Charlotte is also too idealised to be convincing as the girlfriend and the central conflict between her and Joshua is denied an emotionally effective resolution. The later scenes involving the psychiatric centre could have had more detail inserted to draw out Joshua’s relationship with the staff and patients so that their reaction to subsequent events would be more credible. The ease with which Moskowitz conveys Joshua’s emotional journey belies its complexity, particularly the alternate guilt and responsibility that he feels for Jesse with the relationship between the brothers being shown in a way that is touching and realistic. Joshua’s voice is authentic, complete with use of the liberal f-word, which adds to its credibility but may make some readers uncomfortable. Moskowitz acknowledges Chuck Palahniuk as an inspiration and his influence comes through in the subject matter and in a nice in-joke with a psychiatric centre patient called Tyler. Written when Moskowitz was still in school, this is a well-crafted, compact novel with a real feel for its protagonist and his turmoil.
But the more bones Jonah breaks, the more his life seems to spiral out of control and soon he reaches the point where it’s not just his body that’s about to fall apart. Now he wants to break every bone in his body so that they will grow back stronger and he’s enthusiastically supported in his quest by his best friend Naomi.
Jonah’s life is a disorganised chaos: his younger brother, Jesse, is allergic to everything and even a drop of milk can put him into anaphylactic shock (bad news given that their youngest brother, Will, is breastfeeding when he isn’t crying) his parents argue with each other and leave the house in a mess and he’s in a ‘not-relationship’ with Charlotte.Īfter Jonah was involved in a car accident, he discovered that breaking bones was a way of bringing control back into his life. When Jonah’s self-destructive spiral accelerates and he hits rock bottom, will he find true strength or surrender to his breaking point? Breaking, and then healing, is the only way he can cope with the stresses of home, girls, and the world on his shoulders. Jonah wants to be stronger - needs to be stronger – because everything around him is falling apart. Everyone knows that broken bones grow back stronger than they were before. Jonah is on a mission to break every bone in his body.
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