This is my first review in a very, very long time... As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure I'm going to post this. But I feel like I actually have an opinion of this book...Blackbox and I have a history. This is one of the few books I actually own, and I didn't buy it. My boyfriend bought it for me on our one year anniversary, back when Joseph-Beth was going out of business. It was in their last few days, and we happened to be near their location by me, and we dropped in so I could browse the YA section. He's really sweet, he doesn't like books, but he doesn't dislike them either, he'll read one occasionally though. He's not NEARLY as in to books as I am. I had just recently seen this book on Shelfari, and had added it to my TBR list, and got really excited when I saw it. You can imagine how even more excited I was when I saw it was only $3.50! So he offered to buy it for me. So he gave me the money, and he went...somewhere. I don't remember where. And I gave the lady the money and bought my book. It would hit me later he complete irony of him buying me a book about depression.
My boyfriend has suffered from depression for years. We've been together almost a year and a half now, best friends much longer then that, and I've been really struggling this last month or so with how to cope with it and help him. I actually thought that I had helped him, and it was going away. He had medication for when it got bad, and between that, me, and God, I really thought it was pretty much gone... He was still off all the time, but I chalked that up to stress.
Then he told me it wasn't gone. That it had never been gone, and he actually felt like he could no longer talk to me about it, and it was just as bad, possibly worse, as it's always been.
So when I FINALLY picked up Blackbox (I started it yesterday and have owned it since June) because it finally hit me that, hey, this book was about depression! Maybe reading about Lena learning to cope will help me and some way! And it kind of has.... I've read a ton of books like this one, about depression, but I don't think I've ever read one that was from the POV of a person who has a loved one suffering from depression. Honestly, it's really great to know I'm not the only one struggling....
To an attempt at a review... (Cause let's face it, I suck at reviewing.)
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Book Facts:
Title: BlackBox
Author: Julie Schumacher
Publication Date: August 26, 2008
Stars: 4 stars
Pages: 163 (paperback)
Blackbox is about a girl, Eleana, who's sister Dora is suddenly diagnosed with depression. Elena believes everything is just fine, and that her sisters just fine, and then out of the blue Dora takes a bunch of antidepressants and is placed in a mental hospital. She doesn't stay there throughout the whole book, she's released after about 3 weeks and they let her go back home. Then starts the wild ride she and her family go through... In the midst of all this, Elena meets a boy named Jimmy and Jimmy tries to help Elena get through it.
Everything about it this book was pretty average, except for the message. That if you have a loved one going through depression, it's not your job to fix it... No matter how much you love them, how much you want to help them, it's really up to them and their medication as to whether they get better or not and how fast. I'm not saying they don't want to get better, I have firsthand experience that that is NOT true. They just need to help themselves get better. One thing that I noticed about Dora was that there were times when it seemed like she wanted help...but then there were times it seemed like she didn't.
I really liked this book. I liked the characters, especially Jimmy. I could really relate to Elena and what she going through with Dora. I really liked that. It's been a while since I've read a good book with a character I could actually relate too!
OK, I'll end your suffering, review over.
To wrap it all up, Black box was a really great book about relatable characters and an inspiring message. This book changed me. It made me realize it's not all up to me. Thank-you, Julie Schumacher :)
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