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A review by karlyo83
Josie and Jack by Kelly Braffet
4.0
My Rating Style: 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ticked nearly all the boxes ALMOST LOVED IT!!!
Josie and Jack live an unconventional lifestyle and have an unconventional relationship in their broken down home in Western Pennsylvania. The only adult that frequents their lives is their rage-prone father, a physicist whose erratic abusive behaviour eventually drives them away.
Jack leads Josie down a path of menacing wealthy socialites, eroticism and betrayal. Jack’s sociopathic tendencies emerge with a vengeance and Josie must decide which is stronger her love and devotion to her brother or her will to survive and flourish in a better life than the one she is living.
Excerpt
Once you’ve decided to tell the truth, it’s hard not to qualify it. The facts are the easy part. The sky is blue. Fire is hot. He hit he.
The problem is that it’s so often tempting to quality those facts: It sounds worse than it was. It sounds terrible when I say it like that.
Or there’s the other way out: rationalisation as absolution. It was awful, I shouldn’t have done it. I wasn’t thinking. You have to understand how I was feeling, what I’d been through.
Either way: I didn’t do it. BUT I didn’t stop him.
Another fairly short novel and my 100th of the year - YAY me!!! I really enjoyed this story it was a tragic and there is room to understand that things are not right in the home of Josie and Jack Raeburn. Their ‘love’ for one another is quite different to that of normal siblings and while there is no explicit incest content it is very heavily implied.
I was drawn in by the story of the siblings. They have a dead ‘Crazy Mary’ mother, an abusive absent father and only one another to rely on. Their bond is strong and intense and Jack is possessive of his younger sister to the point of abuse himself. Jack is messed up… but so is Josie. The story is quite sad and as we get further into it, it unravels their worlds even further. Decisions are made, deeds are done and eventually something has to give.
The story is told from Josie’s point of view throughout the entire novel and this works really well. I found it really well written and I could really feel the pain and fear coming off the page at times and I found myself really sympathising with Josie. Even though Jack is essentially a pretty bad brother you can also feel those tender moments that he truly cares for Josie… while few and far between.
Jack is a maverick and a sociopath he is always looking out for number one. If anything gets in his way people best watch out. Including anyone who dare look sideways at poor Josie. Unless of course that is going to benefit Jack in some way.
Josie is young, only 16, but she is old beyond her years in many ways… but oh so young in many others. She never knew her mother, who left with her big brother when she was small. Jack returned once Mary died and their bond was formed. Jack is her big brother, her saviour and the love of her life - although it isn’t quite clear how much love is shared.
This story isn’t as depressing as some of the others I have read this year however it weighed heavy on my heart in the way a story of abuse does. Some of the endurances that Josie goes through are truly challenging to read and I found myself wishing someone would help her. There does seem to be many people along the journey that seem like they might do just that… and you also find yourself wondering if Jack in fact is going to… but in the end well… You better read it to find out what happens in the end.
Overall I was glad I read this and I was glad it was my 100th book. The writing style was really easy to read and wasn’t a hand holding affair… you were able to draw some of your own conclusions and also get enough of the story to know what was going on. The ending was were it lost a star for me it was wrapped up a little too neatly for how many terrible things happened… but it didn’t ruin the overall story.
It probably wont be to everyone’s taste (I say that every time) but it was a really well written story that was just quite devastating. It is most definitely not a thriller… to be honest I don’t know what it is… a love story? A tale of despair? A redemption novel? It is all of this and more.
One I would recommend but keep your triggers in mind there is abusive behaviour of the mental and physical kind in here.
Josie and Jack live an unconventional lifestyle and have an unconventional relationship in their broken down home in Western Pennsylvania. The only adult that frequents their lives is their rage-prone father, a physicist whose erratic abusive behaviour eventually drives them away.
Jack leads Josie down a path of menacing wealthy socialites, eroticism and betrayal. Jack’s sociopathic tendencies emerge with a vengeance and Josie must decide which is stronger her love and devotion to her brother or her will to survive and flourish in a better life than the one she is living.
Excerpt
Once you’ve decided to tell the truth, it’s hard not to qualify it. The facts are the easy part. The sky is blue. Fire is hot. He hit he.
The problem is that it’s so often tempting to quality those facts: It sounds worse than it was. It sounds terrible when I say it like that.
Or there’s the other way out: rationalisation as absolution. It was awful, I shouldn’t have done it. I wasn’t thinking. You have to understand how I was feeling, what I’d been through.
Either way: I didn’t do it. BUT I didn’t stop him.
Another fairly short novel and my 100th of the year - YAY me!!! I really enjoyed this story it was a tragic and there is room to understand that things are not right in the home of Josie and Jack Raeburn. Their ‘love’ for one another is quite different to that of normal siblings and while there is no explicit incest content it is very heavily implied.
I was drawn in by the story of the siblings. They have a dead ‘Crazy Mary’ mother, an abusive absent father and only one another to rely on. Their bond is strong and intense and Jack is possessive of his younger sister to the point of abuse himself. Jack is messed up… but so is Josie. The story is quite sad and as we get further into it, it unravels their worlds even further. Decisions are made, deeds are done and eventually something has to give.
The story is told from Josie’s point of view throughout the entire novel and this works really well. I found it really well written and I could really feel the pain and fear coming off the page at times and I found myself really sympathising with Josie. Even though Jack is essentially a pretty bad brother you can also feel those tender moments that he truly cares for Josie… while few and far between.
Jack is a maverick and a sociopath he is always looking out for number one. If anything gets in his way people best watch out. Including anyone who dare look sideways at poor Josie. Unless of course that is going to benefit Jack in some way.
Josie is young, only 16, but she is old beyond her years in many ways… but oh so young in many others. She never knew her mother, who left with her big brother when she was small. Jack returned once Mary died and their bond was formed. Jack is her big brother, her saviour and the love of her life - although it isn’t quite clear how much love is shared.
This story isn’t as depressing as some of the others I have read this year however it weighed heavy on my heart in the way a story of abuse does. Some of the endurances that Josie goes through are truly challenging to read and I found myself wishing someone would help her. There does seem to be many people along the journey that seem like they might do just that… and you also find yourself wondering if Jack in fact is going to… but in the end well… You better read it to find out what happens in the end.
Overall I was glad I read this and I was glad it was my 100th book. The writing style was really easy to read and wasn’t a hand holding affair… you were able to draw some of your own conclusions and also get enough of the story to know what was going on. The ending was were it lost a star for me it was wrapped up a little too neatly for how many terrible things happened… but it didn’t ruin the overall story.
It probably wont be to everyone’s taste (I say that every time) but it was a really well written story that was just quite devastating. It is most definitely not a thriller… to be honest I don’t know what it is… a love story? A tale of despair? A redemption novel? It is all of this and more.
One I would recommend but keep your triggers in mind there is abusive behaviour of the mental and physical kind in here.