| Title | : | Cracked |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781442434424 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 311 |
| Publication | : | First published January 3, 2012 |
Victor hates his life. He has no friends, gets beaten up at school, and his parents are always criticizing him. Tired of feeling miserable, Victor takes a bottle of his mother's sleeping pills—only to wake up in the hospital.
Bull is angry, and takes all of his rage out on Victor. That makes him feel better, at least a little. But it doesn't stop Bull's grandfather from getting drunk and hitting him. So Bull tries to defend himself with a loaded gun.
When Victor and Bull end up as roommates in the same psych ward, there's no way to escape each other or their problems. Which means things are going to get worse—much worse—before they get better….
Cracked Reviews
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Hi friends, I’m gonna need you all to suspend the belief that I’m a nice person for just a moment while you’re reading this review because oh my god, this book is trash and there is no way I can write this review while simultaneously being nice.
So, Cracked…. It’s about these two guys that have terrible lives. Victor has parents that pretend he doesn’t exist. Bull lives with his abusive grandfather and his drug addict mother. Victor is a loner and Bull bullies him. Somehow, they end up as roommates when they’re both admitted to the hospital after attempting to commit suicide. I’m sure you would expect this book to be about friendship or the very least these two boys learning to coexist and understand the others pain. Well let me tell you, you could not be more wrong.
*Spoiler Alert* Each finds a girl and falls in love and magically, in 5 days, has all their problems fixed. In five days. Five days???? Five days!!!! And they don’t talk to each other, about anything productive at all.
Not to mention, it’s written terribly. I’ve written better reviews while ugly sobbing. I’ve written better short stories as an 11-year-old child. I want to say this read like fanfiction but that would be an insult to fanfiction. Fanfiction is written better and more realistically. This is supposedly a mental health novel but this is the furthest thing from accurate to mental health in the entire world. I don’t know what person in the publishing industry read this book and thought, “Yes! This needs to be published.” It’s terrible. There are no redeeming qualities, at all. It lacks consistent characterization, reason, clear plot progression, character motivation, realism. This could’ve been edited about 80 more times.
I’m honestly just surprised I managed to get through this book. The only reason I actually read it all the way through was to write this review….
So yeah, that’s cracked; a supposedly mental illness and bullying book turned to romance and instant recovery story. I am disappointed and shocked and disgusted. Don’t read this. Don’t waste your time. -
It wasn't written terribly, but the plot and characters felt more like an after school special than real people. The bad parts were bad, but the simplistic solutions, and overly neat ending made everything that came before seem less significant. I found myself wondering; if that's all it took to make things better, than was it really that bad to begin with? I found the changes the characters underwent were too forced, and too abrupt. Bullying is an important issue, and, while I'm glad more authors are taking up the issue, I didn't feel that this book did a good job addressing it.
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This book follows two teenage boys living difficult lives. Victor is invisible to his parents and those around him. The only person who seems to notice him is Bull Maverick, the school bully who is constantly picking on him. But Bull is facing demons of his own, his abusive grandfather and drunk mother don't make his life easy. Both boys decide to take matters into their own hands. Victor takes a bottle of his mother's sleeping pills while Bull stands up to his Pop with a loaded gun. Upon awakening, they both find themselves in the psychiatric ward, as roommates.
The book was a very quick read and flew by, but I wasn't overly blown away by this book. For the most part it was boring and nothing really happened. The characters and writing were both weak in my opinion. I hated the dialogue and the way the author tried to portray the way teenagers communicated with each other. I also didn't like the 'love heals all' trope employed. The dual perspective between the two boys was interesting and I liked how they seemed to mirror each other. I liked that the attempt at the message was there, but the overall execution was weak at best. -
A solid read with two authentic and hurting male voices. Bull's the bully but acts that way because that's the way he's grown up. Victor, on the other hand, is the bullied and allows himself to be picked on because that's the way he's grown up. There's a nice exploration of families, of social class, and of the importance of knowing you're loved/giving love.
A couple of things didn't work for me, including the quick turn arounds of both boys when they'd hit rock bottom. I was hoping for a lot more interacting between them since there was so much for them to work through side-by-side, but instead
Readers who liked Swati Avasthi's Split or Andrew Smith's Stick will like this one. This reminded me a little bit of Amy Reed's Clean and Crazy, for both the institutional setting and the working-toward-recovery aspects.
