Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, 666 pages
I had been searching for this book for a while when I found it while searching our catalog in our new Evergreen library system. I enjoyed reading this book, even though it dealt with many taboo subjects. But, I really felt like I connected with the three main characters in the book. Vanessa feels flawed as a person and only feels good when she is cutting herself. Tony is a young, homosexual drug user who is living on the streets, trying to recover from the lose of his partner and from being abandoned by his father. Conner is a teen who feels he cannot live up to the high standards his parents have set for him and recovering from having a sexual relationship with a teacher. Each of the three find themselves locked up together in a psychiatric hospital called Aspen Springs. The three each tried to commit suicide in their own way: Vanessa by cutting, Tony by pills, and Conner by shooting himself in the chest. They are each sent to Aspen Springs to recover. The three connect in a very special way. The ending was shocking.
