My Beautiful Failure (Hardcover)

By Janet Ruth Young

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 9781416954897, 304pp.

Publication Date: November 13, 2012

List Price: 16.99*
* Individual store prices may vary.

Description

A haunting account of a teen boy who volunteers at a suicide hotline and falls for a troubled caller.

Billy is a sophomore in high school, and twice a week, he volunteers at Listeners, a suicide hotline.
Jenney is an "incoming," a caller, a girl on the brink.
As her life spirals out of control, Jenney's calls become more desperate, more frequent. Billy, struggling with the deteriorating relationship with his depressed father, is the only one who understands. Through her pain, he sees hope. Through her tears, he feels her heart. And through her despair, he finds love. But is that enough?
Acclaimed author Janet Ruth Young has written a stunning and powerful story with no easy answers; it is about pain and heartbreak, reality and illusion, and finding redemption and the strength to forgive in the darkest of times.


Praise For My Beautiful Failure…

"The emotional resonance here is complex and multifaceted, melancholy even where there’s hope and hopeful in the midst of melancholy; readers will be thinking about this one long after they close the book."



"The insider view of a suicide hotline is a poignant one. Like the realistic novels of Todd Strasser, this compelling title places a young person in a moral quandary that could literally mean the difference between life and death."





"The heavy subjects of mental illness and suicide are deftly handled with a surprisingly light touch. Recommended"