The Bridge

This book is very well written. The author does an excellent job with his story telling. This book tells the story of Aaron and Tillie. Aaron is a severely depressed sixteen year old gay boy living in New York with his father. His parents divorced when he was eight. Tillie is also severely depressed and a teenager. They see each other on the George Washington Bridge. This book is told from four different perspectives, one of which I have never seen before, One is that only Tillie jumps, the other is only Aaron jumps, the other is both of them jump together and the last is neither one of them jump.

Under the first scenario Aaron witnesses Tillie jump off from the bridge. Aaron was at the bridge first and Tillie shows up, which causes Aaron to lose his nerve slightly. Aaron witnesses Tillie jump from the bridge. He was already severely depressed, His father took him in for psychiatric treatment and he was prescribed an anti depressant. No matter how much reassurance his parents gave him, he couldn't get rid of his depression.

Under the second scenario where Aaron jumps, Tillies depression becomes worse. Her mother and psychiatrist decides that she should be put into a facility in Vermont. Her boyfriend had broke up with her. Finally he he told her the truth that he was in fact gay, so it was him and not her. His mother brought the subject up and he told her he was in fact gay, Her response was for fucks sake son and since that went against their Muslim faith he decided to leave his house. He went to live with his aunt and her wife. He explained what happened and he was accepted with open arms. This part was the saddest part of the book for me. I cried when Aaron jumped from the bridge.

Under scenario number three both families struggle to deal with their losses. This part was the second saddest part of the book for me. Both families had to struggle with the loss of their teenage child by suicide. Both families were left with the question of why? Aaron's dad had told his son daily he loved him. His father had even quit a high paying job to work as a social worker to be home more with his son. This section Aarons parents do put up a united front for his funeral. Aaron's father kept saying the least he could do was to keep his son's fish alive. Tillie's little sister is having a hard time dealing with the death of her big sister. She kept asking when was she coming home.

Under scenario number four, neither one of the teenagers jump from the bridge. In this story, Aaron offers Tillie an alternative to death, donuts. She accepts that offer and both teens become really close friends as time goes on. Their parents do find out about what they had planned to do and decided to make both teens responsible for each other. Poor Aaron was put on an anti depressant and he became very manic. He even went after Tillie's ex-boyfriend and almost caused a scene there because in this scenario, Tillies ex didn't tell his mom he was gay. Aaron was taken to the psychiatrist and his medications were adjusted, but he missed a lot of time from school.

This book is a great book and very well written. It has a great story line. It is a great book for teens and adults alike. I would recommend this book for high school age children because this the age that is dealt with in the book and teen suicide is a very big problem in this country. I give this book five stars out of five stars.