Review: Shut Up by Anne Tibbets

Title: Shut Up
Author: Anne Tibbets
Rating:  ★★★★★
Genre: YA
Publisher:  Premier Digital Publishing
Publication Date: February 28, 2012

Review: I’ve been trying to write this post for two days and  I’m still finding it hard to explain how much this book touched me.  When I started reading this book, I felt bad for Mary, a 12 year old girl who is constantly picked on at home and school for literally everything, even breathing wrong. Mary has said “I’m sorry” so many times, that she said it didn’t even mean much anymore. Through the course of the book, it became more than just “feeling bad for Mary”. It turned into heartbreak and I found myself hurting for this little girl who was in so much pain that she was contemplating suicide before even becoming a teenager because not a single person in her life gave her a reason to think she mattered. Mary’s parent’s were stressed out because her dad had lost his job and they were trying to support their four kids, the oldest of which was Gwen, a pregnant teenager engaged to The Creep, a guy who emotionally abused her and made sexual advances towards Mary.

There comes a point in the middle of this book where Gwen, the person who seems to be the root of all the negativity in the family by spending all of her time yelling at everyone, moves away with her new husband, The Creep. Things start looking up for Mary; she excels in school and extra-curricular activities, her family becomes closer and she slowly starts to become happy, possibly for the first time in her life.  But then Gwen comes to live back at home and the cloud of negativity lands back in the household, bringing everyone down and again Mary has found herself as the scapegoat to everyone’s problems. Mary finds herself falling farther and farther into depression where she can’t take it anymore and decides to run away. If that doesn’t work out for her, there’s always the bottle of Aspirin she has hidden in her drawer.

I’m not going to tell you how this book ends. What I am going to tell you is that I cried many times while reading this book and didn’t stop for about 20 minutes after I was done. There’s something to be said about an Author who writes a book that touches the readers this much. Anne Tibbets has explained that although this is a work of fiction, parts of it were written from personal experience. She has done a brilliant job of bringing this story to life and as much as I’m sure it hurt her to write it, I applaud her for having the courage and strength to do so.  Thank you Anne for making us all aware of of childhood depression and that although we may not know or realize it, our actions effect others. I urge all of you out there who have children in your family, please make sure to let them know constantly how amazing they are and how much they matter.

You can follow Anne on Twitter here or check out her blog.

Synopsis:

Mary’s older sister, Gwen, has royally screwed up her life.  Not only is Gwen pregnant at seventeen, but she’s also decided to marry The Creep who knocked her up. Now Mary is powerless to stop her family from imploding.  Her parents are freaking out, and to top it off The Creep has a gross fascination with Mary while Gwen enjoys teasing her to tears for sport. Despite her brother’s advice to shut up, Mary can’t keep her trap closed and manages to piss off Mom so much it comes to blows. Mary doesn’t know what to do, and all her attempts to get help are rejected.  When she finally plans her escape, she fails to consider how it could destroy them all.