Full review here:
http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/05/c...
Thanks
Lenore Appelhans for gifting me this one! -
Call me cynical, but when I read a book about hard-hitting themes like bullying and suicide, I don't necessarily want "happily ever after." While this book does a decent job tackling these two serious topics, I felt the rosy ending for these characters didn't jive with reality.
This novel is told through the eyes of two boys - chapters alternating between Victor and William "Bull". Victor is a victim of bullying done by Bull. The bullying has gone on since kindergarten and hasn't improved. At the same time, he's reminded constantly that his parents never wanted him and is repeatedly belittled by their selfishness and egos. While Bull is a bully at school, he is a victim at home to his grandfather's fists and his mother's neglect. Each boy is miserable and desperate for a way out. Victor tries suicide and Bull tries to defend himself from his grandfather with a gun but ends with getting himself shot. Now both boys are roommates in a psych ward, involuntarily committed for five days after "suicide" attempts. Through the people that they meet, the boys discover who they truly are and what's worth living for.
I felt as if this book did a great job of building these characters who you feel sorry for. You completely sympathize with Victor and his horrible parents and the bullying and how his only companion in the world is a dog knocking on death's door. You even feel bad for Bull, despite the fact that he's a bully. All of that works for the story. Then they're committed for five days and after four days they're magically cured? A magic cure is bad enough, but then they both fall in love in this psych ward in four days? What are the odds? At that point the book starts to lose its realism for me. First off, I find a cure in four days a bit much, especially for Victor. Bull was never suicidal to begin with, so I can believe it for him, but Victor had so much going against him - his parents went to Europe and didn't even come back when he tried to commit suicide. All it took, though, was for him to share his feelings and have a girl say he's worth living and now every thing's peachy keen? Again, maybe I'm just cynical, but it's all too picture book happy for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that things worked out in the end, but it makes it seem too easy. While I don't have any experience with suicide, I've been given the impression that this is a serious struggle for a lot of people. Not everyone has a long-lost relative ready to step in a fight for them. Not everyone is going to meet a girl and want to turn it all around in a day or two. This book would have been more powerful if it was a little bit more realistic in terms of recovery.
Some people like fairy tale endings, but some topics don't lend themselves to that. While I can see this book as inspiration for people not to commit suicide and to stand up for bullies, I felt like it should be more sympathetic to the true struggles that people face in these situations. -
Well hot damn! FINALLY!! A book that really gets to the quick on issues like suicide, abuse and bullying for GUYS!!! - and from both POVs of the bully and the bullied.
[it seems to be the case that a bunch of authors got the memo that, done right, the double POV can work magic!]
I am so sad to say that this one flew under my radar until recently...on the plus side, this means that her second book - Empty - is already out and I can read it right away!!
Very well written - this was a gripper. It was very moving, quite sad actually. And she just did an amazing job really getting into the head of both her main characters to the point that I found myself getting a fair bit worked up over both of their predicaments (wow, 'predicament' really almost belittles the content of the story).
I really enjoyed how she had the characters work through the situation, but maybe even more so, the amount of time she put into building the situation - really setting the stage - for the guys to get to the point where they could start to heal so that it had that element of realism in it...not just a happy-ending, make-believe story.
Definitely a good read for teen guys, I think the writing style would probably catch even reluctant readers. Again, it's nice to have a new book to point to that will (hopefully) speak to the guys directly...beyond some of Ellen Hopkins books, Loss, and Bullyville, I find it's rather slim pickings for this genre. -
This book matters.
It's a simple as that.
Bullying is a pervasive issue in our society today and more people need to be reading a book like this. Why? What makes this one special? I have a few reasons why I think this is a stand out. But first, I'll be honest with you... K. M. Walton is a friend, an Apocalypsie and a fellow author at Simon Pulse. I sort of wish this wasn't true because there will be many people that assume that my respect and love for CRACKED is influenced by those connections. I'd like to take a moment to convince you why this isn't true.
