As soon as I saw a review of this book, I wanted to read it. I was counting down the days until it would be released and I bought the first copy I saw.
Lara Titliss is extremely badly bullied, and not just for her surname. She's ginger, she's clever, and her mom works as a cleaner for the school bully, Molly Hardy-Jones, and her super-rich family. Money has been tight since her dad lost his job and they were forced to downsize. And Lara's school fees don't help. She's unhappy at her school but can't tell her parents, knowing they gave up so much to send her there.
Enter Ben Jagger, the new English teacher that every girl falls in love with...including Lara.
As the bullying gets worse, Mr J is the only one who takes notice and tries to stop it. I found this ridiculous because the bullying was SO obvious, I don't see how no other person saw it. Maybe they did, and didn't care enough, unkike Mr J, but does he care too much?
Lara can't admit to anyway that she is being bullied, or that Molly is blackmailing her - if she reports the bullying, Molly will accuse Lara's mom of stealing, and lose her the only thing keeping their family above water. This got me really angry, as it reminded me of a scene in Mean Girls 2 that always got my blood boiling whenever I saw it or was reminded of it. Oops, might need some gaviscon after this!
The bullying in this book was so horrific, that it had me gasping in places. I never experienced this, I had a girl who was distracting me in lessons by calling me names, and her friend pushed me in a puddle so I was covered head to toe, but as soon as my dad saw something was wrong he went to my school and sorted it out. Sadly, Lara doesn't have this. Her parents are too worried about money to notice how depressed she is. Ben is such a caring person, and Lara deserves that - someone fighting her corner when the rest of the school, and the boys school next door, seem to hate her.
Rachel took a taboo subject and handled it delicately. It must have been hard to write, with allegations of child abuse being a hot topic at the moment, but there's no child abuse in this book, except from the bullies! This is a love story, and though it wasn't right for her to fancy her teacher, he was the only one to notice her being bullied and stand up for her, which I think is the real problem there. Are schools so bad now that bullying that bad goes unnoticed?
The ending of this book really upset me, but it was real and true to life so I can't complain. I'm really trying not to spoil this book for anyone, so I won't say any more. Just read it for yourself!
Verdict: 5/5 :)
Verdict: 5/5 :)
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