Trigger

Publishers Weekly

The motivation behind a teenager's suicide attempt and its lasting effects on family and friends is the subject of this rather disturbing, well-crafted novel. Seventeen-year-old Jersey Hatch, who narrates, attempted to blow his brains out using his father's gun. Now, back home from rehab and frustrated with his limitations, caused by the gunshot wound, Jersey struggles to remember why he wanted to kill himself. Mama Rush, an elderly neighbor, and her granddaughter Leza try to help him-the only two people in the whole community who seem willing to talk to Jersey honestly. Jersey's random, compulsive narrative (he possesses little ability to sensor his speech) makes this brain-damaged character compelling. Most of the secondary characters are also believable-although some of their angry reactions to him seem extreme, given his incapacitated state. Vaught's tightly focused story never deviates from its exploration as to what would drive a teen to suicide. Readers who ever wondered what could happen if their suicide attempt failed may find this to be a powerful cautionary tale. Ages 12- up. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Joyce Rice

Jersey Hatch has a recurring dream. In the dream, his legs and his arms work like they should and he has no scars. Jersey always wakes up from the dream to realize that his extremities do not work like they should and that he has scars on his head where the bullet entered and exited. Jersey does not remember the night he was shot in the head and because he can't remember it, he can sometimes believe that it did not really happen. The people in the rehab center tell him that the memories will return, at least some of them. He may never remember the year prior to the shooting. This is a symptom of the brain injury that he has suffered. Another symptom of the injury is the difficulty he has walking, bending over, and doing ordinary everyday things. Jersey sometimes blurts out things that he is thinking about without taking time to put them into a sentence. He often repeats words that he has just heard someone else say. Author Vaught has presented a very realistic picture of what it is like to live with a traumatic brain injury. Nevertheless, the depiction moves slowly in its journal-style presentation and much of the description of the shooting is very graphic. The fact that the shooting was a self-inflicted injury adds to the depressing nature of the story. This is not a recommended title for middle school or younger readers, although the publisher has indicated an age range of 12 and up. An adult who wishes to share this with a teenager would be well advised to read it first, and then be able to talk about it with the teen reader. The idea has great merit but presents more than one victim in this story of teen suicide.

VOYA - Rollie Welch

The search for self, a mainstay young adult theme, and the mesmerizing topic of teen suicide, are combined in this intriguing novel, a work that demands attention. Early on, readers are rocked by this sentence: "On August 2, a Friday a few weeks after my seventeenth birthday, a little less than a year after I took a bullet in the head, I finally got to go home." Jersey Hatch has survived his suicide attempt. By sheer luck the bullet did not kill him, but it changed him and those around him forever. He is blind in one eye and one of his arms and a leg do not work so well anymore. Told by hospital staff that "it's gonna be harder on the outside," Jersey realizes that his parents, afraid he will digress, only speak in clichTd phrases. Frustrated that he has a blank memory of that horrifying day, the former athlete tries to hunt down reasons why he pulled the trigger. Vaught nails Jersey's uncontrollable blurting of words looping inside his brain with remarkable sections of dialogue. But the strength of the work is allowing readers to experience the pain, anguish, and anger that Jersey's parents, friends and teachers undergo when contacting the broken shell of a once selfish and arrogant teen. Drawing from her work as a neuropsychologist, Vaught includes extensive heart-wrenching descriptions of a brain-damaged person's struggle to re-enter society. Teen readers' blood will run cold, however, when Jersey perceives that once again his life is not worth living.

Robyn Seglem

Jersey Hatch can't remember the past two years. He can't remember why he's blind in one eye, why his once-athletic body no longer works quite right, and most of all, what happened the night he was shot. The night he shot himself. After months of rehabilitation, Jersey returns home, sending him on a quest to find the answer to what made him pull the trigger. Told in the stilted language of a young man who cannot control his thoughts and speech, Jersey's story unfolds through the help of his childhood neighbors: Mama Rush, Leza, and finally, his ex-best friend, Todd. Along the way, he must also face and accept the impact his actions had on his own family. Although not a conventional mystery, this book keeps the reader guessing and wondering what drove this once seemingly perfect boy to attempt the ultimate act. Jersey's story is not one that will quickly be forgotten.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Having spent the better part of his last years of high school in a hospital and rehabilitation center, Jersey Hatch recovers from the brain damage inflicted by a gunshot to his head, by his own hand. Through a hazy series of flashbacks, memories, dreams, and scenes from the present-often coded in what will appear to many readers as haphazard gibberish-he reaches inward to uncover the lost pieces of his memory and to figure out why he might have shot himself. There's no doubt as to the ring of truth in both Jersey's character and situation, and Vaught, a neuropsychologist, understands these afflictions. The more lucid parts of her story should hook readers and help them to fully grasp and empathize with the protagonist's truly dire situation. However, Jersey's more abstract patterns of thought and mutterings are perhaps too realistic for less-determined readers, and seem to make better food for a psychological journal than a teen novel.-Hillias J. Martin, New York Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

After a botched suicide attempt leaves him with permanent neurological damage, Jersey Hatch attempts to piece his life back together again. Hindering him is his workaholic banker mother, overly sensitive teacher father and unsympathetic teachers, classmates and former friends. His allies include Mama Rush, the African-American mother hen of the neighborhood, and her granddaughter Leza. With his "memory book" beneath his arm, Jersey endures the humiliation of physical and mental impairment, and experiences crushing guilt over his action, which affected the lives of everyone in his world. Written by a neuropsychologist, the story strives for authenticity of voice, yet at times gets bogged down by repetition and Jersey's random vocalizations. There is also a tendency to essentialize good and evil characters, as Mama Rush and Leza are almost too good to be true, yet Jersey's former crowd is heinously mean (in one memorable scene, a former teammate urinates on Jersey in the boys' lavatory at school). Jersey's ex-best friend Todd's ambivalence and his mother's private anguish provide a more nuanced and realistic window into the tale. A worthwhile read. (Fiction. YA)