REVIEW Gloves Off by Louisa Reid

I've been a big fan of UKYA author, Louisa Reid, in the past, so I was very excited to hear that Louisa Reid had a new book out and a new book told in verse.  This book was gifted to me by Andrew of The Pewter Wolf Reads, which was lovely of him (thanks again!)

Gloves Off is the story of 16 year old, Lily, whose life is split into two parts - her at school, where she is bullied by her classmates because of her weight, and at home where she pretends that everything is okay because her family has its own share of struggles.  When Lily is the victim of a particularly bad bullying incident, her dad encourages her to start training at a local boxing gym in an attempt to regain some of her or self-esteem and self-worth. 

I've said it before, but I've always been in awe of authors who are able to pull off verse novels with such a parity of words but that still pack an emotional punch (pun intended).  Such was the case with Gloves Off. 

The main narrator of this book is Lily, sharing her painful experiences of bullying and toxic 'friendships' but there are also chapters dedicated to Lily's mum, which were an absolute surprise to me that added layers to this book.  Lily is a great character and I was rooting for her all the way through, but I also found Lily's mum's voice to be really compelling and reading of her own struggles with her weight and the trauma that forces her to not leave her house.  Both Lily and her mum are on their own journeys to building confidence and it was a joy to witness them both. 

I was obviously enraged with the lack of action taken by Lily's teachers and school in not protecting Lily better in what was obviously a really bad situation.  I'd have liked to have seen something more practical happening instead of karma but I also realise that these things happen and it isn't always realistic that schools would have adequate policies and procedures in place to protect students from bullying. 

I'm really here for these stories about sport that are encouraging positive aspects of boxing like gaining self-confidence.  In Lily's case, she does get fitter but she also gains skill in boxing, she finds friends and a crush in the shape of Rose, another boxer at the gym. 

Gloves Off was a wonderful story of fighting through adversity and discovering your own strength.  Plus, boxer girls kissing!

Interview with Seven Days author, Eve Ainsworth #7Days

Recently I was invited to a wonderful blogger feast hosted by Scholastic in which I was able to meet and interview the very lovely debut YA author of Seven Days, Eve Ainsworth.  Eve has written a wonderful novel, Seven Days, and it was a pleasure to meet her and hear her speak about her book with such enthusiasm.

And today, for the Seven Days blog tour, I am sharing the video interview with you! We discuss all sorts: secondary characters, difficult topics, the hopeful ending, getting feedback from readers and other UKYA in 2015. Check it out below.

If you'd like to know more about Seven Days or Eve Ainsworth, please do visit the following websites:

Eve Ainsworth ... Eve on Twitter ... Eve's blog ... Eve on Facebook 

Life is hard for Jess. School should be a safe place but at the moment it's everything Jess dreads, and it's made even more difficult by the threatening presence of Kez. Kez lives in a nicer part of town but her life isn't any sweeter. The only place she finds comfort is knowing she is better off than Jess - or so she thinks.

Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth was a really thought-provoking novel about bullying told from the perspective of both the bully and the victim.  I thought it was a very interesting book, one that had me hooked right from the start and I felt very emotionally connected to both main characters.

I loved seeing the lives of both Jess and Kez in more detail and discovering how and why they both end up in the positions that they are in. Seven Days explores friendships and school and family and also self-image and how each of these things has an impact on Jess and Kez's lives. Jess is quite clearly a victim because of her weight and appearance and while Kez is Jess's bully, she is also a victim and it was interesting to see Kez so sympathetically portrayed throughout.

This book tackles some very serious topics in an honest and believable way. It's a fast-paced, emotional and surprising story and I highly recommend it!

Eve Ainsworth is a writer of Adult and YA fiction. She also loves tea (lots of it), 80's music and most things relating to The Beatles.

Seven Days is Eve's Young Adult debut and will be published by Scholastic Uk in Feb 2015. The Blog of Maisy Malone is a adult comedy novel that has received pleasing reviews on Amazon.

Eve has had short stories published in magazines such as Writers' Forum and Prima. 

She is now working on her second YA novel for Scholastic, to be published in 2016.

Please check out her website www.eveainsworth.com or follow me on Twitter @EveAinsworth

Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth is published 5th February by Scholastic. Do look out for it! #7Days

Bloggers on Bullying: My experiences

I'm writing this blog post to tie in with the Anti-Bullying Blog Week being hosted by Sophie from A Day Dreamer's World.