In the past I've been a special education teacher that specialized in children with emotional and behavioral issues. My father was a counselor in a maximum security prison. The first year I taught I can remember coming home and asking my dad..."Where is the line?" He looked at me funny, wanting to know what line I was talking about. Then I explained that the children I worked with were obviously victims. Their issues were clearly connected to the things that had happened to them in their lives. But what I wanted to know was if they couldn't be helped, what day would they stop being victims and what day would they start to be bullies, offenders, abusers, prisoners? Suddenly everything was a blur to me. When might these children go from being someone I loved and wanted to help to being someone who might turn around to someone else and do the same things that were done to them? This thought and these children have weighed heavy on my heart all my life.
K.M. Walton doesn't give me the ultimate answer to this bigger than life problem, but she throws ropes to her readers--giving them something to hold on to. More important, she raises question and she does it will great skill. I don't think any one book or one person can give us the answers to such a large hole in humanity, but this is the kind of book that asks us to dig deeper as readers. It is a book that crakes creates sparks--the hope of illumination. It renews the fire within me to make the world a better, safer place--to stand up and have a voice. It helps me to put the people around me into perspective, so I can better navigate those who hurt. Because bullying doesn't happen to just children. It reminds me that the world is not black and white--but grey--full of shades of truth that blur the lines between right and wrong, good and bad and ultimately life or death.
I highly recommend CRACKED by K.M. Walton and if you're moved by the writing of John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson and K.L. Going, then I think you have a new hero to add to your bookshelves. If you read CRACKED I would love to hear what you thought. <3 -
This book has been touted as a great book about bullying. It does give a very clear picture of what can happen to individuals when they are the pushed to the extreme of being the target of bullies, whether they be adult or peers. The author also gives a good internal perspective of what the teens are feelings as victims of their situations. This story seemed more of a lesson in "don't judge a book by its cover" than in bullying. (Maybe teens will gain some perspective from it.)I was hoping to see more of what happens within the school environment as that is where we hear about the problems occurring the most. And as an educator we are often the people who receive the blame for "allowing" the bullying to occur. (We don't allow it, our hands are tied by administrators who are will not stand up to parents.)
The two main characters are victims of a type of bullying. However, they are more victims of horrible home lives. It was not what we in educational circles have come to know as bullying in the traditional sense. Victor comes from a wealthy home, where great is never good enough. He is an unwanted eyesore on his mother's $10,000 couch. Yes, Victor is the target of Bull's physical violence, and taunts. But Bull's issues are even more a matter of his life at home. Bull is from a very poor home where alcoholism and abuse is a routine. Bull you aren't supposed to expect to be intelligent and Victor isn't supposed to have any problems at home. But underneath each person has their issues to deal with as well as their strengths. I guess I wasn't expecting such predictability because there has been so much hype about how great it is. The young adult reader will probably enjoy it. I think I was just let down by all the things I heard.
The ending seemed a bit unrealistic to me in that two teenage boys open up within a matter of days about what is going on in their lives and each one has an adult hero sweep in and start caring for them. That doesn't happen very often. It had too much of a fairy tale ending.
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I cannot rave enough about this novel. I was so completely emotionally invested in these characters that I cried at least four times - and I hardly ever am moved to tears by books (maybe only around 10 in the whole history of my reading life post childhood).
More to come ... -
Cover: 4/5 Simple and effective. I don't care for the black border; I think a stark white cover with the cup of pills would have been more aesthetically pleasing. If I saw this on a bookshelf in a store, I'd pick it up.
Characters: 4/5 Bull and Victor are both great narrators. Very different from each other, despite having the same wants: acceptance, love, respect, 'normal lives.' I particularly enjoyed Victor, likely because I related to him more and how he felt invisible and so anxious about rejection.
Plot: 3/5 Well-paced and interesting, but the blurb misled me a bit. I was expecting a lot more confrontation between Victor and Bull, and there was hardly any. So many good things could've come from them interacting, fighting, getting to know each other. I think it would've been a lot more interesting to me than the inclusion of the girls who seem to help 'fix' them both.
Writing: 3/5 Solid writing, and I really enjoyed how different Bull and Victor's voices were from one another, which is really important when telling a story through alternating 1st person POV.
Overall: 3.5
Good, fun. Would definitely recommend, though I felt some aspects could've been a lot stronger. -
Enjoyed reading this book so so so much!!!
