When Tony is a preteen, he is raped by one of his mother’s boyfriends and runs away from home. Abandoned by his father at a young age, Tony’s mother is neglectful to an extreme in her quest to never be without a boyfriend. It is a deeply flawed message to propose that romantic love can cure depression and it shouldn’t be proposed as a treatment for mental illness. Only love can make me stop.” Which actually seems to come true at the end of the novel.

One glaring problem with Vanessa’s portrayal, as pointed out by several mental health professionals, is encapsulated in her idea, “I'll never stop cutting, lithium or no lithium. In the hospital, she connects with Conner and Tony, forming a romantic triangle of sorts.

Finally, no longer able to handle all of this, Vanessa slits her wrists.

On top of all of this, Vanessa has an abortion to stop her unwanted pregnancy. The already precarious situation spirals out of control when her mother starts talking to “her angel,” is hospitalized, and eventually dies a slow and horrible death. Vanessa has been left to take care of her younger brother. Her father is abroad, with no particular interest in his children, while her mother is severely mentally ill and liable to self-medicate with a variety of addictions. Outwardly, Vanessa is pretty and intelligent, but she has no ability to see herself that way because of her dysfunctional family situation. The summary will take each teen’s story in turn, though in the novel they are interspersed and not always chronologically arranged. The center follows a behavioral model of treatment, rewarding its charges with extra privileges for a series of increasingly progress-demonstrating acts. Seventeen-year-olds Vanessa O'Reilly, Tony Ceccarelli, and Conner Sykes have just been admitted to Aspen Springs residential center in the wake of their unsuccessful suicide attempts.

The novel doesn’t shy away from graphic descriptions of self-harm and suicide, and there are studies showing that people at risk for this behavior are more prone to act on their ideations after consuming media that portray them. The novel is gritty, and its critics worry about a variety of issues: everything from a problematically portrayed gay character, to a cavalier approach to mental illness, to the inability to successfully tackle the myriad traumas it inflicts on its young characters with real emotional depth. In short, two-page chapters written from the points of view of three different teenagers, the novel explores the dark, harrowing things that have brought them to where they all are today: recovering from suicide attempts in a mental hospital. Impulse (2007) is a young adult novel in free verse by Ellen Hopkins.

Impulse by ellen hopkins series