Rumble by Ellen Hopkins

Like other books I've reviewed by Ellen Hopkins, Rumble proves to be a suspenseful and brilliantly written book. I really enjoyed this one because unlike most of her others books that I've read, the main character in this one is a male by the name of Matt. Where it starts off, Matt is the only son of a father who only finds pleasure in the local high school's basketball team of which he is the coach, and a distant and cold mother who prefers to spend her free time drinking rather than spending time with her family. Not that Wyatt, Matt's father doesn't get his fill of late nights spent drinking, whenever his team wins a basketball game or even when they don't he'll spend hours after the game at bars with some buddies.

Matt gets concerned adults cornering him from every angle over an essay he wrote dismissing the existence of God. In that essay he also talks about his brother Luke who recently committed suicide. He was pushed into committing suicide because he was bullied and abused by his fellow classmates, specifically Christians who Matt describes as "troglodytes" who tortured his brother because he was gay. People at his school anonymously posted gay porn photoshopped with Luke's face in it, on his social media and on the basketball team's Facebook page. That was also how his father found out about the whole thing, and this revealed to Luke and Matt just how homophobic and intolerant their father really is. 

But through all of his struggles with convincing the adults in his life that the essay he wrote was in fact harmless, his parents neglect and his little brother's suicide, he has an amazing, thoughtful and understanding Christian girlfriend, Hayden. Or so he thinks. After Luke's death, Hayden becomes more and more distant. They argue more often and Matt finds himself seeking comfort in the arms of Alexa, Hayden's ex-best friend.

Now I don't want to give away too much more, but even if I did, I'm not sure I explain the book justice. It is a very thought-provoking and emotional book, i know when I read it I got extremely emotionally invested, it broke my heart and it made me smile; it made me cry and it made me laugh, it was all over the place, but it wasn't too all over the place. Some books are and the succession of events makes it hard to follow but in this book despite the large number of things happening in a very short period of time, it wasn't hard to follow along.

I loved this book and strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.