Breaking Point (novel)

Last updated
Breaking Point
Breaking Point (Alex Flinn novel) cover.jpg
Author Alex Flinn
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Young adult fiction
PublisherHarperCollins Children’s Books
Publication date
2002
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages256pp
ISBN 0-06-447371-6

Breaking Point is a 2002 young adult novel by Alex Flinn. It was a 'Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers' in 2003. [1]

Contents

Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books said that the book was "a dark drama of self-destruction that should make for grimly satisfying reading" while Voice of Youth Advocates called its characters "brilliantly twisted." [2]

Plot

Paul Richmond moves from homeschooling to a fancy private school, Gate-Brickell Christian, after his lieutenant colonel father has an affair and divorces his teacher-mother. On his first day at Gate, he meets a girl named Binky and a boy named Charlie Good.

Without Binky, life would be pretty terrible for Paul. The kids at school look down on him because his mother works in the office there. Thanks to his father, Paul looks down on her too. His father, busy with a new wife and baby, ignores his calls and finally tells him to go away. He feels responsible for being a surrogate man of the house for his mother, who is clingy and insecure. This is far too much pressure for Paul, and only drives him away from confiding in his mother about anything happening in his life. Binky knows the score from way back, and knows it wasn’t that much easier on David Blanco, son of the school janitor. When David’s dog is found killed, the school population tacitly blames David, because it’s easier than figuring out which one of the children of privilege is the corrupt one.

In the midst of all this, Charlie Good starts asking things of Paul. If there is an uppercrust at the upper crust school, Charlie is it. He seems, in many ways, to be nearly as lonely as Paul. His father pushes him to be a tennis overachiever, and his mother is barely present. Charlie’s method of blowing off steam is a little harmless vandalism. After a fight with his mother, Paul, tortured by feelings of rejection at the hands of his father, is exhilarated by his night of petty theft and mailbox smashing.

Suddenly, however, it doesn’t seem so harmless when Charlie asks Paul to break into the school and change his grade. Paul starts to get the idea that Charlie is manipulative… but he has yet to find out how manipulative.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews found "The story does build suspense, and teenagers will recognize cruel aspects of high school, but unlike Flinn’s Breathing Underwater (2000), which broke new ground about date violence, this novel is just one more variation on the familiar theme of paying a high price for popularity." [3] and Publishers Weekly wrote "Heavy-handed writing undermines Flinn's (Breathing Underwater) stated goal for her second novel, namely, to "stimulate discussion" among teens about why kids commit violent acts." [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hoot</i> (novel) 2002 novel by Carl Hiaasen

Hoot is a 2002 children's mystery/suspense novel by Carl Hiaasen. The story takes place in Florida, where new arrival Roy makes two oddball friends and a bad enemy. Roy joins an effort to stop construction of a pancake house which would destroy a colony of burrowing owls who live on the site. The book won a Newbery Honor award in 2003.

<i>Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry</i> 1976 novel by Mildred D. Taylor

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1977 Newbery Medal awarded novel by Mildred D. Taylor. It is a part of her Logan family series, a sequel to her 1975 novella Song of the Trees.

<i>Empire Falls</i> (miniseries) American TV series or program

Empire Falls is a 2005 American television miniseries directed by Fred Schepisi and written by Richard Russo, based on Russo's 2001 novel of the same name. It aired on HBO in two parts, from May 28 to May 29, 2005. The miniseries was nominated for and won multiple awards, including ten Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards.

<i>The Perks of Being a Wallflower</i> 1998 novel by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 1999 young adult novel by American author Stephen Chbosky. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows Charlie, an introverted and observant teenager, through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. The novel details Charlie's unconventional style of thinking as he navigates between the worlds of adolescence and adulthood, and attempts to deal with poignant questions spurred by his interactions with both his friends and family.

<i>Locked in Time</i> Book by Lois Duncan

Locked in Time is a 1985 suspense novel by Lois Duncan. The story centers around Nore, a seventeen-year-old girl who moves into a new home with her father and her new stepfamily. Soon after she meets her stepmother, stepbrother, and stepsister for the first time, Nore begins to suspect something is not quite right about her stepfamily. The author states that the novel explores some of the issues surrounding having eternal life. Duncan says she developed the idea for the novel when one of her daughters was thirteen years old and was having issues with her body image. Duncan mentions that her daughter was "taking everything out" on her, and she began to wonder what it would be like if her daughter never outgrew her adolescence.

<i>The First Part Last</i> 2003 young adult novel by Angela Johnson

The First Part Last is a young adult novel by Angela Johnson that deals with the subject of teen pregnancy. It's the second book in the Heaven Trilogy. Johnson writes the story in first person narration from the perspective of Bobby, the 16-year-old father, setting it apart from most books on the subject. The book is divided into four parts and its chapters alternate between "then" and "now."

