Penny is struggling to care for her depressed sister Jude when she meets the new person in class Jack. She is so busy falling for Jack's charms that she doesn't notice that Jude has started to spiral downward in her depression again until one day she can't find her in their normal meeting spot at lunchtime. A true-to-life story about being a carer for a person with a mental illness and how hard it is to take time for yourself - you feel guilty if anything goes wrong. For older readers due to suicide attempts, strong language and Jack being trans /Penny being pan-sexual. ( )

Mature-Content Rating: Trigger Warnings, Depression, Suicide Attempt

Hey Jude is from a line of books published by Orca Book Publishers that cater to teens who need teen content, but at a lower reading level for various reasons.

None of the characters really clicked with me. I loved the sisters’ names, Jude and Penny Lane, after the Beatles songs, and the story that came with them, but the characters really come out flat. With a book so short, strong connections have to be made fast and I couldn’t find that sisterly love/hate relationship.

Jack is another story all on its own. There’s confusion to the gender, the character stating they are transgender but Penny and the narrator still referring to them as he/him. Maybe he still prefers it?

The story gets props for showing the dirty (literally) side of depression; that it doesn’t just effect emotions, but hygiene, sleeping, and overall health as well. But the story doesn’t feel like a full story. There’s little conflict and not much of a climax, and no real resolution at the end. With such a short story, I think it would have been wiser to focus on one topic: either this sisters and Jude’s depression or Penny’s new friendship with Jack.

Overall, Hey Jude just doesn’t make those solid character connections I look for in books, especially in stories with such hard-core topics. ( )