As I mentioned in the vlog for Monday's blog post, I have quite a lot of personal experience of bullying.  Let me break it down into separate areas for you:

Look at the size of those glasses!

Appearance

I think my appearance has been the aspect of me that has been targeted the most by my bullies. As a young child, I always had really crap hair styles.  Think 'bowl-cut' with a really dodgy, uneven fringe.  Then there was the terrible idea of getting my hair permed during middle school. That was a disaster. That was followed by a short boy cut. The thing with this is that I really love my hair. I love the colour of it - it's dark brown with some very subtle rust coloured strands. Even now I find it really striking to see some bits of grey hair on my head. I will never, ever dye my hair because I love the colour of it too much. And I find it sad that for many years growing up, I really hated my hair.  I wished upon many stars to be blonde and beautiful instead.

I have always struggled with my weight.  This has been an aspect of my life since I was a pre-teen and that thought depresses me so much.  Why was I was worrying about my weight at such a young age? Why is any young person?  I was bullied a lot for being overweight. I ended up quitting the sports teams that I loved so much because of how self-conscious I felt about my body. What I'd really love to do, and I wish I'd been doing this all along, is to join a martial arts class in the area or to swim regularly. Who cares about the size of my thighs or that my stomach isn't quite flat, right?

I have been wearing glasses since before I was three years old.  At first they were these horrible, thick Coke bottle lenses that really magnified my eyes and face.  And until I was a teenager they were also plastic frames with really bright colours - pink, purple, red. Colours that really stood out.  My glasses were something that I was picked on for many years. There would be name-calling and people would steal my glasses, they were broken at different times. I had to wear a 'dork strap' when I was playing sports. It was all very traumatic.  I look back at pictures of me with those glasses and I think they're adorable. Plus, I had no control over my imperfect eyesight.

Also? This tie-dye shirt was my favourite

Race

 I've talked about it on this blog before: I am half Native-Alaskan.  My mother is from the Tlingit tribe who live in Southeast Alaska and when I was much younger she and I would spend time together making Native American arts and crafts.  Those memories that I have with her are amongst my favourite and happiest memories of my childhood. I am very proud of my heritage ...but there were times in my life when I wasn't. 

When I was much younger, my skin colour was fairly dark.  It was much more obvious than it is now that my background was different to all the other little white boys and girls that I went to school with.  The town that I grew up in (8+) was not a very diverse place to live. In my elementary school there was one half-Korean girl, one black girl and my brother and me.  Later, in other schools there would be slightly more differing backgrounds but still not very many.  I dealt with so much racial bullying and name-calling growing up that it actually pains me to recall it all. My brother got into physical fights on a regular basis and for him that seemed to work.  I was not so lucky. 

There is a Mexican fast food restaurant that was in our town, Taco Time. In their meal deals they include a small portion of tater tots that they called 'Mexi-tots.' Mexi-tot was actually my 'nickname' at that school (before I transferred out of it) and I'd get quite a few people throwing their potato-based snacks at me as I passed them in the hallways or in the cafeteria. And I hated myself for it.  I remember being no older than 8 or 9 in the shower. And I remember thinking to myself that if I just scrubbed off this 'dirty' top layer of skin, I'd be white and perfect and people wouldn't be so mean to me.

From my HS yearbook (I wasn't doing homework)

Behaviours

 I was listening to somebody else talk about their experiences with bullying once and something she said stuck in my brain for a long time as not being right. And I couldn't work it out until recently.  She said that she'd been asked what her favourite music was and then was bullied because of her choice. And she said something along the lines of 'if I had just said something else that other people would have recognised things would have been different' - and this makes me sad. This is another example of victim-blaming and it makes me incredibly unhappy.  Because I was bullied for not conforming with other students in my year. I didn't dress like them. I didn't listen to the same music. I enjoyed school, I loved to read.

And it was not my fault for being bullied. I was bullied for being different but that doesn't mean that anything in the way I looked or anything I said or did was wrong.  The fault was not my own and it is never the fault of the victim either.  I didn't see that as I being bullied but I definitely do see it now.