1. i am curious about the books that william read, i want to read them too
2. this book was so funny!! literally i loved bull(aka william) point of view
3. i wish there were similar books.
writing: 5/5 it was captivating that i couldn't let go of the book, i loved everything about this book, i think i like male POVs more than female POVs cuz they're short and funny i guess.
i hate reading it so fast but i couldn't let it go, i want a SEQUEL!
Characters:
William:
1. i have to say, he was my fav pov!
2. i really feel like he lived in such a crappy life, thank god things got better.
3. i am so happy he has someone to treat him in humane way, like frank.
4. i like how he still, sees his mom as his mom, i mean he doesn't hate her completely.
5. the part when he said that he can't have a girlfriend and imagined a horrible scenario. hurts. a lot.
Victor:
1. he has a TEACUP DOG!! i googled them they are sooo cute!
2. omg his parents are so annoying.
3. that part when he spilled pepsi on the expensive couch hurts, he was only 6 years old!!!
4. i loved the grandma when she scolded victor's parents.
all in all, i need another book please from this author. -
While I absolutely loved the characters and the overall theme of Cracked, I didn't care much for the way Walton portrayed psychiatric units. Most of the situations in the hospital felt out of place. One thing that bothered me is the complete lack of interest from the nurses and staff when Victor tells them that he can't be roomed with Bull. In my experience, people who knew each other outside of the hospital or people who couldn't get along were put on a sort of restraining order where they weren't allowed within ten feet of each other. The whole point of acute psychiatric hold is to get you out of the situation that may or may not be a cause of your problem so that you can look at it objectively. If anyone you know outside is in there with you, they may get in the way of your recovery so it would make sense for the supervisors and nurses to move one of the boys.
Also, since you're supposed to be focusing on your recovery while you're hospitalized, the biggest pet peeve I have about Cracked is the romance involved on the unit. What irks me about this is that these hospitals are extremely strict on the whole forming-relationships-while-you're-hospitalized thing. That's one of the things that they stress continually throughout your stay. You aren't there to get laid or find your soul mate or make any longstanding relationship. You're there to locate your stressor and apply useful coping techniques to help you get through similar situations in the future instead of doing whatever landed you in the hospital this time. When Bull and another patient on the unit, were caught in Bull's bed by the nurse, they would have been punished in some manner. Whether it was solitary or Ten-Foot or even unit restriction. Hospitals enforce the no-relationship rule explicitly. The fact that they weren't reprimanded in any way really annoyed me. Add that to a girl from school that Victor has a crush on, conveniently getting the number of the hospital and being able to convince the nurse answering the phone that she was allowed to talk to Victor and you get the ingredients of a story that doesn't care much for accuracy.
Walton had the makings of a fantastic story. Great plot. Great theme. Outstanding characters. But instead of forming her plot around the realities of psychiatric hospitalization I feel like Walton did the opposite and it stunted the amazing turns it could have taken.
Ultimately, the reason I gave Cracked 3.5 stars is because it's one of those books that I enjoyed reading but felt that pieces of it fell flat. Parts of the book felt rushed or forced into a neat happy ending. It is a great read though and I will give credit where it's due, there are many great things about Cracked. Walton executed the characters and theme extremely well and I enjoyed walking beside Victor and Bull throughout their journey. These boys fantastically prove that no matter how different people are, they all fight their own battles and no matter how rough their struggles are they can get through to the other side. Overall, I definitely recommend Cracked to anyone who is interested in a fictional coming of age story about the acidic effects of bullying. -
I like this book, I really do. That said, I nearly put the book down in the first 30 pages. The main characters are a stereotypical bully and victim, almost painfully so. I started to wonder if I was reading a young adult novel or a 300-page narrative pamphlet on bullying. With a victim named Victor and a bully named Bull, it seemed a near thing.
But it gets better. The story starts out a little slow but you don’t really notice it. The author switches between the two main characters every chapter, and at several points I had to hold myself back from skipping a chapter just so I could get back to the character whose chapter I had just finished. When you finally get to the point where both boys wake up in the hospital, the author has you in a groove and there’s a good flow going.
