have all been favorites of mine. I especially loved The Hate List. Torn Away is giving that a run for it's money. It's much shorter, but it's super powerful. It's definitely one of my favorite books I've read this year!

OVERALL: A heartbreaking, sobfest about a girl who loses her family and her home in devastating tornado. I was looking forward to a new Jennifer Brown book, and this one did not disappoint. I cried like a baby and loved every second of it.

My Blog:
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"I realized the worst part about someone you love dying isn't the saying goodbye part. It's the part where you wonder if they knew how much you loved them. It's the part where you hope you said and did enough good stuff to make up for the bad stuff. It's the part where there are no second chances, no going back, no more opportunities to tell them how you feel about them."

don't take my rating to heart. I just think Jennifer Brown and I don't work well together.

I'm the kind of person that doesn't read the news. When there is a school shooting, I don't visit every website and news station to hear all the gory details. I'd rather gather others and start raising money, I'd rather make snowflakes to send to the rebuilt school than hear show more another horrible tale about the loss and devastation that is disaster and losing those you love.

So Jennifer Brown and I don't get a long because she loves the gory details. She loves the horrible history and the way things don't work. The horrible details of the death and how others can not love you or want your or take care of you even if you've lost everything. How even "family" can fail you and beat you and rob you when you have nothing left. How even those who were supposed to love you can fail to love you once you aren't a family. I haven't found a silver lining in her books or even a moral or lesson. I always walk away feeling dirty and horrible and wishing I'd never read it. It didn't teach me anything or help me understand.It just reminded me that people are ugly horrible creatures. and some of the worst ones are still out there, ready to take advantage of those at their lowest.

if i wanted to be this completely disheartened with the human race, I'd watch the news. show less

In Torn Away, Brown created a sympathetic protagonist, Jersey, who goes through events that would be unimaginable to most readers. The range of emotions is unusually wide-ranging for such a short book. The reader has a chance to be as numb, angry, and grief-stricken as Jersey herself. My only criticism is about the portrayal of her biological father’s family. Her grandparents’ extremely unwelcoming attitude made me wonder why they would take her in to begin with, and the father’s wife and daughters bordered on stereotype. But this is a minor quibble. I would recommend this book to readers looking for realistic fiction or a good cry.

This very intense story tells what happens to a girl who loses her family when a strong tornado hits her city in Elizabeth, Missouri.

Jersey Cameron, 16, lives with her mom, 5-year-old stepsister Marin, and stepdad Ronnie in a town where tornado warnings are fairly common. Residents often practiced for what to do when the sirens went off, but as Jersey says later, “. . . we’d never - not once - discussed what to do after.” For some people, the tornado is only the beginning of the pain and heartache.

When the tornado hits, Jersey is home alone and goes to the basement. She later finds out her mom and Marin are among the 129 dead. Ronnie eventually comes back to the wreckage of the house and takes Jersey to stay at a motel, but he is show more emotionally devastated, and decides he cannot take care of Jersey. He drives her three hours away to the home of her father’s parents, people Jersey didn’t even know existed. She had not previously met her dad, Clay.

Clay and his wife are mean drunks, and their two girls are even more vicious. Clay’s parents - ostensibly Jersey’s grandparents, aren’t much better. Clay’s sister is the only one who even shows a spark of humanity, but she has her own burdens, and not much time for Jersey. Jersey runs off and begs her BFF Dani back in Elizabeth to ask her mom to come get her, but Dani’s mom calls Ronnie instead.

Ronnie comes to pick up Jersey, but won’t take her back himself. He delivers her to Jersey’s mom’s parents this time. Jersey had always been taught by her mom that they were “the enemy,” and Jersey had never met this set of grandparents either. Barry and Patty seem to be warm, loving people, but Jersey feels that even being nice to them would be a betrayal to her mom. In fact, loving anyone seems like something Jersey never wants to risk again. She is filled with confusion and guilt and rage, and she is scared and lonely and tired all the time.

As time passes, however, Jersey starts to see that the truth isn’t always black and white, and what her mom told her was only one side of the story. And her grandparents have infinite patience, even when Jersey herself knows she is being “unfair, and selfish and ugly.” She is somewhat astonished to observe that her grandparents seemed to understand what she was going through, and “they’d acted like… family. Like they were offering a place to belong. I just had to take it.”

By the end of the book, Jersey is starting to realize that “family” has to do with “what was in your heart.” Her grandparents’ hearts were open. If Jersey wanted family again, “all I needed to do was open up and let them in.” She is beginning to think that maybe she can.

Discussion: This book will be very helpful to kids who feel betrayed by people they thought they could trust. When a child is abandoned or mistreated or shocked by finding out unpleasant truths, who can help the child cope if the very people who are supposed to be the caregivers aren’t available? How can the child overcome the anger and grief? For all those who have been victims of disasters, divorce, abuse, abandonment, or other situations causing profound emotional dislocation, this story will make them feel less alone.

Evaluation: This is a sad but hard-hitting and very realistic seeming story that ends on a hopeful note. show less