Review: Damaged: Natalie's Story by Talia Jager

Book: Damaged: Natalie's Story
Author: Talia Jager
Publisher: Talia Jager
Rating: 5 Stars
Level: Young Adult
Source: e-book Review Copy

Summary from Goodreads:
Natalie Jarrett is a seventeen-year-old girl who falls in love with the wrong boy. When she finds herself in the hospital after one of his violent attacks, she can no longer turn a blind eye. Suffering from severe injuries, her doctor tells her she will never be the same again. Although injured and feeling guilty, alone, scared and most of all, damaged, everyone seems to expect her to return quickly to her normal life – but how can she bounce back when she blames herself for all that’s gone wrong?

My Review:
Damaged: Natalie's Story is such a heart wrenching story about a teenage girl who has to overcome major obsticles after being in an abusive relationship. This is completly out of my genre of reading. I have never read anything like this, I usually stick with fantasy. The author asked me to read this and I agreed. When I started reading it I just wanted to put it down and move on to something else, because I don't read these type of books. I am so glad that something told me to go ahead and keep reading. Once I started I did not want to put it down.

Natalie is a seventeen year old girl who falls for the charming guy Josh. Everything goes great until he gets angry with her and then the abuse starts. Each time, it gets worse and each time Natalie takes Josh back. She feels it's her fault that she is making him mad. The last time Natalie ends up in the hospital clinging to life with permant brain damage. The story then follows Natalie's struggles with learning to talk, read, write and do all the normal things we take for granted. During her struggles she becomes depressed and turns to alcohol to take away the physical and emotional pain. She continually blames herself for what has happened to her. Along the way she improves physically but it takes the love and support of her friends and family to help her put the past behind her and move on. I loved the ending.

This was such an emotional rollarcoaster. There were so many ups and downs, I was frustrated with what Natalie was doing to herself once she started to get better. The writing was done so well, I felt like I was one of Natalie's friends. I have never been in a situation like this and cannot even begin to imagine what someone like this goes through. I am so glad that I read this, and I am recommending others read this.

This e-book was given to me by the author for review. This did not affect my review in any way.

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