At this point I begin to have a few issues with the book that I cannot go into in more detail without spoiling parts of the book. The easiest way I have of explaining these issues without explicitly stating them is by stating that I actually believe the characters in the book are of a higher age and reading level than those who are meant to read this book. As such, certain aspects of the plot feel a bit rushed and simplistic when compared to the subject matter they are tied to.
The author also focuses almost exclusively on characterization, which you don’t realize and doesn’t actually matter until you come across a passage which makes you question the setting and you suddenly realize you know almost nothing about it. In this situation it doesn’t have a huge impact on the novel, but I feel it’s something that should be pointed out because no matter how small, it does have an impact.
My actual rating for this book would be a 3.5, but I liked it enough that I decided to round up rather than down. I don’t think I would ever reread it, simply because the reading level is a little too low for me to be able to enjoy it without becoming annoyed at the language. The author also stands out by having two male main characters, when most novels dealing with this subject matter would have female leads simply due to the higher female attempted suicide rate (3 female attempts for every 1 male attempt).
All criticisms aside, I was well and truly satisfied by the ending of this novel. It fit with the characters and what we’d seen of them up until that point, even those that seemed rushed during their hospitalization. Suffice to say it’s a happily ever after without being mired in the perceived notions of what that should be. -
Loved this author's writing style as well as story line.
We have one boy being bullied by the same kid most of his school life. He is an outcast with no friends. He is invisible to his parents who remind him he was an accident and generally ignore his whole existence except when he may do something to inconvenience their lives. After his dog who was the only one that valued him passes away he is devestated and swallows a bottle of pills.
Then there is the second boy. The bully. And as we are shown the life he has we see a boy who also is an accident and lives in a place with no bedroom for him with a mother who has no clue what the word mother means and a grandfather who regularly smacks him around. This boy likes books and poetry and while you never really like him because he is a really mean bully you understand that behind the bully is another bully. And then after what is perceived as Bull's suicide attempt the two end up as roommates in the psych ward of the hospital.
This was a very realistic account of teens and what they go through. How things are not always as they seem and while it's easy to sit back and judge we really dont know what goes on in other peoples lives. Life circumstances make people who they are and sometimes we need to look further and see the whole picture.
Those few days spent at the hospital are healing to both boys as they see that maybe they do have some self worth, a new concept for them both.
And I am really glad that the storyline wasn't all happily ever after with the two boys being besties and all is forgiven as anyone who knows anything about bullying knows that is not likely. Scars like that will last a lifetime and even if you see another side of your tormentor you will never be their friend. -
Victor is the quiet kid in class who gets picked on and bullied on a daily basis. His home life is no better. His parents blame the majority of life’s problems on their son, stating that if it was not for him life would be perfect.
Bull (as you could probably tell by the name) is the primary bully in school. He comes from a broken home where he lives with his alcoholic mother and abusive grandfather. Bull is both physically and mentally abused, so he in turn takes all of his anger and frustrations out on his victim, Victor.
After years of agony and abuse from not only his main tormenter, Bull, but also his shallow parents; Victor decides that there is no other way to escape the pain than to end it all himself with a bottle of sleeping pills. Reaching the end of his own rope, Bull decides to take matters into his own hands and steals his mother’s gun and goes after his physically abusive grandfather. Both boys plans go astray and both end up in the suicidal psych ward at the hospital……where (surprise, surprise) they end up sharing a room.
Victor and Bull are mortified to learn that they now have to share their living/breathing space with each other. Each one blames the other for their own problems only to discover that both boys have much more in common with each other than with anyone else in their lives.
Overall, this is a very powerful book that touches on the ever-present topic of bullying. K.M. Walton takes a deeper look at the horrendous effects bullying has on both parties. There is something in this book that everyone will be able to relate to. I would definitely recommend this title. -
I could not believe the coldness of Victors parents. It made me so angry.
This book was just okay. Everything seemed to get better in the end which was a little to good to be true in a way. Also, only 5 days in the psych ward...?
I'm so glad Victors grandma came to the rescue. I was hoping Frank was actually Bulls dad, but I'm glad he wasn't. It just made it that much better.
And Jazzer, the poor dog :( ugh. -
This book was very easy to get into. Kept me intrigued. Pretty much explains what happens in a teenagers head. Suicide awareness
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I really loved this book. It kept me so invested and I could not stop reading. This book is very interesting and I definitely recommend this to others.
