Break to you is a great realistic fiction look at the criminal justice system and juvenile detention facilities. The authors' intentions were to expose some of what's happening in these places and to bring light to these kids' stories and I think they really did that in this book. They understood the assignment and they accomplished their goal for sure. In the book we have two main characters -- told in alternating points of view--who are at the same facility but separated on the girls' and boys' side. They write each other messages in a journal that they then mis-shelve in a library. I really love how the authors clearly love literature and had a fun time with what books they misshelved as a clue to get the other to read them. There were so many wonderful and heart warming pieces to this that led to a cast of characters you can't help but be intrigued by. As the book goes on we see who is and isn't trustworthy, particularly as the characters try to find a way to meet each other, even just for a few minutes. Many of the characters in the story pull together to try to make it happen and it's such a great "believing in something more than yourself" mission. This would be a great addition to any secondary library, gift to a teenager, or way to study the criminal justice system. I can see it being paired with other books like Kindness for Weakness or Dear Martin/The Hate U Give, etc. Highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

This one fell a bit flat for me. It didn't manage to capture my attention until around the 60% mark and before that it felt as though I was trying so hard to push through.

I enjoyed the last 40% of the book but the first half really was lacklustre and a little bit disengaging.

I rated this 2.75 stars.

In Break to You, the reader gets a glimpse into the juvenile justice system and the lives teens live behind bars.
Told in dual perspective, this book follows Adriana and Jon as they both deal with their tragic circumstances and decide if they can risk everything for love.
When Adriana is locked up, she doesn't know how she will handle a life behind bars. Fortunately, she is allowed to keep her journal, and it is the ability to write out her thoughts and feelings that keeps her from going crazy. When she loses her journal in the prison library, she thinks all hope is lost; until the day she finds her journal once again and realizes that someone else has been writing in it too,
Jon has been at the detention center for years and believes he will never escape the feelings of isolation and depression that weigh him down. But one day when he is in the prison library, he discovers an abandoned journal, and when he begins reading, he starts to come alive again. When Jon decides to write his own entry in the journal, he doesn't know that he just began the most important correspondence of his life, and his first letter might just open him up to a love that is worth risking everything for.

I LOVE Neal Shusterman and picked up Break to You by Neal Shusterman, Debra Young, and Michelle Knowlden expecting it to be similar to his other novels (like Unwind and Scythe). It’s not ANYTHING like those novels, but is spectacular nonetheless. The voices of the characters in this story are utterly believable and well written, and the plot will draw you in immediately and keep the pages turning. This realistic YA novel is wonderful and hopeful and sad all at the same time. Pick it up and read it; you won’t be disappointed. Get this into the hands of fans of Nic Stone and Nick Brooks.

3.5, rounded down. This was an odd little story. I wanted to love it, but the pacing was off…way too much time prior to the main action of the book & it dragged. The meet up was too perfectly orchestrated. The big shocking event was very well done, but where they went with it afterwards was disappointing to me. The current reviews are likely because it early on in this book’s journey. Interesting premise!

Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read this book. As a fan of Neal Shusterman, this is not what I expected. However, I found the story and the format intriguing and captivating. While I don't think this book would be appropriate for my classroom, I think 8th grade and up would benefit from the themes of the book and the discussions that can be had from it.

I wish I hadn't let this one sit on my shelf so long before I read it. It was good! I wouldn't really call it a romance, that seems secondary. It is more about teens trying to make sense of their circumstances and find a little bit of connection with one another. Definitely one I will purchase for my HS library.

This was a beautiful yet sad story about two teens stuck in a detention facility, who begin to communicate through notes in a journal left in a library. I found it to be a really unique setting and concept for a story, especially as the teens try to scheme and figure out a way to meet each other in person, with all the people they know either helping or hindering them along the way. The plot twists and conflicts throughout the story were really interesting and kept me reading to find out what would happen! I would definitely recommend this as it’s a fun and bittersweet story about two young people falling in love in a very unusual place, and doing anything to get to each other.

interesting ideas, and shusterman is (naturally) able to pull it off in an effective way. definitely worth a read, though not a reread

Narratives about teen incarceration can be fascinating and heartbreaking. I'm not really sure what this one was going for. It's got a decent concept but the execution is rather odd. It asks some valid questions but never digs deep into possible answers. It gives too much space to the star-crossed lovers idea and not enough to questions of morality and responsibility.

I think the concept of this story was pretty unique because it is able to pull in the elements of star-crossed lovers in an unconventional setting which I thought was cool and I like how this story gave a dual perspective for these characters.

