The hanged man response

The Hanged Man 
The hanged man is a short novel about being a teenager and working through life's struggles.   The book really brings up a lot of questions about being a teenager, choosing the right path, and making mistakes while being in love. 

                 Laurel, the main character definitely goes through a lot through out the entire book, but in the beginning you think that her life is typically average, and that she is dealing with you're average teenage drama, but as the story progresses we find out that Laurel's life is far from average. 

                I think that this book will be hard for some readers, it deals with a lot of uneasy topics. Death of a parent, eating disorders, father/daughter incest and a distant mother who may or may not have known on some level what was happening to her daughter.

The story opens on the death of the protagonist's father and the start of her anorexia nervosa. It's unclear if this is her first bout with the disease or if it has been a coping mechanism of her's for years. There's evidence to support both in the book. Gradually the incest comes out, it's subtle and I know a few people who didn't realize at first that the abuse the main character suffered through was sexual. There's no other way to describe the mother other than someone you find your self pitying and wanting to strangle in equal measure. You never really can say whether or not she knew about the abuse. So if she didn't, you pity her, if she did, you want her dead. If you're a parent, especially a mother, those feelings are tenfold.

The book ends on a note of hope. You reach the last page feeling like the heroine will truly be able to heal, that her mother has become a functioning woman once again and that the worst is behind them. 'The Hanged Man' is uncomfortable, but brillinant. i really do appreciate wat Lia block has done