Julie Schumacher’s Black Box delves deeper into the mysterious world of depression and the effect illness has on, not only on the patient, but also on the people that care for them. Even though many assume this book is about a plane crash, Black Box’s actual plot is just as serious and terrifying. Even though some may dispute the validity of depression as a medical disorder, an experiment performed on depressed teens concluded that “The regions in [the] bilateral ventral prefrontal cortex that show decreased functional connectivity from the bilateral hippocampus in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD)” (Geng et al. 6). With such a sensitive topic it is surprising, yet refreshing that this young adult novel probes depression at …show more content…
It seemed that many subplots were given, but most were never completed in its entirety. One example is the subplot concerning Dora’s doctor. Jimmy warns Elena of Lorning, but she also warns her about the doctors “Especially a guy name Siebald. Dr. Siebald is nuts” (Schumacher 37). Then later on, when Elena and her parents are talking, it is revealed that Dora’s doctor is Dr. Siebald (Schumacher 42). After that point, the readers hear nothing more about Dr. Siebald and the subplot is dropped. The basis of Jimmy’s accusations of Dr. Sieblad being crazy is also never revealed to the readers, leaving an unfulfilled conclusion by the lack of evidence. Another example of the subplot being totally dropped off the pages is the Elena and Jimmy love story. As they are both sitting around a fire in Jimmy’s backyard, Elena “Leaned forward and kissed him.” Jimmy does not kiss back. Instead Jimmy explains that the kiss was inappropriate since Dora was sick (Schumacher 121). Neither Dora nor Jimmy shows any true feelings for each other again after that. Furthermore, this incident was never revisited by any of the characters. Due to the unnecessary subplot dropping, Black Box loses most of it’s charm by being too predictable since none of the subplots were ever