Cover Image: Born Scared

Born Scared

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Member Reviews

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

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Born Scared was a fascinating, extremely fast paced read. Characters were believable but broken and struggling in different levels of challenges just to get through the day. . Elliott especially - his struggle pretty much incapacitating and held deep within - captured my heart. I was breathless by the end of the book with all of its twists and turns. Definitely a page turner about overcoming the fear that rules your life.

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Read May 19

Elliot is 13 and afraid of everything. He copes through isolation, a controlled environment, and a carefully regimented medication scheme. Due to some unfortunate timing his medication is about to run out and as tomorrow is Christmas his prescription has been pushed through as an emergency, the snag? His mum must go out in a snowstorm in a trip that should only take 10 minutes. She doesn’t return and Elliot makes the agonising decision to try and find her at a friend’s house, her most likely final destination. It’s not far in distance but the journey is epic and arduous!

This book was intense! So much happened in such a short space of time. It makes for quite a narrow perspective and not a lot of other characters or time spent developing them.

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I had a problem with the translation of the story. The was the case where you don't judge a book by it's cover. Because I adore the cover and thought that this was going to be good.

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I went into this book thinking it was a middle grade text but it definitely would go over the heads of the middle grade aged readers I know. While the protagonist is 13, it deals with crippling anxiety and then a bizarre turn of events. I liked this book, it just wasn’t what I had expected

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This was an interesting read and it kept me interested just enough to finish. I'd probably recommend it.

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This was an extremely poor take on mental illness and trauma. I would hope the author and publisher do better in the future when it comes to these subjects.

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Don't want to spill some kind of bad publicity here but I did not like how this one ended. Poor take on the mental health thing. Sorry, not my cup of tea.

Rating: 2.5 stars

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I had high hopes for this one and it was a let down. I had a hard time believing that no one would really care about the protagonist's issues. I felt like it was a poor take on trauma and mental illness.

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Born Scared by Kevin Brooks sounded like an interesting book from the description, however after reading it and weighing what I liked and disliked, I decided that it just wasn't the book for me.

Elliot is a boy who is scared of everything. He has been that way since he was born. When an awful snow storm prevents the delivery of his medication, Elliot decides that he must take matters into his own hands and do something about his predicament. Will Elliot finally get over his debilitating fear or everything?

I had high hopes for this intriguing story and was disappointed upon reading it. I felt it moved from oddly fascinating to downright strange. I understood where the author was going with the book, but I just couldn't jive with it. The book is well written, though, and I would be interested in reading another book by Kevin Brooks. I just think that Born Scared was a little too strange for my liking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for this e-ARC! All opinions are my own.

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This was a very powerful perspective to view the world from. To have anxiety as extreme as Elliot’s seemed terrifying. It was amazing that Eliot was able to function as well as he did. It was so brave of him to look for him mother. There were a few times on his adventure where things could have been better for him if he had been brave enough to approach people who were trying to help him. However, I can understand why the author made those choices based on how the story ended. The ending was not quite what you would have expected but was a worthwhile way to wrap up all the plot points.

I received an eARC via netgalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

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Recently, I told my mom about a horror novel I was reading. Her response to me telling her what genre I was reading was, "Is there any redeeming qualities to the book? What's the point of it?" That's what I found myself asking when I finished this novel.

Born Scared is a really short book about a boy who is afraid of everything. I was not a fan of this concept, which was the first problem I had with this book. The main conflict of a book doesn't have to be realistic, I think, but it at least needs to be believable-- two very different ideas. While Born Scared is set in the real-world, the main character has this internal conflict that is never explained except for "he's had it since he was born", and there's really nothing else that explains this unrealistic phenomenon. A boy being scared of everything for no logical reason is not believable or enjoyable to read about.

The progression of the plot was uneventful, except for when it was overly gruesome for no reason. The boy runs away from his home and is evading everyone that is trying to get him back to safety... and then there's a subplot with a kidnapping? I didn't see the point of that bit, either. I think it was trying to say something about the boy and running away from his responsibilities, but I don't think it was the right way to go about his internal struggle.

But wait! At the end, the boy is suddenly not afraid anymore! So the whole book was pointless in my eyes. I don't see the point in reading a book that has no redeeming qualities except for to gross you out with a scene in which the main character breaks his leg (something that I've been uneasy of since The Giver-- but that's just me), so I can't recommend this book to anyone.

I've giving Born Scared two stars instead of one because the writing style was decent enough.

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Elliot has been afraid ever since he was born, when his twin sister was absorbed in the womb. This young man can only barely function with the anxiety pill regimen he takes. Without the pills, he becomes a frightened sobbing mess in his room. With the pills, he stays cloistered in his room and only interacts with a select few people. It is super important that he take his pills regularly throughout the day. However, when the pharmacy has a mix up with his pills around Christmas, Elliot becomes dangerously close to being without his meds. After the neighbor who was supposed to bring the pills by never shows, Elliot’s mother walks over to see what is going on. When hours pass and she doesn’t come back, Elliot makes the trek without his pills. This short distance becomes immense, when neighbors, dogs, and criminals disrupt Elliot’s journey to his mom and his meds.

This book was strange. I still don’t really know how I feel about it. I don’t necessarily know if this is an accurate portrayal of mental illness. I feel bad for Elliot, but I never connected with him. It was a strange book…

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The atypical narrative format is on trend right now. We're presented with a scene or a voice and given the journey to the current point in fits and starts. Brooks seems especially fond of this sort of circuitous narrative, showing us how lines intersect to reach a final point. This particular book might have been helped by a little more reality. The protagonist's extreme fear of the world, the final confrontation in the house, these things didn't feel quite real enough to me.

