Trigger warning: The Art of Breaking Things includes domestic violence, drug use, grooming, sexual assault, and PTSD.

Skye is a seventeen year old HS senior who plans to attend art school after graduation. She can’t wait to get the heck out of town after graduation, and spends her time outside of school partying, and is popular with the boys because of her reputation of being “easy” when she is drunk. Her dad is absent, her mom is often drunk, leaving Skye with the responsibility of parenting her eleven year old sister, Emma. Skye thinks she’ll make it through the end of the school year, but when she learns that her mom is hooking up with an old boyfriend, Skye’s life starts to fall apart. Her memories of this man, who sexually assaulted her when she was twelve, brings a wave a PTSD, and the fear that if she doesn’t take action, he’ll have the opportunity to harm Emma once Skye is off to art school.

This story may remind the reader of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. We see a girl embrace the power of her voice. Skye won’t stay silent.