Broken Pencils by J.R. Rice
Publisher: Tea With Coffee Media
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Jonah Tarver, a troubled Oakland teenager grappling with his parents’ troubled marriage, his own mental disorder, and the weight of his best friend’s death, embarks on a desperate quest to find meaning in life. On his eighteenth birthday, coinciding with his Senior prom, Jonah, along with his girlfriend Taniesha, his best friend Trevon, and a group of peers, spirals into a night of reckless indulgence in drugs and alcohol in the vibrant city of San Francisco. As tensions escalate and emotions run high, Jonah finds himself thrust into a gripping twelve-hour journey through the dark underbelly of San Francisco’s nightlife, forever altering his perception of the world. Will Jonah uncover the purpose he so desperately seeks, or will he discover that life, like broken pencils, may have no point?

Birthdays aren’t always happy days.

Jonah’s character development was well done. He had a lot on his plate and good reasons for the sometimes dangerous choices he made on prom night. I appreciated the way the author took the time to explain why Jonah was struggling so much and where his life became so complicated after the death of his best friend among several other stressors. Reading those passages gave me a lot of sympathy for this character and made me hope he’d live happily ever after in the end.

There were times when I struggled to follow the plot due to how often Jonah talked about things that had happened to him days, months, or even years ago. He jumped from past to present and back again so often that it was a distraction for this reader even though I liked other aspects of the book like the characters. I would have happily chosen a higher rating if the storyline had been more linear.

The ending had some fantastic twists that I didn’t see coming but that helped to clear up some of my confusion about what happened earlier. I especially enjoyed the way it illuminated what assumptions Jonah had made about his life that were accurate verses which ones were influenced by his mental state that other people in his life saw in completely different ways. Yes, I know I’m being vague here, but I want other readers to have the chance to be surprised just like I was. What a treat it was to reach those last few pages and learn more about his family and how those closest to Jonah saw him instead of what he assumed they thought about him.

Broken Pencils was a thought provoking read.