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A review by kaylee_reads_quietly
Bleed Like Me by Christa Desir
4.0
A dark, tense snapshot at something that many YA novels don’t take the time to portray: an unhealthy relationship.
Brooks rubbed me the wrong way from the moment he first met Gannon, but he was supposed to. There was always something off about him, something that Gannon herself sensed too, but I found myself agreeing with her that he deserved a chance to be a good guy. Gannon and I were both wrong.
The progression of this extremely unhealthy relationship full of emotional abuse, control, and manipulation is very well done, and I would argue that the fact that Gannon still misses Brooks at the end of the novel, despite his possessiveness—and the fact that he endangered her life and manipulated her into saying that she loved him and running away with him to live in a shitty apartment with two strangers and no bathroom—is realistic to what a victim of an abusive relationship would feel.
Gannon’s feelings don’t just turn off when Brooks is gone from her life, and that’s rightly portrayed in the end of this book. Things are better for this girl but still not really okay.
I’m glad to have found a YA fiction novel that isn’t afraid to take a raw, unapologetic approach to mental health and drug addiction. This kind of book needs to be more widely read among teens and young adults.
Brooks rubbed me the wrong way from the moment he first met Gannon, but he was supposed to. There was always something off about him, something that Gannon herself sensed too, but I found myself agreeing with her that he deserved a chance to be a good guy. Gannon and I were both wrong.
The progression of this extremely unhealthy relationship full of emotional abuse, control, and manipulation is very well done, and I would argue that the fact that Gannon still misses Brooks at the end of the novel, despite his possessiveness—and the fact that he endangered her life and manipulated her into saying that she loved him and running away with him to live in a shitty apartment with two strangers and no bathroom—is realistic to what a victim of an abusive relationship would feel.
Gannon’s feelings don’t just turn off when Brooks is gone from her life, and that’s rightly portrayed in the end of this book. Things are better for this girl but still not really okay.
I’m glad to have found a YA fiction novel that isn’t afraid to take a raw, unapologetic approach to mental health and drug addiction. This kind of book needs to be more widely read among teens and young adults.