Bitter End

By Jennifer Brown
Little, Brown and Company, $8.99, 364 pages, 5 stars

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown is an eye opening tale of a teenage girl being seduced by an abusive beau. Brown takes the reader through the psychological phases of an abusive relationship; however, she does this with consideration of the unexplainable emotion: love. Alex is a senior who falls for the new guy at school.

“I wondered if maybe it was just a matter of getting help cutting it off.  Maybe I wasn’t afraid of what he would do to me or to Bethany and Zack if I broke up with him.  Maybe I was afraid of being without Cole.  Maybe being with an abuser was better than being totally alone again. And before I could stop myself, the words tumbled out of my mouth: ‘I think…I don’t know, like, I deserve it sometimes.’”

This reviewer found this book to be thought provoking. This reader and probably many others simply say they would never stay with an abuser, but the author tells a fascinating tale of why an abuse victim may stay in the relationship, as well as the difficulty of getting out of the relationship. This reviewer also found the fact that the main character is a teenage girl and not an adult or married woman to be poignant. This story is very well told and any would most likely appeal to young women.

Reviewed by Jina Oravetz

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