Because of Jenny - Eat, Tan, Read

February Wrap Up

February Recap:
4 Books
724 pages
Average Rating 4.0

Because of Jenny 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Three to Get Deadly 🌟🌟🌟🌟
To Be Young and In Love 🌟🌟🌟
Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I can’t believe that February is over already! 😲 Although I am so ready for winter to be over. We haven’t even had that bad of a winter this year, but I am just so over it. The cold, staying inside all day, the dark and gloomy sky, so depressing.
But we did have some great reads this month!! Winner for sure is Accidental Activist. I am still working on the review, so stay tuned for that. Because Of Jenny coming in a close second! Both were so good!

Accidental Activist- (Memoir) Young college student becomes committed to getting a posthumous pardon and exoneration for the Groveland Four 66 years after they were falsely accused. This is his story of the four years of dedication and hard work it took to right this aggregious wrong. So inspiring and infuriating at the same time.

Because Of Jenny – (Literary Fiction)
Eric is an 18 year old with severe depression. After a failed suicide attempt, but before he tries again he meets Jenny.
Jenny is a heroine addict, who is ready to become clean. She has friends in California, and a doctor has agreed to provide her with Suboxone, a drug that will help her fight her cravings so she can get finally get clean. Eric offers to drive her across the county to achieve this. Brutally honest book about societal views on suicide and addiction.

See full Review here – Book Review – Because Of Jenny

Don’t Get Stuck in a Genre Rut

When I was younger I used to only read Stephen King, R.L. Stein, Dean Koontz, you get my drift, pretty much thriller and horror only. When I was in High School, I stared my first job as a barista and found my co-worker’s copy of Nora Robert’s novel Lawless. That was my intro into great Romance novels. I very rarely left that comfort zone of those authors though. I had no idea the books I was missing out on.

The past several years I have made changes in the way I choose what books to read and I have been picking up ones that I normally wouldn’t. I join reading challenges that prompt me to choose books outside my comfort zone. We are two months into the year so far and my genre resume has already been so vast, Literary Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, New Adult Romance, Literary Fiction, Crime and Comedy Thriller, Poetry, and Non-fiction Memoir.

Here are a few that I have thoroughly enjoyed recently:

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell – Literary Women’s Fiction, Dark Academia
Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by NatashaTrethewey – Non-fiction Memoir
Because Of Jenny by Brad Neaton – Literary Fiction
Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four by Josh Venkataraman and Barbara Venkataraman – Non-fiction Memoir
Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult – Contemporary Realistic Fiction
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones – Literary Fiction
On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean by Scott B. Williams – Non-fiction Memoir, Travel
The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini – Contemporary Realistic Fiction
American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan – Non-fiction True Crime
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn – Historical Fiction

I hope that this will give you the push to expand your reading beyond your comfort zone as well. There is a whole world out there to explore. Don’t be afraid to check them out.

Book Review – Because Of Jenny

Because of Jenny by Brad Neaton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Literary Fiction

CW: depression, suicide, drug use and addiction, sexual assault

I was gifted this book by the author. This is an honest review.

“People would rather continue believing that addicts, the homeless, those struggling with mental illness—the outcasts ever-present on the outskirts of society—are just complicit denizens, thereby minimizing the complexities at the root of social issues and negating any self-imposed moral pressure to empathize.”

“There’s no hyperbole here: I was being asphyxiated by a depression that pervaded every aspect of my life, and I was lost in that depression the same way someone gets lost in the woods at night—with no fixed reference point and every direction leading nowhere.”

Eric is an 18 year old with severe depression and beyond the verge of suicide. After a failed first attempt, he knows he will try again but before he does he decides to pay for some female company. He responds to an online add and meets Jenny. Jenny is a heroine addict, desperate for money, her friend convinces her to put the add online, it’s easy money.

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2021 – Book 3: A Book about a subject you are passionate about

I don’t know if passionate is the right word but it is a subject close to my heart. I hate that Depression and suicide is such a taboo topic that gets swept under the rug and people are embarrassed to discussed. Why is this disease viewed any different that diabetes or high blood pressure? Why does society look at people with depression and anxiety as weak? This is unexceptable and needs to change!

A big thank you to Brad Neaton for gifting me this copy!

Blurb:
Eric is an 18-year-old struggling with depression and teetering on the brink of suicide when he encounters a gorgeous, utterly fascinating plot twist named Jenny. They meet in an unlikely way, but soon discover they’re kindred souls. A heroin addict, Jenny is also caught between wanting to escape life and wanting to live. Despite circumstances conspiring against them, Eric takes a leap of faith and decides to try and help Jenny. The two become an endearing pair, connecting through shared struggles and a mutual desire to overcome life’s myriad challenges, and they embark upon an adventure that seems destined to fail.

Funny, irreverent, insightful, tragic, and raw, Because of Jenny explores many of life’s deepest questions while shedding light on what remains a little known epidemic. An unflinching portrayal of addiction, love, and resilience, it’s a book you’ll never forget.