I picked up Bitter End at the Barnes & Noble next to my brother's college, the one I always seem to find myself at when I go visit him, and knew I had to get it. It looked both interesting and heartbreaking and exactly the type of book I would want to read. The kind that would affect me. The kind that would make me think. One of the things I love most about reading is getting the chance to be someone else and see through their eyes for a while. And getting the chance to see how someone could fall into and stay in an abusive relationship was something I was very interested in understanding.
When Cole, a gorgeous transfer from a nearby school, makes his way into Alex Bedford's life, she immediately falls head over heels for his charming manner and his sweet ways. Cole is the perfect boyfriend, always ready to assure her of his love and affection, giving her that tenderness she's always wanted . . . until she makes him angry one day and he gives her the first bruise.
Apologizing profusely, Cole makes it up to her, promising to be a better person. He swears it will never happen again, but already Alex is cautious around him. If she can just keep herself from setting him off, everything will go back to normal. But even during this time of tentative peace, she is pulling away from the friends and family that once meant so much from her. Her friends' dislike of her new boyfriend isolates her from them and she quickly finds herself unable to speak and unsure if she even ought to.
Bitter End is a realistic look at the problem of abuse and how easy it is to find oneself in a place where there seems to be no way out. Love truly is blind and the heart is deceptive. It's easy to follow your heart in one direction even when your mind is screaming for you to run in the opposite direction.
Brown does a wonderful job in portraying the mindset of someone going through this very ordeal in a manner that is entirely realistic and heartbreaking. In particular, I love the way she creates the dynamic between Alex and her best friends slowly shift and decay even as they grow more and more concerned about her, creating the very distance between them that makes our protagonist feel even more alone and confused.
I really enjoyed this book and it is absolutely worth picking up next time you're in the bookstore. It is the perfect read for young adults who don't necessarily understand the complexities of abuse and anyone who wants to further comprehend what it's like to be on the receiving end of abuse and why they can't always "just get out of it."
Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
"Yeah. But he's going to kill somebody someday, and if I can stop it from happening to you, then maybe I didn't live through the most horrible time of my life for nothing."
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