Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publish Date: October 2004
ISBN: 0060598395
Page #: 304pp
Reading Level: Young Adult
Classification: Fiction
Genre: Real Life
Subjects: Athletics, Basketball, Brothers, Drugs, Family, High School, Incest, Realistic, Relationships, Sexual Abuse, Suicide, Teen Pregnancy, Violence
Subjects: Athletics, Basketball, Brothers, Drugs, Family, High School, Incest, Realistic, Relationships, Sexual Abuse, Suicide, Teen Pregnancy, Violence
Annotation:
Dillon Hemingway is a teenage triathlon runner who is still coming to grips with his brother’s suicide and the tangled emotions he has with Stacy, his brothers girlfriend and Jennifer, his friend from High School.
Summary:
Dillon Hemmingway is not your average sixteen-year-old jock. He is smart and kindhearted and thoughtful. He has hopes of one day entering the Ironman triathlon. But before he can do that, he must deal with his brother Preston’s recent suicide and the role he played in it. To help him cope with the emotional details, Dillon turns to a journal. Additionally, Dillon runs to lose himself, to forget about his family falling apart; to sort out his feelings for Stacy, Preston’s girlfriend, and to stop thinking about the secret that his friend Jennifer has just entrusted to him, a secret about herself and her stepfather. Dillion can’t keep running away from all of his problems and he knows it.
Megan says:
This was my first Chris Crutcher novel. I was not sure how I would like it because it is not usually the type of story I go for but Chris Crutcher has a way with words and storytelling. Chinese Handcuffs is an intensely emotional story that deals with many serious and complex subjects such as; rape, incest, violence, drugs, teenage motherhood, and teen suicide in which the characters use athletics as one way to control or cope with their lives. This is a beautifully written story.
Stars: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Stars: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★