Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
Release Date: 1 August 2012
Source: Purchased
Order: Amazon || Powell’s
In a nutshell: Two messed up teenagers – one a foster kid trying to get his brothers back, the other a former popular girl who has scars all over her arms and doesn’t remember how she got them – are thrown together by the school social worker. When they realise that the information they desperately want is contained in her files, they decide to team up to get hold of their files and find out what they want to know once and for all.
We Judge Covers: This cover is pretty generic, and really not surprising when you learn that the publisher is Harlequin Teen. There is no way in hell I would have read this if it hadn’t been for Penguin Teen Australia recommending it as one of their top underrated reads by other publishers at PTA Live a week or so ago.
Main Character: The narrative is split between Echo and Noah. Noah’s parents died in a house fire at the end of his freshman year, so now he’s in the foster system. He desperately wants to be done with high school and get custody of his two little brothers, but the system deems him a threat and a troublemaker because his first foster father was abusive and Noah defended himself (and the guy’s actual son). Echo lives with her dad and her babysitter-turned-stepmother, who she hates. Said stepmother is pregnant, and Echo’s worried that her dad is trying to replace Echo’s older brother, Aires, who joined the Marines and died in Afghanistan. She has scars all over her arms and no memory of how she got them. But she knows her bipolar mother is somehow involved, because now there’s a restraining order against her.
Love Interest: Obviously, as per the cover, Noah and Echo get together. Totally not a spoiler. The cover spoilered it already, okay? They’re both totally fucked up because of their completely legit childhood (early teen-hood???) trauma, so it makes sense that they’d get together. Noah has a reputation as a use ’em and lose ’em sort, while Echo’s only ever had one boyfriend, a dude named Luke. He pops up in the story too, and he’s a total douchenozzle of the “I’m taking you to the movies but I won’t tell you what we’re seeing SURPRISE IT’S A MOVIE ABOUT A TEENAGER WHO JOINS UP AND IS SENT TO AFGHANISTAN!! Wait, where are you going? I paid money for these tickets, get over your dead brother feels, GOD” variety. Also the pressuring for sex variety. Ugh.
Negligent Parents? Uh, all of them ever in some way or another. Noah’s parents are dead, so they’re off the hook, but his first foster father was abusive, then he got bounced around a lot, and now he’s living with fosters parents who are in it for the money and just don’t give a shit. Beth, one of Noah’s best friends and the niece of his foster parents, gets bashed by her mother’s former NFL star boyfriend while her mother stands by and watches.
Echo’s mother is a piece of work. Yes, she’s bipolar, but she’s also wholly unapologetic for her actions. Echo’s dad isn’t exactly negligent. But his way of showing that he cares is by controlling every little aspect of her life and demanding that she take a bunch of business subjects and do a business degree at university when all she wants to do is paint. Also, he and Echo’s stepmother get all conceal-don’t-feel about Echo’s scars – don’t let anyone see them, don’t try to remember what happened to you, don’t let on that anything’s not perfect. It’s not negligent, but it’s a long way from Sandy Cohen territory. Also also, he and his ex-wife named their kids Echo and Aires. Clearly negligent.
1430: Noah and Echo both have a tendency to see their situations in black and white. What they think happened/is happening is the ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION. As the story unfolds, we learn little pieces of their respective stories and it becomes apparent to the characters that maybe JUST MAYBE they’re wrong. Even with that niggling doubt, they both plough on regardless, and end up in messy situations as a result. They both have pretty major realisations near the end of the story, and make significant sacrifices when they realise that what they want isn’t necessarily what’s best.
The sibling feels were through the roof on this one. Echo’s dead brother was the one person in the family who stood up for her and protected her from their mother’s manic episodes and who kept fighting for what she wanted even when he was deployed on the other side of the world. She’s hanging on by a thread, and that thread is her dead brother’s 1965 Corvette which she wants to finish fixing up in his memory. Noah, meanwhile, just wants to be part of a family again, and for him that means getting custody of his brothers, aged 8 and 4. He’s convinced that because he’s had experience with abusive foster families that the couple his brothers are living with must be abusive too, and he just wants to save them. Especially when, as a result of him beating up his abusive foster father, he’s only been allowed limited supervised visitation with them. I probably shouldn’t have been reading a story laden with sibling feels at like 12.30am because I spent like half an hour crying when I finished it because OMG ALL THE FEELS WHYYYYYYY.
Mrs. Collins, the school social worker/therapist is a pretty fantastic character. As much as neither of them want to be talking to her, she’s willing to go out of her way to help Echo and Noah get what they want. She gives them leeway when necessary, but she also won’t take any crap and isn’t afraid to call them on their bullshit. She also ships them a little bit, although if you asked her she wouldn’t admit it.
#MEH: The ending was wrapped up a little too neatly for my liking. The writing got weirdly flowery when discussing Noah and Echo’s feelings for each other, and if Noah told us that Echo smelled like cinnamon one more time, I was going to scream. There were also moments that felt a little deja vu-y – Echo hiding her scars, Noah insisting that an 18 year old working a dead end job will get custody of two kids, Echo hating her stepmother, Noah hanging out in a dank basement, Echo’s so-called friends pointing and laughing when she talks to the poor kid or shows her scars (OMG, SHE MUST BE A CUTTER!), Noah getting defensive. Etcetera. Also, Luke is the actual worst.
The End: This one was just a little too tidy somehow.
Away Message Worthy Quote: “Sometimes when you see the line, you think it’s a good idea to cross it – until you do.”
For Traumateers who: Enjoyed Eleanor & Park. Real world problems, a side of swoon, and a dose of ugly crying near the end.
Final Grade: A-
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
