Review: Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

Edition: eBook
Pages: 288
Publish Date: May 6, 2014
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Genre: YA Contemporary
Series: No
Goodreads Rating: 4.09 (1,149 ratings)

Wow...that was one heartbreaking read. You get a glimpse into what this book discusses but it won't prepare you for the utter sadness that follows after. 

Torn Away follows Jersey Cameron, a - soon to be - highschool senior, theater tech, sister, and daughter. Living in Elizabeth she is used to the constantly wild weather and thinks nothing of the occasional tornado watch. It's a once in a life time tragedy. With her stepdad on his way home from work, her sister and mother at the local dance studio the sirens start going off. The tornado destroys most of Elizabeth, the highschool, hospital, hundreds of homes...including Jersey's, and of course, the local dance studio. 

“I realized that the worst part of someone you love dying suddenly isn't the saying good-bye part. It's the part where you hope you said and did enough good stuff to make up for the bad stuff. It's the part where there are no second chances, no going back, no more opportunities to tell them how you feel about them.” 
― Jennifer Brown, Torn Away

In the aftermath of the tornado Jersey is determined to stay with her ruined home, knowing that it's where her mother and sister would come to look for her. Her neighbor and long time friend Kolby helps her as best he can. But when he takes her to where the dance studio is - or used to be - Jersey goes into complete denial. Refusing any help she stays in her highly unstable house under the pool table where she hid during the tornado, waiting. 
Soon her step father comes home and finds her, taking her to a hotel with him, but his grief is too much, and since Jersey isn't his biological daughter he sends her off to live with her father, the one who left her at less than a year old. It's a disaster house, barely any food, torturous step sisters, and a father and step mother who hate her. Knowing how unwanted she is, she tries everything to get back home. Discussing plans with her friend she finds out that she missed her families funeral, she finally thinks she's found her way back home but she was wrong. When Ronnie her step father comes back it's not in the way she thinks, he still doesn't want her. Instead he pushes her off to the other half of her family, her mother's parents who disowned her mom. 
As wonderful as they may be to her she still knows what she was told for her 17 years, that they were horrible people who abandoned her and her mother, that they didn't ever care about either of them until her mother died. Jersey finally breaks..falls entirely apart as she is outside during a storm and the sirens sound again. When she makes it back to her grandparents house she breaks. Everything is bare for her grandparents to see. 
It was the final break that will allow her to put the pieces back together. Her grandparents do everything to help and it works. them and Jersey return to Elizabeth temporarily so Jersey can finish her last year of highschool with her friends, she finally goes to her Mom and Sister's graves, speaking to them about how things are now, and how she's going to try her best t make it through. 
Returning to Elizabeth also means returning to see Kolby, with all that they went through he finally asks her out, and that's the end, but it seems like an absolutely amazing beginning. 

I'm wondering if it's even possible to lose "everything" or if you just have to keep redefining what "everything" is.” 
― Jennifer Brown, Torn Away

After reading and loving Hate List by Jennifer Brown I just had to pick this up. And it did not disappoint. Though I spent most of the book reading with a huge lump in my throat trying not to cry, it really holds so much meaning, and Jennifer has an amazing talent in finding a beautiful conclusion to such tragedy.