Teenagers have a tendency to amplify situations and conflicts. As adults, we roll our eyes at their ignorant reactions, having forgotten that our teenage conflicts were met with the same earnestness and angst. But when teens are forced to deal with legitimately intense and tragic situations and do not have the emotional tools or support needed to navigate through these conflicts, it can cause destructive, and even deadly, results.
Author Charlotte Brough explores these situations in her YA drama, All Our Faults. Below is my review of All Our Faults followed by an interview with Brough.
All Our Faults plot summary
The Porter boys, twins Jared and Jack and their younger brother, Alex, couldn’t be more different. Jack is the star athlete, Jared is the tough guy who burns the candle at both ends, and Alex is the studious peacemaker.
The boys are left to fend for themselves as their workaholic father is never home, and their mother, Catherine, left the family for her employer and moved out of state years ago. But when Catherine returns home, it upends the boys’ lives and causes them to act out in destructive ways that lead to a tragic string of events.
The story
All Our Faults is far from a feel-good story. From Chapter 1, the reader is thrown into the tense lives of these three boys and their closest friends. The Porter boys come from a well off family and have promising futures and opportunities at their disposal. Yet, their lack of supervision causes them to have to make crucial decisions on their own, many of which are dangerous and uninformed.
As an adult, I read this cringing at the circumstances as they unfold, begging for someone to step in and stop things from getting worse. But things continue to go downhill as Jared in particular falls deeper into his addictions while wrestling with mental and physical challenges. To cope, Jack reverts to bulimia, a disease from which he thought he had recovered.
The boys’ friends and girlfriends come along for the ride, further complicating matters by bringing in their own conflicts, perspectives, and secrets. Some are out for revenge to get justice for the tragedy that unfolds at the beginning of the book while others are struggling to move forward.
The characters
All Our Faults is told from the perspectives of several main characters. Each chapter is titled with the narrator’s first name as we perch on their shoulder and see things from their perspectives, allowing us to collect information from each that helps us to see the big picture that they can’t. This adds tension to the plot and provides opportunities for cliffhanger scenes as situations intensify from chapter to chapter.
The narrators are all teenage boys. So, there is a lot of overlap in their viewpoints. Yet, it’s easy to tell them apart and keep track of who is who and what parts they play in the overall narrative.
The female characters are pretty much stock background characters who do little to serve the story other than support the boys, often in the loyal girlfriend roll or bitter antagonists, bringing high school drama side plots to the mix which only adds fuel to the fire. But the boys have bigger fish to fry. I just wish that they didn’t take such a masochistic approach to the way they perceive these girls, particularly in their internal monologues.
Mr. Porter is probably the most well-rounded adult character. He has a well-meaning but stretched too thin quality that makes him tragically negligent in his sons’ actions. Though the sole parent at the beginning of the story, Mr. Porter puts most of his energy into his breadwinner role, and he has a head shaking attitude toward even the most tragic events that unfold.
The return of Mrs. Porter is a mixed bag of emotions. The boys are thoroughly confused and outraged by her return, having convinced themselves that they made peace with her abandonment years ago.
She seems to mean well and gets thrown back into parenthood at a tumultuous time to say the least. The boys hold her no closer than arm’s length, pushing her into the background, hoping that time will allow her to play a more active role in their lives as she hangs around looking for unearned forgiveness.
My recommendation
I recommend All Our Faults specifically to male readers of any background. They in particular should be able to find a character that they can relate to and likely several characters that they can identify in their friends and classmates.
As a warning, the book is a real downer. It rollercoasters in intensity and never climbs the hill of happy territory at any point. It has a very pessimistic tone that might be a lot to take, particularly if a reader is feeling low.
But Brough is a gifted writer who convincingly writes young male characters and can capture that youthful mindset without injecting her adult perspectives into the characters. Her world is realistic, her messages are topical, and she brings a grim yet realistic addition to the YA genre.
My rating
An interview with Charlotte Brough
Who do you most hope reads All Our Faults?
I would love for teens–especially boys–to read it and see how important it is not to bottle up your emotions or try to keep things to yourself. I think there’s still a lot of work to be done around male mental health, and I’d like to see these issues talked about more openly.
As someone with their own mental health issues, I know how hard it can be, but it’s so important if you’re struggling, or think someone you know is struggling, to speak up–you could save a lot of heartache later on.
Did you outline the story before you wrote it, or did you let it unfold as you went along?