Those are my experiences of being bullied.  I've glossed over some areas because they are still painful and I'm not sure that anybody needs to hear those specific details.  I share my experiences with bullying in order to do three things (and these are things I mentioned in my vlog):

1. Let you know that if you are being bullied that you are not alone. I've experienced it, others have been in your same position.  It isn't something shameful or personal to you.  Speak to someone, get help.

2. If you are being bullied, please know that it is not your fault.  It may not seem like it right now, but there's nothing wrong with you. You're fine just the way you are. You deserve to live your life the way you want to live it and to be the person you are without bullies stripping away your happiness or your confidence.

3. If you are being bullied, I really want you to know that things will get better. It's tough now and I'm not going to lie: it's going to be tough for a long time. But things have a way of getting better. Find great people to surround yourself with. Find something you love to do, the rest will follow.

Finding Your Inner Cherokee Guest Post by Siobhan Curham

Today I have the very lovely Siobhan Curham here for a special guest post for Anti-bullying Week to promote her FREE non-fiction e-book which she has written as a guide to help those who have been bullied to work through their feelings, gain confidence and become happier people.  I've read the book and I thought it was fantastic. Very interesting, hopeful and inspiring.  As a teenager I was a victim of bullying and all these years later and I still find the advice and support that Siobhan Curham has given in Finding Your Inner Cherokee something that I still need to hear, advice that I still need to be reminded of.  I think it's a wonderful thing she is doing and I am more than happy to support and promote this book! 

To find out more about Finding Your Inner Cherokee or about Siobhan Curham, please do visit her website: www.siobhancurham.co.uk 

Finding Your Inner Cherokee Guest Post

by Siobhan Curham

In March of this year, my novel Finding Cherokee Brown was published. Finding Cherokee Brown tells the story of a 15-year-old girl who finds the confidence to stand up to her bullies in her own unique way. After the book was published I received many emails from readers telling me that the book had helped them deal with bullying in their own lives. This made me want to do more to help and so the idea for Finding Your Inner Cherokee was born. Finding Your Inner Cherokee is a non-fiction e-book, full of case studies, exercises and advice, designed to help victims of bullying find their inner strength and become happy again.

When we think about the emotions that bullying causes, fear is often top of the list. But anger is just as common – and can be just as destructive if it isn’t dealt with properly.

When you are constantly being picked upon, anger starts building inside of you like the red hot lava in a volcano. And this is perfectly understandable. What you are going through isn’t fair. It isn’t right. After a while you can start feeling furious at the injustice of it all. And if you don’t find a safe way of letting your anger out, you can start to turn it in on yourself.

As a writer (and Official Word Nerd!) I am a great believer in the therapeutic power of the written word. The following exercises are featured in Finding Your Inner Cherokee and are the most effective ways I have found for releasing tension and anger, through writing.

Journal it Out

Find a time when you won’t be interrupted and turn to a fresh page in your diary / journal / random notebook. Imagine for a second that your feelings of anger are filling a tank inside of you. See your writing hand as a tap. As you start to write about how you’re feeling, let your anger flow out through your words. Get it all out on to the page. It doesn’t matter if there are spelling mistakes or commas in all the wrong places. As long as you are writing freely that’s all that counts. It is fine to swear and be as mean as you like. Don’t hold anything back. Write until you feel your anger fade, then when it’s all gone, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Just relax for a few moments and, when you feel ready, open your eyes and write down five things that you are grateful for. I know that some days it can be hard to find even one thing to be grateful for but make sure you do this last part of the exercise as it’s a great way of switching your brain from negative to positive. It doesn’t matter if it’s just that you’re grateful for the opportunity to express yourself, or that the sun is out, or that you had something nice on your toast for breakfast. As long as it makes you feel grateful it’s all good.


Write a ‘Dear Bully’ Letter

First off, don’t panic – I don’t mean actually send your bully a letter, but writing one that you will never send can actually be very therapeutic. Often, because we’re afraid of our bully, we don’t say anything when they start to pick on us. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to say anything. I bet you have loads you’d like to get off your chest. Well, here’s your chance, in the safety of a letter that will never be sent.

Take a piece of paper and begin it as you would a real letter, addressed to your bully. Then let rip. Tell them exactly what you think of them, how they make you feel, what you wish they would do (emigrate to Mars on a one-way ticket, perhaps?). Feel free to be as rude as you like and if you want to, write in BIG, ANGRY CAPITALS in ANGRY, RED INK. Keep writing until you’ve said everything you want and need to. Don’t hold back at all. If you start to cry while doing this exercise, just let the tears out too. When you’ve finished and feel you’ve got nothing left to say, I want you to add one final sentence:

I FORGIVE YOU.

Okay, I can practically hear you yelling, ‘WHAT?!!!’ But please bear with me. I’m not asking to do this because I want you to be kind to your bully. I’m asking because I want you to be kind to yourself.

There’s a famous quotation that some people attribute to Buddha and some to Jesus. Either way, it’s extremely wise, and it goes like this:

‘Not forgiving is like drinking a cup of poison and hoping the other person will die.’

Let me adapt that quote especially for you:

‘Not forgiving your bully is like drinking poison and hoping the bully will die.’

Basically, what this means is that anger and unforgiveness are like poison. They eat away at you from the inside, keeping you tense and stressed and uptight. But your bully is completely unaware of your angry thoughts. So they carry on doing what they’re doing, oblivious – and you carry on hurting.

By releasing your feelings of anger towards them, and forgiving them, you are actually setting yourself free. Instead of constantly stressing and feeling bitter, you create the time and the headspace to concentrate on far happier things. It’s obviously a lot easier to forgive once the bullying has stopped, but practising forgiveness while you’re still being bullied is a great way to ease your anger.

Even if you find it hard to do it with any meaning, always write ‘I forgive you’ at the end of an angry letter to your bully. Remember that by forgiving them, you aren’t letting them off the hook, or condoning what they’ve done, you’re actually helping yourself to feel happier.

Finding Your Inner Cherokee will be available from Amazon Kindle and all other e-book stores from 18th November and can be downloaded for FREE at my website: www.siobhancurham.co.uk

REVIEW: Finding Your Inner Cherokee by Siobhan Curham

Finding Your Inner Cherokee by Siobhan Curham is a wonderful (free!) non-fiction e-book that addresses the subject of bullying.  It is written by the author of Finding Cherokee Brown which was published by Electric Monkey earlier in the year and is the story of a girl who is dealing with bullying at school.

Though related to the same issues that are addressed in Finding Cherokee Brown, you do not need to have reading it to enjoy Finding Your Inner Cherokee.  Finding Your Inner Cherokee is a short guide filled with stories about other people's experiences with bullying as well as advice and activities that are there to help, support and empower victims of bullying.

As a child and teenager, I was bullied. So Finding Your Inner Cherokee (and also Finding Cherokee Brown) were very emotional reads for me.  While I didn't carry out all of the exercises included in the book all of the activities and advice really made me stop and think more about how bullying did affect my happiness, my confidence and my life.  

Finding Your Inner Cherokee is a very helpful, hopeful and inspiring book.  I wish that I'd read it as a teenager and even though it has been many years since my own personal experiences with bullying, the message that this e-book contains are still messages that I find important to be reminded of!

A huge thank you to Siobhan Curham for providing me with a free review copy of this book prior to its publication.  Finding Your Inner Cherokee is being published for free during Anti-Bullying Week, please visit here for more information. And stay here on the blog and read a guest post by Siobhan Curham about Finding Your Inner Cherokee!

Anti-Bullying Week

It is anti-bullying week and the Bookish Brits have decided to talk about anti-bullying all of this week and next so do check it out.  This is my video.  I actually had to film my video twice as the first time ended up being very emotional and I cried.

Another book blogger, Sophie from A Day Dreamer's World, is also hosting an Anti-Bullying Week and I have plans to talk more about bullying and my own experiences later this week to tie in with her plans.  I also have a special review up tomorrow and a guest post from Siobhan Curham.  Keep an eye out! 

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REVIEW: Kissing the Rain by Kevin Brooks

Moo Nelson likes to be alone. Overweight and shy, Moo is constantly mocked and bullied by his cruel classmates. He's happiest spending time on a secluded bridge above the highway, watching the cars go by. One day, from his special spot, Moo witnesses a crime that changes his life forever. He sees a car chase and a murder--and suddenly Moo's a celebrity of sorts. The police, the lawyers, and even the bullies are now really interested in Moo. But so is one shady character who seems intent on tracking Moo down. Now all Moo has to do is find out the truth behind the crime...before it's too late.

