Top Ten Books Dealing with Tough Subject

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme hosted by The Broke & The Brookish. This week's topic is:

TOP TEN BOOKS DEALING WITH TOUGH SUBJECTS

One Child by Torey Hayden

Personality/Mental Disorder

Believe it or not, I read this book when I was still in elementary school. It was kinda hard for me to grasp what's the problem with Sheila is, but once I understand, it touched me deeply. Sheila suffered a kind of personality & mentality disorder caused of her bad childhood and harsh treatment from her dad. Torey's struggle, affection and unending patience to treat not only Sheila, but also other kids (with the same condition as Sheila, although they were not that complex) in her class was admirable. I was glad that Torey finally found a way to make Sheila ease up to her and at the end, succeeded at having a normal life for her ownself (ending of book two: Sheila, The Tiger's Child.)

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Death/Suicide Attempt

When Lou Clark was hired to be a caregiver for Will, she knew that man was a quadriplegic who needed 24 hours supervision. What she didn't know is that Will had applied himself to Dignitas, an organization that helps people who wish to die in a monitored situation. It was kinda shocking for me to know that there's such organization like Dignitas. Will had tried to kill himself once, but failed. With his condition (paralyzed from neck down) it's understandable how depressing Will's situation was, and Lou's actual task was to change his mind before the day came.
 

The Truth about Forever by Orizuka

 HIV/AIDS

Local book written by one of my favorite authors. Yogas, the main character, is an ODHA (Orang Dengan HIV-AIDS/person with HIV-AIDS) and wish to find the person who had given him the needles that caused the virus to live in his body. His wish is to get a revenge. But then he met Kana, a carefree girl who wants to be an author. They fell in love, but Yogas didn't want to admit it nor to be in a relationship with her. He didn't want to be the cause for Kana's grief when he died later. The book actually taught me to not treat any person with this disease differently.

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Attempted Murder/Death

Both Nastya and Josh has experienced tragic things that changed their lives. Nastya has been in an attempted murder, and Josh lost his family in an accident. They both deal in their own way and help each other to be better.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Racism

The book gave me insight on how is it to live in a place where skin-color/racial difference was totally a big deal. I was kinda scared actually when I read it. I love The Help because it was very meaningful and taught me to appeciate other people (in general) more.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Death

If I Stay will always, always be one of my favorites. Not just because I swooned the entire time reading Mia & Adam's love story, but Gayle actually made me feel as raw as Mia. She was involved in a bad car wreck that left her in coma and killed all of her family member. I sobbed so many times reading this.

Pesan dari Bintang by Sitta Karina

Personality Disorder/Schizophrenic

Niki, the love interest of our main character, has a schizophrenic older brother who often threw a tantrum and becomes violent at him. This problem of course, then comes in the way of Niki's relationship with his girl, Inez Hanafiah. The schizophrenic brother isn't actually a big part of the story, but it gives me insight on how hard this affect the family of someone who's a schizophrenic.

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Kidnap/Sexual Abuse

Hopeless is a story about Sky, a girl who lives with a mother who prohibited any kind of technologies in their house. She's homeschooled, doesn't know how to operate a computer or handphone or anything similar to it. The truth that Sky doesn't know is that she actually was kidnapped when she was a kid, and at that time, she also has been abused sexually by his biological father. What I love about this book is how Dean Holder, Sky's love interest actually helps Sky to deal with this problem on her own. He let and encouraged Sky to stand on herself while still supporting her from behind.

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller

Death/War

Life certainly hasn't become any easier for Travis now eventhough he's not in Afghanistan anymore. He has to deal with the divorce of his parents, his brother who's now dating Travis' ex-girlfriend, and haunted by the death of his bestfriend in Afghan. This story is about how Travis deal with all that and told from a boy, first-person point of view.

Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls

Death/Leukemia

"My name is Sam. I am eleven years old. I collect stories and fantastic facts. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead." There are so many books where the main characters suffered from cancer (The Fault in Our Stars, Before I Die) but Ways to Live Forever is somehow different because it was told from the point of view of a 11 year old kid. The book is a kind of a diary of Sam, who fills it with his daily life, lists of things that he wants to do or questions that he doesn't know the answer. Most gut-wrenching moment for me must be the part where Sam wrote: "What does it feels like to be dead?"

Again, I put two local books into the list this time ;) To join/read other people's pick (read them, they're awesome!), go here.