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I pretty much read this in one sitting. I was that invested in this story. Reading about Elliot and his fear was intense. It was a look into the mind of someone dealing with intense anxiety. And it's one of those things where if it can go wrong, it will. I appreciated what Kevin brought to the table, and I found myself getting so absorbed with this book, and I could picture everything so easily. It was nice to really find myself being drawn into a different setting than my own.

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Born Scared is a different kind of story. It is told with a multi-person point-of-view, and while multi-person narrations are not uncommon, it’s the mixing of the first person narration—the main character, Elliot—and the unknown third person narration that I found interesting.

Elliot’s mental illness—panophobia, or the fear of everything—gives the story a reverse Don Quixote vibe. Sir Quixote saw everything as something it was not: the windmills as giants, the dilapidated inn as a castle, and—of course—himself as a noble knight. Elliot also saw everything as something it was not, however Elliot also saw everything as a threat: the monkem with a monstrous black dog and a shotgun was actually a nice lady with a cane trying to help him, who’s dog got away from her, and the devilish creatures with yellow demonic eyes are actually sheep.

But once Elliot comes across the Hillbillies and real fight-or-flight kicks in the story takes on a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde feel. One second Elliot is the scared little kid that he’s always been, and the next he’s this psychotic, nothing-can-get-in-my-way badass that you’d never guess he had in him. Which is cool. You no longer feel sad for Elliot and his way of life, you’re glad he’s no longer frightened with everything little sight and sound, and finally able to stand up and fend for himself, but deep down you still know something isn’t right.

A big part I didn’t care for and didn’t really understand was the other side of the narrative: the two guys in the Santa suits. I understand their need for the end of the story, but I don’t understand why they are in the house in the first place. Things just didn’t align for the reasoning to be there. And when things don’t align or more sense, it can cause issues throughout the story.

All around—like I previously stated—Born Scared is a different kind of story. Parts were a little hard to follow due to the psychotic breaks Elliot has throughout the story, while other parts just didn’t make sense at all. I liked the multi-person point-of-view, it gave the story an interesting perspective, and I loved the homage shown to two great classic works of literature. But honestly, Born Scared is not one that I would read again, and it’s not one that I can really recommend.



From one bookaholic to another, I hope I’ve helped you find your next fix.
—Dani

Dani's Score out of 5: 📚📚🔖 (2.5/5)

(A bookmark:🔖, is a half a stack of books. i.e: 📚📚🔖 = a score of 2.5)

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Elliot is such a sweet character that I wanted to protect at all costs.

Elliot is afraid of everything to the point that at 13-years-old is now a shut-in and hardly leaves his room and is fully reliant on the medicine his doctor has prescribed him. While the medicine isn't enough to fully help him, it is enough that it keeps him from constantly spiraling. When it's time to refill his prescription on Christmas Eve the pharmacy messes up, and with several other mishaps having happened, his mom has now gone out to get the medicine leaving him alone with only a few pills left that he is supposed to take every few hours. As time runs out and his mom is still no where in sight, he decides that he needs to go out and find her and his medicine.

Elliot is such a special character to me, he was born prematurely and lost a sibling all in a very short amount of time in his young life. These events appear to have left their mark on him in a way of severe anxiety that is unexplainable by doctors it seems. This has left him in a really rough space, with seemingly no real answers as on the medicine has helped a little. The bravery he ends up showing when he feels like his mom is in danger is truly heartwarming, and really shows how much he truly does understand about his fear and anxiety for being so young.

Overall I really liked this book. I liked seeing things from Elliots perspective as well as from another characters perspective that had something to do with his mom. These two perspectives ended up tying things together and really made the story more enjoyable.
The bravery and the reality of Elliots anxiety and how willing he was to do things for the fear of his mom and the need for his medicine is a real thing that so many people go through. I loved that this was something talked about in a Middle grade novel and it's not something that was just swept under the rug. We need more book that actual show the realities of Anxiety and how it can affect people to make it more normalized and to help make people feel less alone. This book has the potential to do that and I can't wait to see what middle schoolers think of it!

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This book is well-written, but I don't enjoy stories that spend a lot of time on description physical actions (sporting events, fights, etc) and about 90% of this book is vivid description of the anxiety-ridden journey into the outside world of a young man who is completely debilitated by fear of leaving his room. I thought the premise was interesting, but there was just too much non-stop panic for me to enjoy it. I sort of skimmed through and read the ending, which was pretty well-done.

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Born Scared is the story of Elliott, a boy terrified of everything. He is only (close to) happy when he is safe in his soundproofed room all alone. All alone except for the voice of Ellamay, his stillborn twin sister. When his anti-fear pills run out and his mother doesn't come back with more, Elliott knows he has to act well outside of his comfort zone to make sure that his mother gets to come back.
I found the story wholly unbelievable and disliked the main character immensely. It was well written, however, so other may enjoy it.

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Narrative from a couple of points of view that starts out as a fast paced action story on one hand; and on the other hand there is a complex drama that is presented as a possible brain issue for young Elliot who is afraid of everything. It isn’t clear how the two stories get tied together until very near the end.

Elliot always remembers being scared. His mother and the one doctor he can tolerate being around attempt to figure out what is wrong with him. When Elliot gets low on his medication that helps calm his fears, and others can’t resolve the issue, he forces himself to try to check on the situation. But with all the fear in his mind, it becomes confusing on what is happening and what is anxiety induced; and then a quick ending to the story leaves lots of unanswered questions about characters.

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