Editorial Content for All in Pieces

After stabbing her ex-boyfriend in the hand with a pencil, Savannah Sutton is sent to Brooks Academy- an alternate high school that also acts as temporary detention center. Her school and home life are both equally horrible. After her mother left them years ago, Savvy is left with the responsibility of taking care of her disabled brother while her alcoholic dad continues to pine. At school, Savvy has two friends in a large room of delinquents. Dark and mysterious Cameron sits at the back of the class, using communication only on special occasions. No one knows what he has done to be sent to a school like Brooks Academy. He comes from a wealthy, supportive family; his condition of living is the exact opposite of what many of the other students deal with. Cameron has his sights set on breaking down Savvy’s barriers and learning her true inner self. Savvy must learn how to trust others and to cope with tough situations. With the help of Cameron’s persistent companionship, Savvy deals with the presence of her crazy ex and her aunt Kathy, who is fighting to take Savvy’s brother away from her.

"ALL IN PIECES is filled with compassion, intense sadness and hope. It was an easy read but was not easy on the emotions."

This book was challenging emotionally. While reading it, I could not figure out how I should deal with the feelings it provoked. This challenge was not a bad thing; it made me feel the broad spectrum of emotions. I appreciated the depth the characters’ personalities had. They felt very personable and it helped strengthen the plot of the story. The different topics that the characters had to deal with were super realistic, causing me to get completely emerged in the story. I give many kudos to the author. Young combined many difficult situations into one story without over complicating it. It was almost a realist soap opera. I found it interesting. The only problem that bothered me was that some parts of the story felt a little weak compared to other sections. I felt like the characters sometimes lost some of their strength. However, this problem made the story, as a whole, more understandable. I enjoyed this book and I hope to read more books from this author.

This book dealt with very tough topics. It got intense in many parts of the plot. I would recommend this book to mature young adult readers. Young wrote the book in the way that I could feel what Savvy was feeling. This may be hard for some to read, depending on their past experiences. ALL IN PIECES is filled with compassion, intense sadness and hope. It was an easy read but was not easy on the emotions. I flew through this book; it had humorous banter, even when the characters were dealing with the rough parts of life. It may be classified as a teen romance, but it is not in this genre because of the physical connections between characters. There was such an emotional connection between many of the characters that you can feel the support that they all supply when reading it. This kind of book gave me the ability to block out my world and experience another’s. While Savvy’s troubled lifestyle is not orthodox, the people that she finds throughout her journeys show so much true sympathy and adoration that it made me feel the same way towards the fictional characters.