Title: Tease
Author: Amanda Maciel
Pub Date: April 29th, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Page Count: 336
Author: Amanda Maciel
Pub Date: April 29th, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Page Count: 336
Emma Putnam is dead, and it's all Sara Wharton's fault.
At least, that's what everyone seems to think. Sara, along with her best friend and three other classmates, has been criminally charged for the bullying and harassment that led to Emma's shocking suicide. Now Sara is the one who's ostracized, already guilty according to her peers, the community, and the media.
During the summer before her senior year, in between meetings with lawyers and a court-recommended therapist, Sara is forced to reflect on the events that brought her to this moment—and ultimately consider her role in an undeniable tragedy. And she'll have to find a way to move forward, even when it feels like her own life is over.
In this powerful debut novel inspired by real-life events, Amanda Maciel weaves a narrative of high school life as complex and heartbreaking as it is familiar: a story of everyday jealousies and resentments, misunderstandings and desires. Tease is a thought-provoking must-read that will haunt readers long after the last page.
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My Thoughts
When I first found out about this, I had exciting thoughts. This is the kind of book I live for. I have a thing and personal connection for books that deal with bullying, suicide or both. Unfortunately, there were things about Tease that made it less than I had hoped for as well as didn't give me any feels.
This story is meant to show the side of the "bully". While I definitely found that admirable, I was expecting some kind of turnaround and there wasn't. Sara and Brielle were bullies and there wasn't much of a grey area. Although victim, Emma Putnam wasn't faultless, she was also the one who committed suicide. This was a main problem for me because if the mean girls were done better with more layers, I would've felt bad for them and gained another perspective.
Brielle ran the show. Between Sara and Brielle, it was definitely Brielle with all the bright ideas. She didn't even have a reason to hurt Emma. I hated Brielle as a character so much. I wanted to just stop reading because of her. And then she was supposedly raped; I just feel like that was the author's attempt at making the reader feel bad for her. For the way Brielle acted the entire novel with absolutely no change, I felt bad for her, but it didn't change my opinion of her.
Sara was the main character. I felt like she had a really unique and cynical voice. A pro of this book is how it's told. Instead of being 1st Person where it's written like the author, it's written like a diary or like a monologue how Sara is directly speaking to us. I have no idea whether I liked her or hated her. I liked her in a way because in comparison to Brielle, Sara was an angel. She wasn't that bad because there was some part of her that knew it was wrong. On the other hand, she was a lot of an idiot, because she listened to Brielle; a girl who wasn't even that much of a friend.
This book itself is not bad. The general plot is alright and has it's progression. I loved the message it was trying to give enough for me to give it another star. It was such an interesting concept that probably could've been filled better in a story with differently written characters. How Emma transformed from "slut" to "suicidal" was there and developed. Maciel's writing kept me going because of how I wished it would pick everything else up. In terms of a novel, it wasn't bad. It's only how things were delivered within plot that had problems.
Once Sara and Brielle had found out Emma killed herself, they didn't even feel the least bad. I don't see how that's human. Surely, you'd feel bad if someone killed them-self? They kept going on and on about how it wasn't their fault and that they were just trying to give Emma what she deserved for taking Sara's boyfriend. And even at the end, where Sara apologized, I didn't believe her for a second because of all her inner thoughts of still not believing it was her fault. I felt like she didn't learn and thing and said what she did for the hell of it.
So yeah, these stars are because I saw promise in this story and still do with Maciel's writing. I believe that she's a good writer and if a new book were to come out by here, I would pick it up without hesitation. What happened in this book was just contradictory to what the message was supposed to give.
This story is meant to show the side of the "bully". While I definitely found that admirable, I was expecting some kind of turnaround and there wasn't. Sara and Brielle were bullies and there wasn't much of a grey area. Although victim, Emma Putnam wasn't faultless, she was also the one who committed suicide. This was a main problem for me because if the mean girls were done better with more layers, I would've felt bad for them and gained another perspective.
Brielle ran the show. Between Sara and Brielle, it was definitely Brielle with all the bright ideas. She didn't even have a reason to hurt Emma. I hated Brielle as a character so much. I wanted to just stop reading because of her. And then she was supposedly raped; I just feel like that was the author's attempt at making the reader feel bad for her. For the way Brielle acted the entire novel with absolutely no change, I felt bad for her, but it didn't change my opinion of her.
Sara was the main character. I felt like she had a really unique and cynical voice. A pro of this book is how it's told. Instead of being 1st Person where it's written like the author, it's written like a diary or like a monologue how Sara is directly speaking to us. I have no idea whether I liked her or hated her. I liked her in a way because in comparison to Brielle, Sara was an angel. She wasn't that bad because there was some part of her that knew it was wrong. On the other hand, she was a lot of an idiot, because she listened to Brielle; a girl who wasn't even that much of a friend.
This book itself is not bad. The general plot is alright and has it's progression. I loved the message it was trying to give enough for me to give it another star. It was such an interesting concept that probably could've been filled better in a story with differently written characters. How Emma transformed from "slut" to "suicidal" was there and developed. Maciel's writing kept me going because of how I wished it would pick everything else up. In terms of a novel, it wasn't bad. It's only how things were delivered within plot that had problems.
Once Sara and Brielle had found out Emma killed herself, they didn't even feel the least bad. I don't see how that's human. Surely, you'd feel bad if someone killed them-self? They kept going on and on about how it wasn't their fault and that they were just trying to give Emma what she deserved for taking Sara's boyfriend. And even at the end, where Sara apologized, I didn't believe her for a second because of all her inner thoughts of still not believing it was her fault. I felt like she didn't learn and thing and said what she did for the hell of it.
So yeah, these stars are because I saw promise in this story and still do with Maciel's writing. I believe that she's a good writer and if a new book were to come out by here, I would pick it up without hesitation. What happened in this book was just contradictory to what the message was supposed to give.
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