<i>Finding Cassie Crazy</i> 2003 book by Jaclyn Moriarty

Finding Cassie Crazy is a novel by Jaclyn Moriarty. It was first published 2003 in Australia. The novel is both a stand-alone and also the second book of the Ashbury/Brookfield series.

Alexandra Flinn is an American writer of novels for young adults. Her books have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists and have been translated into over twenty foreign languages. Many of her books have made the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults lists, as well as Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Many of her novels are modernized versions of classic fairy tales.

<i>Burned</i> (Hopkins novel) 2006 book by Ellen Hopkins

Burned is a young adult novel written by American author Ellen Hopkins and published in April 2006. Like all of Ellen Hopkin's works, the novel is unusual for its free verse format.

<i>Dear Mr. Henshaw</i> 1983 juvenile epistolary novel by Beverly Cleary

Dear Mr. Henshaw is a juvenile epistolary novel by Beverly Cleary and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky that was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1984. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".

<i>Romiette and Julio</i> 1999 novel by Sharon Draper

Romiette and Julio is a young adult novel by Sharon Draper, published in 1999 by Atheneum Books. It is an updated version of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Many of the characters in Draper's novel closely parallel those in Shakespeare's play. The plot updates the family feud between the Capulets and Montagues to reflect modern racial tensions between African-Americans and Hispanics in the United States. The book received mixed reviews.

<i>Haunted</i> (Cabot novel) 2004 book by Meg Cabot

Haunted is a young adult novel written by author Meg Cabot and was published by Avon Books in 2004. It is the fifth book in The Mediator series, following the adventures of teenage mediator Susannah 'Suze' Simon, and was a New York Times best seller. Its alternative title is Grave Doubts.

<i>The Dead</i> (Higson novel) 2010 novel by Charlie Higson

The Dead is a novel written by Charlie Higson. The book, published by Puffin Books in the UK on 16 September 2010, is the second book in a seven-book series, titled The Enemy. The Dead takes place in London, a year before the events in the previous book, two weeks after a worldwide sickness has infected adults turning them into something related to voracious, cannibalistic zombies.

<i>White Cat</i> (novel) 2010 novel by Holly Black

White Cat is the first book in The Curse Workers series about Cassel Sharpe, written by Holly Black. In this alternate world story, workers are rare people with magical abilities that sometimes run in families. Using their abilities requires skin contact and is illegal, which is why most workers are part of crime families. About 10% of the population are workers. There are 7 types of workers. Of those, about 60% are luck workers, while other skills, such as death working, emotion working, memory working, dream working and physical working less common. The rarest type of worker is a transformation worker: they can transform anything into something else.

Hannah Moskowitz is an American author of young adult and middle grade novels.

<i>Girl, Stolen</i> 2010 novel by April Henry

Girl Stolen is a young adult crime novel by the American author April Henry, published in 2010 by Henry Holt and Company. It follows Cheyenne, a 16-year-old girl who is blind, has pneumonia, and is accidentally kidnapped when a stranger steals her mother's car while Cheyenne is resting in the backseat.

<i>The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean</i>

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean telt by hisself is a 2011 story by David Almond. It was released simultaneously in young adult (Puffin) and adult editions (Penguin), and was Almond's first adult novel. It is about a boy, Paul, who is imprisoned by his parents until the age of thirteen and on his freedom is treated as a messiah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Reynolds</span> American young adult novelist

Jason Reynolds is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audience. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in neighboring Oxon Hill, Maryland, Reynolds found inspiration in rap and had an early focus on poetry, publishing several poetry collections before his first novel in 2014, When I Was The Greatest, which won the John Steptoe Award for New Talent.

<i>Planesrunner</i> 2011 novel by Ian McDonald

Planesrunner is a 2011 young adult science fiction novel by British author Ian McDonald, and the first installment of the Everness series. The book follows British teenager Everett Singh as he travels between alternate universes in search of his missing theoretical physicist father.

<i>Skin of the Sea</i> 2021 young adult novel by Natasha Bowen

Skin of the Sea is a 2021 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian Welsh writer Natasha Bowen. Bowen's debut novel follows Simi, a mami wata who travels across sea and land in search of the Supreme Creator after breaking a law that threatens the existence of all mami wata.

References

  1. ALA.org [ permanent dead link ]
  2. Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books
  3. "Breaking Point". www.kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Media LLC. 1 April 2002. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  4. "Breaking Point". www.publishersweekly.com. PWxyz LLC. Retrieved 22 July 2015.