I found it quite difficult to find my place with this book. I knew that it would be difficult to read based on the subject matter but to go along with the bullying and getting caught up in a murder trial, there is also the issue of the main character's poor spelling, grammar and over-use of capitalisation. Kissing the Rain by Kevin Brooks is written in a very conversational way and I don't think that everyone will be able to slog through that first section of the book getting to know Moo Nelson and the story that he has to tell, as it's peppered with aints and dunnos and yehs. Which is a shame, because once I got through the first 100 pages I really started to feel for Moo. He's really stuck in a difficult situation, but he tries his best to do the right thing and to tell the truth.

Moo Nelson is an overweight teenager who is quite heavily abused by his peers because of his size. Every day he deals with the name-calling, the laughing, the mocking. He's frequently beaten up, has rocks thrown at him and he's taunted in every way, which he calls the RAIN. It's at such a level that all the days sort of meld together, no one day worse or better than the other. In order to get away from it all, he visits the bridge, where he's able to watch the traffic going back and forth and it's peaceful and calm and he's able to relax and not care so much about the bullying. Until one day, he witnesses a car accident and an altercation between two drivers that leads to a murder.

Moo is the only witness and once he gives a statement to the police he's put in this awful position between an influential and dodgy police officer and a ruthless gangster. Each tries to convince, intimidate, and threaten Moo into either telling the truth or changing his story. Just as with Moo's tormentors at school, Moo is caught in a power struggle, only this time more is at stake.

Moo is definitely a very interesting character. In terms of the accident and murder, he's an excellent eyewitness, with a great eye for detail - his version of events that he witnessed rarely falters. When discussing the treatment he has recieved at the hands of the other students, he doesn't particularly feel sorry for himself. About his weight, he feels no shame or guilt for the amount that he loves food or for how much of it he eats. Though there are moments of crudeness when talking about 'needing the bog' it's quite clear what a struggle Moo is going through and as the reader I was able to sympathise with him a great deal. Throughout the course of the novel, Moo is only trying to piece together what he knows about the accident, the case, what he's been told by the lawyers and police officers.

Moo's philosophy on the bullying is that it won't kill him. In ten minutes it's usually over and what can't he stand for ten minutes? Better to just 'umbrellarise it' and wait to get the bridge again, where he can be content for a little while. Only after he witnesses the crime, the RAIN stops for him and instead of him, all the RAIN and abuse is directed towards Brady, Moo's only sort-of friend. I loved Moo's struggle within himself to stand up for Brady and stand up for himself.

There's more here than just a gritty YA novel about bullying. It touches on telling the truth, friendship, trust and standing up for what's right. It was a very interesting read and I'm glad I stuck with it, even if the ending was not at all what I was expecting.

I read this book for Anti-Bullying Week, being hosted over at Asamum Booktopia.

Bullying and Speak Giveaway

It's Anti-Bullying Week and together, with Emma at Asamum Booktopia, I've decided to use this week to highlight this widespread problem by reviewing some books that focus on bullying. You should already have seen my reviews of Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers and The Killer's Daughter by Vivian Oldaker. Tomorrow (I hope!), there will be a review of Kissing The Rain by Kevin Brooks.

Each of these books deals with different aspects of bullying. Bullying can be anything, including but not limited to social exclusion, verbal, mental and physical abuse. For each of these books, there is a different reason for the bullying, whether it be small-mindedness, jealousy or dislike for someone different. But for today, I'd like to talk about something different and share with you some of my own experiences with bullying growing up.

I don't know about you, but I went through quite a lot of bullying as a child. I am half Native-Alaskan, and together with my older brother, we were generally two of a very small handful of minority students in our school districts. So everywhere we went, we'd have to deal with some level of racist name-calling. We were usually mistaken for Mexican and would be called anything from 'Wetback' to 'Mexi-tot'(those tater tots that used to be sold at Taco Time). It always felt like a battlefield in the cafeteria, like there were only certain tables that I was allowed to sit at.

Later, in middle school, another student in my class decided to single me out and mutter the N word at me every chance he got, mixing the name-calling with the threat of physical violence. He used to follow me around, intimidating me at every opportunity and I dreaded going to school. (He was eventually expelled from the school for holding a younger student at knife-point in order to steal their lunch money.)

