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A review by megatsunami
American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott
4.0
This book was a lovely exploration of healing from trauma through cultural/ collective/ ecological methods, something we almost never see depicted in fiction (usually it's the one heroic therapist). In this case the healing is viewed through the eyes of the traumatized veteran's younger brother, who is also working through his own struggles to improve his academics in order to be college-bound.
I mostly felt this was a very realistic portrayal of someone struggling to heal from PTSD, except for the scene where someone decides to go to therapy and they just drive up to the therapist's office and the person meets with the therapist. I was like, ok, first of all, they would have to call their insurance and get a list of approved providers and call like 10 of them and wait for several days and get only one or two responses and those people don't have any spots open and then they would have to call their insurance again for a new list... OR, they would show up at a nonprofit which would have a four-week waiting list just to get a first appointment.
I mean, I appreciated the author's optimism, and that's totally how it should be. I'm just sayin'.
The main character was really sweet and the text messages between him and his love interest were adorable.
I would have given this book five stars except that it way overused the trope of people secretly making major life decisions for others because they feel they know what the other person REALLY needs/ wants to be doing. This is a trope I can't stand and it happened four or five times in the book.
I mostly felt this was a very realistic portrayal of someone struggling to heal from PTSD, except for the scene where someone decides to go to therapy and they just drive up to the therapist's office and the person meets with the therapist. I was like, ok, first of all, they would have to call their insurance and get a list of approved providers and call like 10 of them and wait for several days and get only one or two responses and those people don't have any spots open and then they would have to call their insurance again for a new list... OR, they would show up at a nonprofit which would have a four-week waiting list just to get a first appointment.
I mean, I appreciated the author's optimism, and that's totally how it should be. I'm just sayin'.
The main character was really sweet and the text messages between him and his love interest were adorable.
I would have given this book five stars except that it way overused the trope of people secretly making major life decisions for others because they feel they know what the other person REALLY needs/ wants to be doing. This is a trope I can't stand and it happened four or five times in the book.