Impulse

Impulse is a verse novel by Ellen Hopkins, centering around main protagonists Vanessa, Conner and Tony. All three meet at Aspen Springs, a Residential Treatment Center for minors. The whole novel follows their stay at the center for approximately one year, also serving out flashbacks from the perspective of each of the characters to show what led to their suicide attempts, and, ultimately, how they got there.

Not related to a Digital Distribution service known as Impulse that sells videogames, or the DC Comics hero named Impulse.

Tropes used in Impulse include:

• Always Second Best: Conner to his twin sister in the eyes of his parents. Also seemed he was beginning to take this view of himself compared to his sister, too...
• Bi the Way: Tony
• Bittersweet Ending: Both Tony and Vanessa resolve to work on their respective issues and also become a couple, right before Conner jumps off a cliff and dies.
• Complete Monster: Tony's mom, all the way. Her massive jerkfest is what made his father leave in the first place before he was born. Just for a taste, she tells her eight-year-old son that he's lying when he tries to tell her he was raped, saying that 'you probably did it to yourself, faggot'. The nicest things she has done in her life seem to be stopping by for a few brief moments to pick Tony up from juvie, and kicking Tony out for no apparent reason simply because this means he won't be near her anymore. Turns out, she didn't even show the least bit of interest when she found out her son tried to kill himself. His dad was the one who did. At one point, Tony even wonders how he made it through infancy.
  • Actually, Tony mentions in the narrative that his mother was murdered by one of her boyfriends prior to the events of the novel.
• Driven to Suicide: What got each of the main characters into Aspen Springs. In the end Conner plays this straight and goes through with it after realizing that things with his parents are never going to improve.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Conner.
• Missing Mom: Vanessa's mother.
• Rape as Backstory: Both Conner and Tony had very crappy examples happen to them during their childhoods. Conner is the rare female-male example, taken seriously. His rape at a young age by his nanny contributes to his attraction to older woman, along with his unloving parents
• Double Standard Rape (Male on Male): Subverted. unless you find a small, cute, adorable child being brutally raped funny, you sicko.
• Rape Is Love: Becomes extremely depressing in Conner's case. Conner is the only one who views it as this. It's strongly implied that he only views it as love because he is so utterly unloved by both of his parents, particularly his mother. Even goes so far as him being jealous of his nanny's real boyfriend, and attempting a PG Murder the Hypotenuse by telling said hypotenuse about their earth-shattering love. It doesn't go so well. Also, he blames himself for her subsequent suicide, even going as far as to say that he killed someone when he finally explains it all.
• Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male: Subverted. Conner's rape is taken very seriously, and is part of the reason he's at Aspen Springs in the first place. However he seems to view it more as an act of love. To which his therapist responds he was, like, 12.
• Rape and Switch: Tony. His first sexual experience was being raped by his mother's boyfriend at about eight, and she tells him he did it to himself because he's gay. After which he goes to juvie for shooting the guy in the face. He implies that juvie was full of fail. At some point, he decided he was gay, not seeming to get that being raped is not being loved as all his sexual encounters in his entire life seem to be rape or sexual assault. Also, Tony didn't even think that their was a possibility that he could be attracted to women, much less be bi. Turns out he is. At the same time, subverted because Tony is, in fact, told there is absolutely NO SCIENTIFIC PROOF that this trope can even happen by his therapist, and that no one knows what EXACTLY influences sexual preference.
• Self -Harm: Vanessa.
• Straight Gay: Tony. Until Vanessa cures him with her hotness.
• Unable to Cry: Tony, after Conner kills himself.