Despite their different journeys, the teens find a connection with each other that gives them hope that their lives will be better. The book alternates between the three teens' voices, revealing in agonizing bits and pieces the heartache, abuse and fear that have led them to this point. The teens struggle to deal with their troubled past, less-than-ideal present and their uncertain future. As you might imagine, the path to healing is not an easy one. After their suicide attempts, they are sent to a treatment facility where they are supposed to work through their issues with therapists and family members. Impulse is the story of Tony, Vanessa and Connor, three teenagers who for different, painful reasons try to end their lives. And while I never want anyone to choose a book because it's short, I sell Ellen Hopkins' books this way because too many students would miss out on her great stories if they never cracked one open. There may be as few as 20 words on a page. But when I flip through the books and show students that they are written in free verse instead of long paragraphs, they perk up. Hopkins has said that her “books are not about the things that happen to…characters, but rather about how those characters react to those things.” This is a perfect description of Impulse, a tragic yet hopeful, compulsively readable journey into three bright and damaged kids’ interior lives.When I suggest that students read a book by Ellen Hopkins, their first reaction is often "No way! That book is huge!" And yes, many of her fiction novels are very thick, topping 300 or even 600 pages.
At first, the three seem to have “nothing in common except age, proximity, and a wish to die.” But as they discover each other’s innate decency and share their histories of neglect and physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, they forge bonds that although deep and real may not be enough to save them. Charismatic Tony, the homeless “boy with the hellfire eyes,” intentionally overdosed to end a life of unspeakable abuse. Gorgeous, rich over-achiever Conner, who believes that “trust is just another five letter word, one that comes before not,” shot himself in the heart. Bipolar cutter Vanessa, whose “demons…keep on howling, like Mama, when she was in a bad way,” slit her wrists.
The book is set at a psychiatric hospital for teenagers, “a place no reasonable person would ever want to go.” The three main characters each have their own problems and ideas about how they want to die. Impulse deals with teen suicide-or, more accurately, attempted suicide, since most of its characters end up alive and better off than they were at the book’s beginning.
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