my thoughts in a few sentences:Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf was a striking surprise, a contemporary read that reaches in and filleted my heart with slashing memories and circumstances that aggravate frustrated tears until they were falling everywhere. Have you ever watched the movie for or read the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson? The searing frustration on behalf of Melinda directed at the few people in her life who judge, mistreat, and refuse to believe her came rushing back to me in Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf. Allie’s telling quiet, instinctive flinches, and disloyal "friends" and family who have looked the other way while she was cut down and broken up in so many ways ignited my already boiling emotions to brimming. A gripping story with an engaging mystery, rending moments, and precious characters, Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf is a wonderfully-written and brutal tale of secrets refusing to stay under and a girl with nothing left but to move forward.
hooking first line:"The clock says 6:45, even though it's really 6:25."
Jennifer Shaw Wolf grew up on a farm in the tiny town of St. Anthony, Idaho. She spent cold Idaho mornings milking cows in the dark and attended a school where Hunter’s Education was part of the sixth grade curriculum. She’s always been a writer, whether it was sewing together books to read to her little brothers or starting an underground newspaper in sixth grade. She met the love of her life at Ricks College, (now BYU Idaho), after he dropped her on her head. She graduated from Ricks and then Brigham Young University, Provo with a degree in Broadcast Communications. Now she lives in beautiful, green, (rainy) Lacey, Washington with her husband and four kids. She loves to produce videos, ski, ride horses, and read, but really all she has time for is chasing kids and writing.
Written by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
#1
My family isn’t on the best terms with the Union Pacific Railroad company. When I was 17 I was
in a car accident in which I ran into one of their trains. (It was a DARK night, the train was parked
across the road, and I really didn’t expect it to be there.) Two years later my sister was hit by a
train during a blizzard. (She’s fine now.) About a hundred years before that, on the exact same
day (December 29th) one of my great-great grandfathers was killed when he was crushed by a
train car. Ironically, my author photo was taken on a train track.
#2
I like to drink hot water and lemon juice all the time.
#3
I took Hunter’s Education as part of my 6th grade curriculum.
#4
I met my husband when he dropped my on my head during a college volleyball game.
#5
I can’t stand to sleep uncovered, even if it’s really hot. Maybe it’s a security thing?
#6
I hate anything that ruins a surprise. I can’t stand it when my kids (or my husband) snoops into their Christmas presents, and I have a hard time giving away the ending to anything I write, even to my editor.
#7
The worst grade I ever got in high school was in band. That was the semester I decided to switch to a journalism class.
#8
After I finished (and passed) the AP English test, one of my best friends and I went bridge jumping (see my website if you don’t know what this is) to celebrate, even though it was November and we lived in Idaho. COLD!
#9
I wrote a long series of notes back and forth with my best friends in high school (pre-texting days) and I saved most of them even though we usually wrote “burn this” at the end. My nieces recently discovered my stash of notes. They laughed themselves silly over what I was like in high school. I’ve asked my mom to send me the whole pile. I need them for research. (Sorry Katy, Evelyn, Becky, and Mitzi.)
#10
I have a scar on my eyelid from getting it caught in the car window when I was three or four.
#11
My house was completely washed away by the Teton Dam Flood in 1976. I was two. My family was homeless and soon after my younger brother and I both got the measles.
#12
We had a measles epidemic in high school because the batch of the vaccine my little town got was bad. We were all lined up like cattle at the high school and given the vaccine, even me because I had no proof that I had already had the measles. (See above post.) That year, the state high school rodeo finals (yes there is such a thing) was held in my town. You had to show proof of immunization to get in.
#13
I got my driver’s license when I was fourteen. I was one of the last kids to get it at that age in Idaho before the law was changed to 16.
#14
When I was 16 I was about 2 points away from losing my license because I had so many tickets.
#15
I got to put a wreath on the “Tomb of the Unknowns” in Arlington National Cemetery when I was a junior in high school. The spirit of reverence and patriotism at that spot is unmatched anywhere in the country.
Thanks so much, Jennifer, for stopping by the blog and divulging pockets of yourself people wouldn't normally discover!! I know I enjoyed Breaking Beautiful tons! Be sure to check my review out later!
Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.
When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free? Debut writer Jennifer Shaw Wolf takes readers on an emotional ride through the murky waters of love, shame, and, ultimately, forgiveness.