I had a rough idea, and I knew the climax, but a lot of it just came to me as I went along. Jack’s bulimia, for instance, wasn’t in my original plans. He’s a top athlete who likes to be in control, so it fit with his character, and after reading an article about male athletes with eating disorders, I felt it was important to highlight this issue, as it seldom gets talked about.
Do you have a favorite character? A favorite chapter?
Jared is my favorite character. At the start of the book, he’s the embodiment of the bad-boy character that I love; damaged but charming in his own way, likes to take risks and doesn’t take life too seriously. I had his arc mostly planned out from the start, and he was definitely the most interesting to write. He’s very troubled and his mind is a dark place, but I still feel you can’t help but empathize with him a little–as one reader said, no matter what he did, she never stopped rooting for him to do better.
I don’t really have a favorite chapter, but some of my favorite scenes are the interactions between Jared and Noah. The nuances of their relationship are another aspect of the story that developed over time, and I think they add to the overall sense of tragedy.
Could we see any of these characters show up in a future book?
I have no plans to revisit them at the moment, although I have toyed with the idea of telling the story from the point of view of some of the West Valley characters, so never say never!
Your bio states that you have a degree in forensic investigation. How did this degree best serve this book? How did you research the medical aspects of the story?
I didn’t use my degree too much for this book to be honest–it was actually more useful for working out what not to include! My original plan for the car crash was for one car to bump the other to force it off the road, but that would have left behind too much forensic evidence for it to be construed as accidental. I needed the driver to get off fairly lightly, so that had to change.
For the medical aspects, I studied Psychology back in high school, so I already had some knowledge of most of Jared’s mental health issues. The rest of it I got from a lot of online research, and a little help from a critique partner who had worked on an Intensive Care Unit.
When did you come up with the idea to feature multiple narrators? Was this more of a help or a challenge in telling the story?
I always knew the story needed multiple narrators because there’s such a disconnect between the twins, and I wanted to get all sides across. Some fifteen years ago when I wrote the first draft, I didn’t know of many books written in first person with multiple POVs, so initially it was all in third person.
When I dug out that draft a few years later, it was after the success of books like Karen M. McManus’ One Of Us Is Lying, so I decided to go for it and change it. For me, it’s easier as I can really get into the characters’ heads and imagine what they’re thinking and feeling as events unfold.
The Porter boys come from money, and there’s a tendency these days to dismiss the problems of the rich as more trivial than those with less. Did this come into play in deciding to make the boys come from a comfortable lifestyle versus a homelife like Noah who comes from poverty and a broken home?
Yes, the boys are very much defined by their privilege. On the surface, they–Jack especially–have this perfect life, but they have the same problems faced by many others.
Although they have money, their home is still broken. They grew up knowing their mother abandoned them, and they have to deal with the loss of a loved one just like anyone else. They are mostly left to their own devices, which a lot of kids would love, but when dealing with a problem, this only leaves them feeling they have no one to turn to.
Initially, Jared’s behavior–the drinking, the drugs etc–has the appearance of a rich boy with mommy issues acting out. While he may have been arrested on occasion, his privilege has meant that he’s never faced any real consequences for his actions, unlike Noah, who was expelled from his old school for fighting.
Noah puts it best:
“I don’t think Jared Porter has ever asked permission for anything in his entire life.”
Jared is used to getting his own way, and he doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. No one takes his behavior seriously until it’s too late, and that’s largely because he’s seen as a spoiled brat.
The twins, Jared and Jack, don’t have that typical twin connection. Do you think that things would have been better for them if they did?
Definitely. Their biggest problem is that they don’t understand each other. If they’d simply talked to each other, then the whole book might not have happened!
Do you think that anyone can be redeemed given time and opportunity, or are some people destined to be a lost cause?
This is a really tough question. I’d like to believe that anyone could be redeemed, but I think it very much depends on circumstances and the individual. There are certain things a person could never truly be redeemed for, but if they’re genuinely remorseful and make a real effort, then I wouldn’t consider them a lost cause.
There’s also the question of whether or not the person wants to be redeemed, and how they perceive that redemption. Jared considers himself a lost cause, but at the same time, he believes his actions will make up for his previous mistakes–not that anyone else would agree! I think there’s always a chance for redemption, but it’s very much up to the individual’s attitude and willingness to put in the work.
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Loving the cover of this book and the story premise!
Yes, it’s a great cover!
Thanks so much for having me!
Thanks for sharing your book with my readers! Hope everyone enters to win a copy!