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While I do feel like Bullying and Suicide Awareness are important issues, I had a difficult time getting involved with the characters. The narrative was very on the surface and predictable at times.
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I love this book because it shows that everyone has their own problems in life, and that there's always a backstory as to why people act a certain way.
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I am something of a contemporary nerd. A total contemporary nerd. There, I said it, I have outed myself -- contemporary YA is my favorite genre and I love contemp books. So I had wanted to read Cracked for a long time, since the cover and synopsis were released.
My issues with the book were larger than I'd hoped they would be but I still enjoyed the novel.
Bull and Victor hate each other. This is not some kind of low hate, like hating pepperoni or sausage on your pizza or hating a particular band or TV show, but true hate . Bull has bullied Victor all throughout school, and Victor fantasizes about hurting and killing him in his head, while Bull simply thinks Victor is annoying -- and takes the pain out on him. They both have troubling home lives, with Victor living with parents who ignore him in pursuit of their own happiness and Bull living with an abusive mother and grandfather. After two incidents in which Victor attempts to kill himself and Bull attempts to kill his grandfather, the two are sent to the same psych ward and end up in the same room together, and need to work out their problems with each other.
The plot was fairly good, though more romance heavy than I'd expected. The plot moves at a fairly quick pace and events happen quickly. The pace is a bit overwhelming with how fast the events move, since Bull and Victor are only in the psych ward for five days. Though the pacing was fast, the events were interesting, flowed well, and made sense, and for a while the plot seemed very interesting and unique. But as I reached the end, the plot started to unravel. The book became a lot more romance based as the story went on, and while this isn't a bad thing it seemed to come out of nowhere, and all of a sudden the romance was becoming a lot bigger. Both Bull and Victor fall in love and start romantic relationships by the end of the novel. The romance was sweet but could be verging on the edges of insta-love, as the characters had known each other for very few days in the psych ward before falling in love. However, I understand that in situations like the ones the characters were in people tend to grow together faster, so that's fine. The other issue I had with the plot was that it ended up way too neatly. I was glad that the characters ended up in a happy place and were able to recover from their issues, but it seemed unlikely to have everything suddenly become sunshine and rainbows. (This part is a spoiler for the book.) Victor's nana moves in with him to stand up for him, he starts a relationship with Patty and is happy; Bull gets to live with Frank the cemetary guy and his grandfather dies and everything is perfect. It seemed very unlikely for everything to just end up being absolutely perfect, with no issues at all. The plot was good but seemed to end up too perfect and the focus on the romance seemed a bit much.
The characters seemed to be the strongest point of the book. Bull and Victor were both very relatable and good characters. It did seem a bit cliche for them to both have such serious problems; that seemed almost like a setup for the book. However, Walton made both her characters very sympathethic and interesting. I cared for both Bull and Victor, understanding their issues and problems. One issue I had with the characters was their relationships. I didn't really understand Victor's relationship with Nikole. They shared a close friendship and maybe love, but grew apart from each other and distanced by the end of the book. Bull and Victor's relationship with each other at the end was also confusing; they had grown closer but at the same time drifted apart, and didn't seem to have strengthened as much as I thought they would.
Walton is a strong writer, and she writes male perspectives very well. Both Bull and Victor had strong voices that were different from each other and sounded like teenage boys. Her writing was very fluid and fresh and she handled teen dialogue and expressions very well. She's a strong writer and someone to watch.
Cracked was a strong novel but didn't quite make it up to my expectations. If you like contemporary YA or "edgier" books, as well as books set in mental instuitions and dealing with mental issues, this would be a good book to try.
Three point five stars. -
Really liked it. I think it was really good for people who are struggling with depressing and anxiety and stuff.
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I love the idea for Cracked. Portraying both sides of a bullying incident, and pushing bully and bullied together in such an unlikely situation sounds fascinating. But the actual book didn't work for me; Cracked turned out to be too melodramatic and unrealistic for me to enjoy the novel.
Cracked starts out describing both Victor's and Bull's lives and how horrible everything is, which already didn't work for me. I don't want to sound insensitive, but it seemed like their stories were made up simply to make their lives as miserable as possible, instead of describing their issues in an honest kind of way. Their situations at home seemed too extreme to work with the later development of the story.
