Title: Trail of Crumbs
Author: Lisa J. Lawrence
256 pages
ISBN 1459821211
ISBN13: 9781459821217
I've received this book as an ARC, free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion.
Some information about the book may change at any giving time.
After moving into a dank and drafty basement suite in West Edmonton with her truck- driving father, nasty stepmother and taciturn twin brother, Ash, seventeen-year-old Greta doesn't have high expectations for her last year of high school. When she blacks out at a party and is told the next day that she's had sex, she thinks things can't get any worse. She's wrong.
While Greta deals with the confusion and shame of that night, her stepmother and father choose that moment to disappear, abandoning Ash and Greta to the mercy of their peculiar landlord, Elgin, who lives upstairs. Even as Greta struggles to make sense of what happened to her, she finds herself enjoying her new and very eccentric family, who provide the shelter and support that has long been absent from her life. Much to Greta's surprise, she realizes there is still kindness in the world--and hope.
Warning: This book will trigger flashbacks for you if you are or was in an abusive environment, bullied or raped.
First thoughts
The cover wasn’t the most appealing to me because of the black lines (that I now just noticed it’s a maze that totally relates to the story). When I started this book, I didn’t have high expectations, but I am happy how the story connects with me and how it opened my eyes to these everyday events.
Strengths
I love how each character develops in the book! Greta and Ash have both been through a lot didn’t let the world sink them they pushed through it and saw happiness at the end. Also, even for secondary characters, I was surprised how much each one of them evolved to have a big part in the main character’s story even if they were playing little parts themselves.
Weakness
So, I say this every time I write about a book that has abusive, rape or other sign of brutality but again I am left saying this; HAVE A WARNING SIGN (some people will skip all the pages until they hit chapter 1)!!!!!! If you have been through a bad experience in the past about bullying, abusive or rape this book WILL TRIGGER some memories relapse.
Since I’ve received an ARC I hope the writing will be a little bit more structure/spelled right;
“How do even you pronounce that?” (should be; How do you even pronounce that?)
“think this is this some kind of a shelter?” (Second this should be deleted)
How the author decided to confront Greta’s situation was a little farfetched for me. I understand that this is a book and not real life but not many people will just scream at their enemies and walk away feeling happy when they went through hell. I believe that this moment could have been a great opportunity to educate YA on what to do in a situation like that (Alice talking about a support phone line was a great example). This book was so frustrating for not having a more evolved storyline of all the different characters (What drove Rachel to act the way she did? What had happened in the gym once Greta walk out?)
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