But the name-calling didn't stop with the racist abuse - anything from wearing glasses (Four-Eyes), my weight (Fatty), my hair style (Lesbian) - it always seemed that someone had something nasty to say to me, to make me feel worthless, ugly, stupid, and powerless. The mocking, the name-calling, the very subtle negative remarks had a huge impact on my self-esteem and my confidence. I was singled out, humiliated. It prevented me from doing certain activities, it made me feel scared and helpless and alone.

Because we often moved and changed schools frequently, during this time, I never felt as though I had a support network or someone to turn to for advice or help. Instead of standing up to my bullies, I sat in silence and let them get away with it. I wish things had been different. When I moved to a different school district where we were able to settle down and stay for awhile, I did fall into a wonderful group of friends and together we coped with things a lot better (it didn't go away, I just wasn't as isolated). I wish that the guidance counsellors and teachers were able to help more, that there was a better system in place for others, like me, who were bullied. In retrospect, while it may have felt differently at the time, my experiences were probably quite minor and there are many who did had it a lot worse.

But it isn't like it is is movies and TV, is it? There was never a concerned teacher asking me to stay after class because they'd noticed my grades dropping. If I was aware of the guidance counsellor in school (which I rarely was!), then his/her offices would always be hugely inaccessible, buried amongst the school reception and I wouldn't dare show up around there, not knowing where to go. It was easy to lie to my dad and saying things were 'fine' at school and nobody, not the teachers, the guidance counsellors, my parents, my friends seemed to notice me slip into depression, my loss of appetite or my attempts at shrinking into myself. I can't say that it was all down to the bullying at school, but it played a big part in my childhood.

If there was anything I could change or any advice that I'd like to give to myself or to anyone else suffering bullying - is that you really must speak up. Your parents, your friends, your teachers, your guidance councellor. They're all there to help you, but they can't do it alone and they aren't mind readers. If you've experienced any of these problems, do speak speak up and speak out against bullying. And it does get better. Don't lose hope.

I've decided in celebration of Anti-Bullying Week, to give away my copy of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I love Speak and by extension, Laurie Halse Anderson. She writes really gritty and realistic books for teenagers. I'd have loved to have read her book in middle school and high school.

If you would like to read this wonderful book, or if you would like to donate it to your local library or give it to a friend who hasn't read it, please leave me a 'pick me' comment below together with an email address and I will choose one winner by Wednesday the 24 November. This giveaway is open internationally.

This post was written for Anti-Bully Week, being hosted over at Asamum Booktopia.

REVIEW: The Killer's Daughter by Vivian Oldaker

Emma's life has been turned upside down since her father was accused of murdering her grandmother in Kalos, Greece. Although he was found not guilty, the accusation haunts the family, and they relocate to Wessex in an attempt to make a fresh start. But news of the family's history has travelled with them, and Emma becomes the target of vicious bullies at school. Enough is finally enough, and Emma secretly hatches a plan to visit Kalos to find the truth and try to clear her father's name. But, as the plot begins to thicken, Emma finds herself in grave danger...

I must start by saying a huge thank you to Vivian Oldaker for sending me a copy of her wonderful book, The Killer's Daughter. I had such fun reading it, thank you. It goes perfectly with Anti-Bullying Week.

I thought The Killer's Daughter was an amazing book. Emma's sarcastic voice and her observations of her family and those around her were brilliant. I also found it refreshing how different Emma is as a teenager compared with other YA novels. Her heartthrob crush is John Travolta, she isn't after a boyfriend and she's quite studious and responsible. She gets on her with father and step-mother.

When her father is accused of murdering her grandmother in Greece but is then found to be not-guilty of the charges, everything in Emma's life begins to change. Her family move from their home in London to Wessex in order to get out of the limelight and the harassment. But the story has followed them to the little village they have chosen. Emma's classmates are especially cruel to her. Calling her 'Killer's Daughter,' saying cruel and nasty things about her, pushing gum into her hair, starting fights. Emma's puts on a brave front, even standing up to her main tormentor a few times but still, it isn't easy for her. The other students do all that they can in order for Emma to feel left out and alone.

Their small-mindedness is absolutely infuriating, but in order to prove them wrong and for Emma and her family to move on from this, Emma decides to go back to Greece and try to do some investigating of her own in order to clear her father's name once and for all. With the help of her new friend and love-interest, Bruce, they travel back to Kalos and dig up some information about her grandmother, her friends and her activities before she dies. Emma takes some awfully big risks and we're left guessing all the way to the end.

Emma is a wonderful character. At times she seems so grown-up when she's talking about her father and Jan, her step-mother. Her personality and the way in which she thinks and speaks made me laugh out loud on quite a few occasions. You can tell that the bullying that occurs really upsets Emma, but Oldaker was quite clever in showing us how Emma feels instead of telling us outright. What's great about Emma, is that she doesn't let the bullying affect her life too greatly, instead using the experience to move forward and change the things in her life that most upset her. I absolutely feared for her in Greece as she took awful risks and probably went too far in order to find the truth.

Quite a slim book, once you start reading The Killer's Daughter you won't want to put it down until it's finished and you've found out just who was responsible! Highly recommended.

I read this book for Anti-Bullying Week, being hosted over at Asamum Booktopia.

REVIEW: Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around. Now Regina's been "frozen out" and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day. She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully. Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend... if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.

Tensions grow and the abuse worsens as the final days of senior year march toward an explosive conclusion in this dark new tale from the author of Cracked Up To Be.

Phew. This book. It isn't easy reading. When I bought it, I didn't even know that it was about an extreme case of bullying. But I read and absolutely loved Courtney Summers' first book, Cracked Up to Be, and bought Some Girls Are on that alone. This is the perfect book to have read for Anti-Bullying Week and I have to applaud Courtney Summers for this astonishing and heartbreaking book. How did she do it?

Regina Afton shouldn't be a character that is likeable. She used to be part of the popular group of Mean Girls at school. She didn't mind tearing down other people, bullying them, starting vicious rumours, all to get ahead and hold some power, be friends with the other mean girls and especially their leader, Anna. Regina fully admits to doing a lot of horrific things and some things she feels guilt over, some she really, really doesn't. And yet, I cried my heart out for Regina whilst reading this book.

When I started, the book felt very similar to Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Regina is at a party, there is a sexual assault and afterwards, Regina is shunned by her former friends and becomes an outcast. But there's where the similarities end. Some Girls Are is taken to a level of extreme bullying that I found incredibly difficult to read. Regina is sexually assaulted by her best friend's boyfriend and in desperation, Regina turns to her sworn enemy, Kara, for help, thinking, incorrectly, that Regina would be met with compassion and understanding. Instead, Kara twists the information around and leads Anna to believe that what happens between Regina and Donnie is consensual. Thus begins an absolute nightmare of abuse.

Anna, Kara and their clique of girls have no limits as to how far they will go to take Regina down. Phsycial abuse, rumours, vandalism, destruction of property, a nasty website, even a push down some stairs. And Regina endures it all. She must hide in storage cupboards and sit at the table with the losers and walk down those school corridors with no one supporting her. The teachers, the principal, Regina's parents - nobody's eyes seem to be open enough to see how much torment Regina goes through. In fact, nobody at the school wants to stand up for Regina after the damage and rumours that she's caused and started. Her only solace comes in the most unlikeliest of sources - Michael, the boy who is an absolute loner and outcast, and he is in that position because of the rumours that Regina started. Regina and Michael start out as two outcasts sharing the same lunch table, but from there begin a very fragile relationship that could splinter and break at any moment because of their shared history of tormentor and victim.

What I loved most about Some Girls Are is the complexity of the characters - Regina, Michael, Anna and Kara. Nothing is as it seems with these people. They each have their own own histories that have led them to choosing the actions and behaviours that they have adopted. And especially in Regina's case, it's a very emotional journey throughout this book. Regina is suffering a great deal, both with her horrifying experience with Donnie but also the treatment of her former friends. Her exclusion from absolutely everything causes Regina to lose all hope and pin everything on her chances of a friendship with Michael. Forgiveness. Regina is eaten up by guilt for the things that she has done and it couldn't have been more painful to read. I heaved great big sloppy sobs reading Some Girls Are.

