Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

I read the novel Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. Hopkins’ novels are very different from any other novel and that might be the reason why this is the third novel I have read by her. This novel is like a diary for three different teenagers who have very different situations. You get to read what these three characters think and feel. Hopkins’ way of writing and describing the characters’ feelings makes you feel like you are really inside of their minds.
The three characters are Connor, Vanessa, and Tony. This novel tells these characters’ deepest secrets and feelings. They all meet each other in a rehabilitation center where they all fall in love with each other. Connor had tried to kill himself with a gun but failed. Vanessa tried to kill her self with a razor but failed and Tony also tried to kill himself with drugs but also failed. This novel can be very gruesome and vulgar but that might be why it is so captivating. Even with the straightforwardness and vulgar language you fall in love with this book and the characters. You can’t stop reading this novel and are very disappointed when it’s done.
I think one of the most important lessons of this novel is how important and responsible parents are for their kids. All three of these characters had a failed relationship with their parents or didn’t have parents at all and were abandoned. These kids had no one to care for them and them, no one to support them or encourage them. They felt like they didn’t belong anywhere in the world and their way out of this hell on earth was through a gun, blade, or drugs. This just shows really how important parents are in a kid’s life. Yes, the characters are the ones who made to awful decisions to try and kill them selves, but if a parent would have been there for them those things never would have happened. Ultimately, the kid and the things that happen in a kid’s life are the parent’s responsibility and the parents to take that responsibility.
Another thing in this novel that really seemed important to me was love and the meaning of love. Love can’s be bought with money, fancy homes or cars. Connor had the life anyone would kill for. He had a big house and enough money to buy his way into college but Connor wasn’t happy and wasn’t loved by his parents. Tony and Vanessa think they had found the meaning of love until they met each other. They found out that love is just being a friend and always being there for each other. A quote that Tony said to Vanessa about love was, “love means holding onto someone as hard as you can because in a blink they could be gone.” I have fallen in love with this quote and I think it really does sum up the meaning of love in one quote. I believe that if everyone in the world was loved by at least one person there wouldn’t be as many hangings, shootings, or drug overdoses. All the world really needs is love.