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You Can't Break Her (Years 13-15) - @TSTurcotte

You Can't Break Her (Years 13 - 15) by TSTurcotte

Reviewed by AmyMarieZ

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Overview: This review covers years thirteen to fifteen of the nonfiction memoir You Can't Break Her. The chapters contain a huge range of subject matter, including friendship, romance, and hardship. The reader is given an incredibly intimate look at what main character Ama's (representing the author) life was like. Themes of searching for acceptance and happiness run strong through the chapters, tying them together in a cohesive story that show's Ama's continuing journey towards recovery.

Character Development: The character development in this set of chapters was impressive. All of the characters are based on real people from the author's life, so it isn't a surprise that You Can't Break Her features and amazingly varied, realistic and memorable cast. As is, the story is told as a chronological set of specific memories. Even though characters come into and out of the story, sometimes without much introduction or explanation, each of the characters leave an impression on the reader through the way they interact with and affect Ama.

While the characterization is certainly one of the strengths of You Can't Break Her, I feel like it is also an area that could be developed even more to strengthen the presentation of the story as a whole. Years thirteen through fifteen include a huge number of characters, so it is a bit tricky to keep track of all of them. Characters that were once very important friends of Ama's often disappear from the memories, while sometimes characters that haven't been in any memories are suddenly introduced as very close friends of Ama. Since it would be impossible to capture every event of Ama's life in this story, the simplest option might be to go through the chapters and ensure that when characters leave the time line a brief explanation is provided to the reader about where they have gone. Even just a sentence or two could clear up the time lines. Similarly, ensuring that important characters are introduced a bit earlier when they suddenly show up in a memory could help make for a more cohesive read.

As far as characterization, what I felt was missing at many points throughout these chapters was longer segments of dialog. A lot of focus was placed on what characters were doing and what was said between them, but many of these times dialog was very brief or not included. I think more specific dialog between characters would help to give the reader a stronger feeling of what the characters are like, thus creating a stronger attachment to them. For example, I might have liked to see some more dialog between Ama and her friends during their sleepovers.

I also would have liked for more dialog between Ama and Matt to be included, since he was an important friend who didn't seem to get as much screen time as he could have in these chapters. I thought the amount Anthony was included in the later chapters was good, but his introduction seemed rushed and sudden.

Finally, Ama has a few boyfriends in these chapters. Although her relationships with them are explained well and therefore understandable for a reader, including more dialog between her and the boyfriends could help give the reader a stronger feel of what they were like.

The character I get the strongest sense of in these chapters is of course the main character Ama. I'm always blown away by the way the author is able to explain what she was feeling, why she was feeling that way, and also the way she provides retrospective commentary on what it all means. The scene where Ama speaks with her mother again after so many years was extremely powerful. The combination of descriptions, dialog, and Ama's emotions place the reader in Ama's position and make them understand all the pain, disappointment, emptiness and heartbreak.