What happens later on, in the psych ward, didn't work for me either. The description makes it sound like the main focus will be the confrontations between Bull and Victor and the development of their relationship, but that turned out to be only a small part of the story. It makes sense this way, and it's realistic that Bull and Victor would avoid each other and interact only on a very minimal basis. But it bugs me that the description focuses on their relationship so much, using that as a hook when it doesn't end up taking the main focus.
Even without the relationship between Bull and Victor, their individual therapy and development could have been interesting. But that isn't the main focus, either. Instead, we focus on Bull's and Victor's relationships with other people, and that's where the novel got unrealistic. Of course they both find a girl at the ward to befriend, and of course it's a great idea not to care about therapy or working on yourself when you can fall in love with someone you met 24 hours ago instead. The whole mentality of instalove fixing your life just pisses me off.
The ending is too happy and unrealistic. Of course they both end up having people in their lives who care for them whom they didn't have before, meaning they never had to actually work on their problems because they just solved themselves. Especially Patty coming into Victor's life is just ridiculously unrealistic and cliched.
This novel had a lot of potential, but it went in a very different direction than I'd hoped. Instead of getting to see the main characters confront each other and their individual problems, we saw their lives being fixed by romance and the sudden appearance of supportive people, which, to me, made Cracked cliched, melodramatic, and unrealistic.
Reviewed at
http://www.paperbacktreasures.blogspo... -
When I was in NYC earlier this month, my eyes spied the gorgeous cover of K.M. Walton's debut novel, CRACKED. I coveted it immediately, and my editor was kind enough to slip me a copy. This book will be out January 3, 2012. Full disclosure: K.M. Walton is a fellow Apocalypsie and we share an editor. Read below to see what I thought.
****
CRACKED is about two guys who are polar opposites, one with less than nothing and one who seemingly has everything. Okay, I know what you’re thinking. These guys are going to find out that life sucks for everyone, kumbayah, and let’s all be friends. Lessons learned. WRONG. This book cannot be boiled down into a clichéd movie of the week.
Victor and Bull are so well drawn, so heartbreakingly described that the story gets under your skin. You’ll be glad to know that each voice sounds different – not an easy thing to pull off in a dual narrative. Victor has a tenderness to him that Bull lacks. They’ve each found different ways of coping with their home life. One of Bull’s survival mechanisms is to torture Victor. I thought this would make it impossible for me to sympathize with Bull or want to root for him. Honestly, he’s not that likeable for a lot of the book.
BUT..Walton makes it clear that Bull is a product of his environment. He is what can happen to kids who aren’t protected, and survival isn’t always pretty. On the other side, a reader might not feel too sorry for Victor. Compared to Bull, maybe his problems aren’t as huge. Yet, I didn’t find myself making those comparisons. Being hospitalized forces these two boys to confront their problems…and each other. It isn’t nice when it happens, either, but it does feel real.
It would’ve been so easy for Walton to take the story to this melodramatic place where Bull realizes the error of his ways, changes his personality entirely, and comes out a better man for it. Or Victor forgives Bull for bullying him, and they’re like brothers. I’m not going to tell you what happens, but know that the resolution to this novel isn’t neatly tied up. It’s messy and real because life for these two boys isn’t a fairy tale.
Warning: I cried twice.
I give this book 5 stars out of 5. And yes, I am beaming with pride that this book is from my imprint and my editor. -
Imagine having to share a room with your own personal bully 24/7 for five days. That's what has happened to Victor. Can he survive? Will the strange pairing turn into friendship?
Victor keeps mostly to himself. He is an exceptional student, especially in math. He's so good he got a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT. Unfortunately, his uber-demanding parents are less than satisfied with his slightly lower scores on the rest of the test. They've decided to take their European vacation without him, leaving him home to study under the watchful eye of his grandmother.
Victor has other plans. Feeling that his life has been made miserable by a classmate who torments him relentlessly and parents who think only of themselves, he makes the decision to end it all by swallowing the contents of one of his mother's pill bottles. As he drifts off, he regrets that his grandmother will no doubt be the one to discover his body, but he believes is doing what he has to do.
