Review: Four Years of Despair by Jalesa Morrison

WARNING: This book focuses on Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Suicide, Death, Domestic Violence, Physical Abuse, and Mental Abuse. Parts of this book are extremely hard to read because of the
content.

Four Years of Despair by Jalesa Morrison was a shocker to say the least. It is hard to find the words to accurately describe this book and do it justice. Normally I would complain about the repetitiveness of a book. In this case the repetition accurately portrays the events in the book. I can easily see this being extended into a larger novel if Jalesa Morrison feels confident enough in her ability to stay accurate and go deeper into each character. Parts of this book did make me cringe multiple times. At first I did not like this book at all but then I figured it out. This book is not meant to be liked. It is meant to infom, to show what sever meutal illuess laaks like behind closed doors. It shows what the individual and family members go through on a daily basis that most people do not see or understand.

Jalesa tells the story of thirteen year old Jaunell Morris, her sis ters Lois and Francis, and their mother Joan. Jaunell was your typical preteen up until around her thirteenth birthday. It was then that
Jaunell was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder that also causes her to become extremely depressed. Joan freqiently struggles to get Jaunell to take a shower or even go to school. This also makes it difficult for Joan to hold a job and she has to ask her own mother (Jamell's grandmother) for financial assistance.
Jaunell lashes out and physically attacks her family members miltiple times.

 Between Jaunell's lack of bodily cleanliness and her physical outbursts Joan's friends turn their back on Joan and many of their family members disown Jaunell. Joan's mother blames Joan for Jaunell's behavior and tells her that she is a bad mother. Jaunell's father leaves Joan because he can not handle Jaunell. Lois and Francis also turn their backs on their sister after being hurt by her multiple times. These are only a few of the relationships hat are destroyed because of a lack of understanding. Joan becomes depressed as well and ends up abusing Jaunell because she believes everything to be Jaunell's fault even though she knows in her heart that it is not true. Jaunell spends four years in and out of hospitals countless times before her mother has the financial ability to send Jaunell to a long term care facility. But there is hope...

What I liked best was Jalesa's blunt honesty about what is going on. Jalesa tells the story of Jaunell and her family without the fear of offending anyone. Jaunell's story is ane that needed to be
told. What I liked least was the lack of denth to the characters. In fact I found it to be mildly disappointing. Also there were times where I did not agree with what was happening, but that is nothing against the book. That was my personal rejection to admitting that there are people suffering
like this every day.

Target readers for this book was hard to determine because of the nature of the topic. It truly depends on the individual's mindset. I believe high school students and older could  handle this book. At the same time the message would be good for middle school students as well, but might be hard for them to read. This book got a sold 3 out of 4 rating from me. The only reason it did not get a perfect rating was because I would like to see more depth.