Some Girls Are is an important book to read. Through the difficult subject matter, it sheds a light on both the cruelty of people, but also on the fragility and strength of the human spirit. The capacity of forgiveness and friendship. I loved the book's messiness, it's grittiness and it's complexity. Not everything is resolved at the end, nobody is perfect and each character is still flawed and damaged by the events that occurred. I'm really glad to have read this book.

I read this book for Anti-Bullying Week, being hosted over at Asamum Booktopia.

Books and bullying

Bullying is a topic that is close to my heart. It is something that I feel a great number of people have either experienced, witnessed or taken part in. All three perhaps. It still feels as though there's a stigma surrounding being bullied and that victims of bullying are loathe to stand up and speak out, and ask for help. Instead they suffer, mostly in silence and carry with them a sense of utter helplessness.

And this prevalence of bullying is being seen more and more within literature. We all like a happy ending, and when the victim of a bully stands up to his or her perpetrator in books and films everyone gives a great 'hurrah' as it shows this wonderful strength of character. Unfortunately, a lot of bullying is done to such an extent that it causes enough damage and unhappiness that one big act of defiance might not be enough. What I think is important is that we are all aware that bullying exists, that we are understanding of the many types of bullying (whether it stem from peers, parents etc) and that we are trying to prevent such occurrences from happening.

Books about bullying should help promote respect, tolerance and understanding. I think books, when written with insight and compassion, can help a person who has experienced any form of bullying. Books such as the ones I've listed below could help victims of bullying feel less alone when reading the experiences of other, even fictional experiences. Would you agree?

Kissing the Rain by Kevin Brooks - Kevin Brooks writes really gritty, realistic fiction and Kissing the Rain sounds like a difficult book to read. Overweight Moo Nelson isn't treated very well at school. He's insulted, beaten and laughed at due to the size of him. In order to cope with this unhappy existence, he tries to take refuge outside of the school, under a bridge. When he witnesses a terrible car crash/murder he is under great pressure to tell the truth and to stand up to his bullies.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - Melinda is an outcast. She went to a party the summer before her freshman year and called the police which led to several popular students being arrested. Now no one will speak to her, she is avoided and shunned. Her friends turn from her and Melinda is left absolutely alone, struck mute by the horrific ordeal she suffered and continues to suffer through the treatment of the other students. With the help of a sympathetic teacher and through art, is Melinda able to come to terms with what has happened and have the strength to finally speak out.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - Stargirl is one of those books that a lot of people have heard about and read, and this makes me happy. Stargirl is very different in many ways and at first this eccentricity led her to popularity and happiness. But when Stargirl refuses to comform with the other girls in her class, her popularity plummets and she becomes an outcast. Instead of viewing these experiences from Stargirl's perspective, we see her through the eyes of Leo, a boy in her class who is finding it difficult to balance his feelings for Stargirl and his need to fit in with his classmates.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown - Sick of all the bullying and taunts by other students at their high school, Valerie and her boyfriend Nick compile a 'Hate List' - then one day Nick goes into the school with a gun and uses that list of people as his targets. Valerie had no idea and is accidentally shot trying to stop Nick. Now she's back in school and must bear the responsibility of what her boyfriend has done.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver - This book is most often described as 'Groundhoug Day Meets Mean Girls.' Sam, our main character, and her group of friends aren't the nicest girls in the world. They're the popular girls, girls who feel superior to everyone else due to their status and money. But when Sam dies but then she is able to repeat every day, Groundhog-style, she must dig a little deeper and get to the bottom of their bullying ways.

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers- Regina used to be part of the 'Fearsome Five' - a group of Mean Girls who ruled the school. Until rumours surface of Regina and one of her friends' boyfriends. Now she's cast out of the circle and her old friends are out for revenge. The other four girls have no limits as to how far they will go to get back at Regina. Regina turns to Michael, school outcast, and former victim of bullying from Regina herself.

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga- Fanboy's biggest dream is to write comic books and show them to his biggest inspiration. He doesn't have any friends at school except for Cal, a jock jerk who treats him differently in front of his friends. Fanboy even creates a list of people that 'piss him off' and wonders what it'd be like to take one of his dad's guns to school. After a classmate witnesses Fanboy being bullied, he teams up with Goth Girl and things begin to change..


Are there any books that you can think of that deal with bullying that you could recommend? What're your experiences with bullying?