Grandmother arrives in time to call 911, and Victor awakens in the psych ward of the hospital. Just his luck, he learns that his roommate is Bull Mastrick, the one person who would love to help end his life for him.
Bull has landed in the psych ward after attempting to shoot his grandfather. Having a grandfather who uses you as a punching bag seems like justification enough for Bull to take matters into his own hands and use the gun he finds hidden in a crumpled paper bag. What takes Bull totally by surprise is the fact that his grandfather tells the cops who arrive after the gunshot, that his stupid grandson was trying to commit suicide. The lie spares Bull a stint in juvie, but five days in the booby hatch with a bunch of losers will be challenging. Is he up for the challenge? Will his outlook change when he learns there are others with problems just as daunting as his own?
Author K.M. Walton takes readers into the minds of two teens ready to take drastic action to end the pain and torture of their lives. Though their solutions are different, they end up together as they search for meaning and a reason to carry on. Her characters are captivating and their stories are sure to resonate with teens. -
I love that there was more than one person narrating the story. I also loved that the character in the story were very deeply connected.
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Told in alternating chapters narrated by Victor and Bull, Cracked is the story of two young men who end up in a psych ward. They have a long history -- Bull has been the schoolyard bully since kindergarten and Victor is a perpetual victim. Each of them has problems at home to contend with as well, ranging from physical abuse to emotional neglect.
When Victor and Bull end up being roommates on the ward, I expected the story would be about learning to forgive and apologize. It's more about the idea that each of us deals with painful things in our lives and the importance of dealing with them in a healthy way. Bull and Victor eventually come to a verbal confrontation about bullying and their problems, but it didn't feel like things were genuinely resolved between them. It was more like, "We got that out in the open, now let's just move on and act like it never happened."
Joining Bull and Victor on the psych ward is a cast of other characters -- two boys and two girls -- who all manage to come quite a long way in only five days on the psych ward. They're also very good at sounding like ads for twelve-step self-esteem programs. A few of the "you can do it" speeches were so poetically perfect that I rolled my eyes, but at least the book gets a positive point across. The secondary cast left something to be desired -- at times Lacey and Nikole were indistinguishable from each other -- but they served their primary function well: they gave Bull and Victor something to react to on every page.
Cracked is a sad book that will definitely take you back to whatever adolescent feelings of invisibility or awkwardness you thought you'd successfully repressed. It's an emotional read, but sometimes reading about someone else's problems can be a cathartic experience. Cracked encourages readers by normalizing pain -- we all deal with it; what matters is how we deal with it. -
Grade: C-
One Word: Cheesy
William aka "Bull" and the victim of his torment, Victor, end up roommates in a psych ward after suicide attempts. One rich, the other poor. One the victim of physical abuse, the other the victim of emotional abuse and neglect. They're committed for five days with other troubled teens and must learn to support themselves and each other.
Five days inpatient psychiatric treatment after a suicide attempt can barely scratch the surface, but most insurances won't pay for more than that, some cover fewer days. Gone is the era where patients had the "luxury" of thirty days or more to stabilize before integrating back into their families. Aside from length of stay being accurate, the atmosphere and rapid pace of recovery felt too sunny and optimistic. Granted, some patients can make great strides, but before being released, after plans for continued treatment would be in place. In the case of suicide attempts in minors, some states have mandated reporting to child welfare. Hospital workers are mandated reporters, and Bull's should have been reported in every state. Psychiatric hospitals also wouldn't allow kissing and other romantic touch. I don't like when writers make love as a cure for mental illness.
Victor and Bull alternated narrating chapters, but their voices were written exactly the same. KM Walton has an enjoyable, easy paced writing style. I love that she told the stories of the boys having parallel stories of extremely difficult home lives. I wish she had given the parents some redeeming qualities. I'm much more likely to buy characters who are not 100% terrible. I prefer Walton's EMPTY, about an overweight, bullied girl.
THEMES: family, parents, substance abuse, mental illness, suicide, depression, verbal abuse, physical abuse, recovery
CRACKED is a subpar venture into bullying and suicide attempts. -
I love the character development, but I felt like a lot of things were carried out the wrong way. I would recommend it for the issues it brings up and how it deals with it but not for the ending as I felt like so many things were rushed, or too good to be true to the point where I didn't want that to be the ending because it seemed fake.