I will never get tired of books that shed light on where we have failed in our society. This may sound strange but it is almost encouraging to become aware of these issues as the truth of the matter is always so much more complex than we could have imagined. In Break to You we are shown what could be the hearts and raw emotions of teenagers in a juvenile detention center. Still they refuse to be bound to what the world tells them that they can amount to and cling to what lifelines can be found in such a bleak environment. In this case Jon and Adriana find each other. Our justice system is broken and it is beyond sad how many kids and teens are being failed by it. I had no idea that it was a real thing for kids who have reached the end of the line in foster care and have nowhere else to go will sometimes end up in detention centers such as this one. The consequences that this could have on a young person who has already suffered so much were realistically portrayed in Silas's character and his story definitely hit me the hardest out of them all. The dynamics between characters and especially how they come to interact with our main character's was really interesting. Not everyone's story of how they came to be at Compass got told but each character proved that it is never a single mistake or circumstance that is responsible. These were some complex moral issues being discussed here and, though I wish some plot points could have been expanded on as I feel like we only scratched the surface on what I wanted to know about these kids and their stories, I was able to become SO INVESTED in such a short amount of time and can safely say that it did its job in making me curious and left needing to research more on this topic. Such an eye-opening read by an incredible author that I highly recommend giving a try! Happy Reading :)

Break to You is an incredibly original take on the notion of star crossed lovers that is also shining a light on life in a juvenile detention center. It took me a pretty decent amount of time, and putting it down for a few weeks before starting over, for me to get invested in this one, but I think that speaks more to my frame of mind than the quality of the writing.

In Break to You, Adriana is sentenced to 7 months in a "high quality" juvenile detention facility. The one thing she is allowed to keep is her journal, though she is not allowed to use a normal pen. Each of her chapters starts with a poem that gives a lot of her background story. When she loses her journal, she fears the worst. Turns out that someone has read it, but it is not one of the other girls, it is one of the boys that exist in the same facility but who are never seen. So starts Jon's story, one that is very different from Adriana's.

The book is really quite interesting, especially after the two start writing to each other, but it starts to lag towards the end. I'm simply impressed by a story that examines incarcerated life of juveniles in a way that lures in readers of a wide variety. For some this is a warning story. For some it might be similar to things they know intimately. For many, this is a story of a world that they don't even realize exists. The kids who wind up in detention centers like this because they are lost in the foster system especially tug at your heart strings. This isn't an easy book to read, but I am glad that the authors wrote it.

I love Neal Shusterman's books, but this one was hard to read. We had two main characters, Jon and Adriana, who were in a juvenile detention center. The boys and girls in the center are kept separate, but when Adriana accidentally leaves her journal in the shared library space, Jon finds it and writes to her. Thus starts our story of alternating points of view from both teens. Not the most exciting, although I liked the setting of this one.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well developed and lovable. The pacing was perfect and left you wanting to read more. I can't wait to read more by this author!

Break to You is an unconventional story of two teenagers who are living together at a juvenile detention center. I thought from that summary that I would be hooked but I found the voice and pacing of the book a tad slow and not engaging enough for me. That being said, I can see how this book would be really informative and of value to people to better understand just how children are treated when put in a center.

This wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from this book. I enjoy all Neal Shusterman novels and I did enjoy this one but I was expecting more heart and more character development. I just felt like this didn’t really go anywhere.

Every time I think Neal Shusterman cannot surprise me any more, he puts out a new book that is so unlike anything else he has written. This time we get a love story between teens getting through sentences at a juvenile detention center–so many risks for love! The book is as well written as you would assume for a book with Shusterman’s name on it, and this time it includes poetry!

Adriana must endure seven months in juvie. The only saving grace is she has been permitted to keep her journal. When she misplaces it, she thinks everyone will know her secret thoughts. She is relieved when she finds it, but unsure when she discovers that someone has written back … a boy. Jon is in juvie for a different reason and this journal may be the connection to someone else that he has been craving.

Break to You is a stand-alone realistic fiction story that helps readers understand the juvenile justice system as well as some issues that lead teens to be in juvie. Although this is written by multiple authors, I did not see any demarcations of when one was writing and when another took over. The overall story was well thought out and I was fully invested in these two young people. A great story for teens and adults alike.

Both Adriana and Jon are incarcerated teens. Adriana is new to the facility and has a seven month term. Her therapist gave her a journal before coming and she would like to bring it in with her. After some time her new therapist at the facility allows it. Adriana is given the role of helping in the library and one day she forgets her journal on the library floor. After a few days she notices it has been shelved and someone has written in it. Jon is on the boys side and found it. They become pen pals and decide they need to meet. At one point it reminded me of Love is Blind. The ending was somewhat heartbreaking.