No, what really bothered me was that the main character, Dillon, and his now-dead-by-suicide older brother, Preston, brutally killed a neighbor's cat when they were kids, because the cat 'hurt' their dog.

(Although it became a little much for me when the teenage pregnancy was revealed to be deliberate because 'I thought I was losing him.') Oddly, the problem for me wasn't that between them, only four young people experience ALL of the following issues: motorcycle accident leading to amputation, drug abuse, sexual molestation, domestic abuse, teenage pregnancy, suicide, and being forced to witness a violent suicide.

So I was surprised to realize I hadn't yet read this one - but I think I probably started it and stopped reading immediately due to a specific trigger for me that I have a difficult time getting past. I have read almost every book this author has written, and loved most of them. Dillon finally puts to rest his anger with his brother helps Jennifer loves Stacy's baby and gets his dad to talk to him about life. While there is no pat 'happy ending' there is some resolution. Jennifer tries to work through her fear on the basketball court and Stacy comes clean over the intercom at school about the parentage of the baby. Jennifer has been sexually abused by her biological father and is now being sexually abused by her step-father.ĭillon works through his grief over Preston, anger over Jennifer's abuse and love of Preston and Stacy's baby throughout the course of the year. Dillon's friend and major basketball superstar at the high school, Jennifer is battling her own demons. You find out (although it is no real surprise) that the baby is really Stacy's and Preston's. Stacy convinced her parents to adopt the baby. The story when she comes back is that a cousin of hers had a baby out of wedlock and was going to put it up for adoption. After Preston's death, Stacy goes away to North Dakota to 'heal'. Dillon has had a crush on Stacy for years. Preston's death left behind feelings of anger, depression, sadness and one other thing, a baby. His mother left and took his younger sister Christy. The book deals with Dillon trying to figure out his life. Unable to fight his demons, he killed himself in front of Dillon. After a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed, Dillon turned more to drugs and a motorcycle gang. Chris Crutcher's Chinese Handcuffs is written in both narrative and letters written to Dillon's dead brother Preston.ĭillon's brother Preston was a troubled teen (well, it never states his age that I recall but he is 2 years older than Dillon).

Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher