Recommendable Reading
Taylor Moody:
In the autobiography "The Burn Journals" Brent Runyon describes his traumatizing suicide attempt and his difficult recovery over the next year. Brent shows us his experience at a Burn Unit in a children's hospital where he underwent burn care and skin grafts. After his stay at the Burn Unit and a few psychologist meetings he then went to a rehabilitation hospital for intensive physical and psychological therapy. And then he finally arrived home and began high school.
In the beginning of the story Brent comes home one day after school with the thought of suicide on his mind. He was in trouble at school, his best friend was going out with the girl he liked, and he felt unwanted, unloved, and alone. He put on his black bathrobe stepped into his shower and poured gasoline on himself then he lit the match that would turn his life upside down. While engulfed in flames he made the decision to stop himself. He turned on the shower and the fire went out. He was rescued from his house and taken to the Burn Unit at Children's Hospital. At the hospital he discovers that he has burns over 85% of his body and undergoes intensive treatment. He makes friends with the nurses that take care of him and it makes his stay more enjoyable. Brent's burn scars have to be stretched or else he will lose almost all of his range of motion in his arms and legs.
After about 6 months at Children's Hospital he then moves to a rehabilitation center called DuPont. Here Brent goes through intensive physical and psychological therapy. Brent figures out after a few meetings with psychologists that he doesn't know why he tried to kill himself. He feels that none of the reasons he thought he was doing it for meant any sense anymore. Also at DuPont Brent took some school courses to try and get caught up with his peers who he would meet up with in high school. After DuPont Brent went to another rehabilitation facility where he stayed with other teens that had problems of their own. Here Brent and his family talked about the event and how it affected the family. Brent was then released from here after a short period of time and could now stay full time at home.
At home Brent caught up with some of his friends from eighth grade who were now in high school. He realized how much he'd missed and that he was going to have to struggle to find his way in high school. After a few weeks a t home Brent's psychologist decided he was ready to go back into the mainstream of life. Brent got on a bus, put his head on the window and rode the bus to this seemingly alien world which he knew nothing about anymore. Brent steps of the bus and starts a new beginning.
I thought the author did an excellent job of bringing the reader right into his head. I could relate to the character and his humor. The Burn Journals showed me how fragile life is and the psychological affects suicide has. I thought this book was a masterpiece and I would absolutely recommend this book to all of my friends and even some of my older family members.

The Burn Journals
Taking his bathrobe into the bathroom and dousing it in gasoline, Brent Runyon, 14, lites a match and sets himself on fire. It all started because he lit a match in the boys' gym locker room, lit a locker on fire, and would have possibly gotten expelled. With the fear of his parents reactions in mind he plainly decides to kill himself. The pain of the fire was too much for him to handle and he douses the fire out in the shower and his brother Craig calls 911 immediatly. After he sets himself on fire he is sent to the Children's National Medical Center where they help replace his skin because he burnt over 88% of his body. After all his skin was replaced he was then transferred over to Alfred I. duPont Institute. While there he goes through a process of recovery and goes through physical challenges in order to get his body working properly again. I think that this book would be good for both adults and young teens to read. Not only does it show adults what goes through the mind of teenagers sometimes but it also opens up a whole new view for teens too. This book shows all differnt sorts of points from different points of view. During the process of his recovery the book could get a little slow but all in all this book was a good one for both teens and adults.

Awesome Book!!!
This book is a very touching story. When I read it I couldn't believe that someone would have the guts to do that sort of thing to themselves.I would definately recomend it to others especially to teenagers so that they see what commiting suicide does to your family. This was a awesome book!

Lazy Saturday Read...
I had finished a book that I had anticipated and was disappointed by so I need something to wash that "bad book" taste out of my mouth. I went to a local shop (Sorry Amazon!) and browsed the Biography section and settled on this.

At home I cracked the cover around 6 and way after the sun went down I closed the book and put it on the shelf completed.

I think this book hits home with me more than most memoirs because I can recall similar feelings as the author described having at that age.

I think this could be "boring" or "dull" for a lot of people that pick up a memoir of personal tragedy expecting pages and pages of self loathing and reality show-esque emotional breakdowns and temper tantrums to the cries of "I hate myself and want to die!". Although that may be real life for some people this book is more than that........... this book is about a struggle that happens within a family that don't know a struggle is happening. It's about a young man that did something horrible and kicked himself afterwards and came out a little stronger in the end without dragging his family through his own inner turmoil (the debate over if that is good or bad is up for debate howeveR) over his past actions and thoughts.

It's a book about dealing with a problem (depression), not ness. BEATING a problem. Which is the case for a lot of people that struggle with depression.

I would suggest it as a good read, especially for the adult teen angst type. Like me.

The way I described this book to a friend....

"It's like having a really really long "I need to get some stuff on my chest" conversations with your best friend without having to say a word"

True story, real eye-opener
I was a little skeptical to pick up Burn Journals but once I picked it up, i oculdnt put it down. its a memoir about how brent runyun doused his bathrobe in gasoline and lit himself on fire. Brent takes you on his recovering journey from the surgerys to repair his skin to learning to walk and do normal activity all over again to being in rehab. it really opened my eyes to how lucky we are to not have to go through that much pain.

just last week i got a bad sunburn and everytime i went to complain about it hurting, my mind would draw back to this book and id feel ashamed at complaining. as i said earlier, its a real eye opener. i recommend anyone over the age of 14-15 reading it.