Michael Schofield's 'January First'- Midway Review

Halfway through the book, nothing much is getting better for Janni and her family. At the beginning they don’t recognize that her daughter may have Schizophrenia, and that her imaginary friends are actual hallucinations. From what I see, her father, Michael, is the more understanding parent. He doesn’t attempt to force her to forget about her ‘friends’, he tries to engage her and take care of her and support her when she’s good. Susan, the mother, on the other hand, I dislike. Susan practically gives up on Janni. Every time she struggles with her moderately, she calls Michael and complains, then criticizes Michael’s actions when he attempts to help. She admits Janni to a mental hospital more than twice without Michael’s agreement (though they barely did anything except give her random injections when she spazzed, and at one point even leaves her to run naked around a hospital, and just says “’I’m done. I’m tired of doing this alone. Let her run naked through the halls. They need to see what we deal with every day. Then maybe they’ll get off their asses and get a psychiatrist down here’” (Schofield 130). NO, you INCOMPETENT MAGGOT. Get up and go take care of your child and actually act like you’re a good mom. Oh nooooo, you’re overwheeeeeeelmed. I get it, that sucks, but grow a pair and take care of your freakin’ child. She came out of YOU for god sakes. I don’t care if she’s a bit insane, it’s your responsibility and while it may be something out of your hands, you take care of her like any parent should. I could parent her better than you. You little- anyway… In a bit more of a summary, poor Michael has been accused of molesting Janni by an unnamed source because there’s some privacy law and I hate those laws honestly. If you’re gonna put in a stupid claim, you should probably have a stupid person to back it up. And maybe I’m just biased, but that’s just my opinion. I guess in some situations that’d be good, but the person’s normally gonna get arrested for the claim anyway so it wouldn’t matter. Besides the point, Janni’s in first grade now, and that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I really hope Susan steps up her game, Michael gets a little bit of his enthusiasm back and a little bit more hope, and I hope Janni doesn’t kill Bodhi by the time the book ends.