Robyn Schneider is fast becoming one of my favourite authors of 2018. I stormed through this and Extraordinary Means in record time and now I think I need to read everything she's ever written? These YA books are exactly what I look for in the genre: there's romance, humour, and most importantly, a taboo/important topic is discussed throughout. In Severed Heads, Broken Hearts it's all about disability and your identity.
Ezra Faulkner had everything going for him: varsity tennis captain, hottest girlfriend in the school, and lunch at the popular table. That is until one tragic night ruins everything. After catching his girlfriend cheating on him, he storms out of a party and winds up in the ER after being hit by a drunk driver.
Suddenly, Ezra's lost everything that he thought made him 'him'. His leg is too damaged to play tennis anymore (possibly forever), he no longer has a girlfriend, and he none of his former friends understand the trauma that he's suffering with.
Ezra is convinced that everyone has one traumatic moment in their life that defines them. For his childhood best friend, it was catching a severed head on a theme park ride after someone stood up mid-ride. From that point on, Ezra merged into the popular group, whilst his old friend became 'the weird guy that touched a head one time'. Now however, they're back together, and Ezra begins to learn that maybe trauma can't snatch your whole identity from you.
This was such a heartwarming read, and Schneider really manages to capture the essence of what it's like to be a teen scared of rejection and disapproval and bullying. It was something that I was excited to sit down and read every time I picked it back up, and it really was hard to put down again.
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