Bully

Author: Penelope Douglas
Series: Fall Away, #1
Publisher: Intermix
Release Date: February 18, 2014

My name is Tate. He doesn't call me that, though. He would never refer to me so informally, if he referred to me at all.

We're neighbors, and once, we were best friends. But then, one summer, he turned on me and has made it his mission to screw up my life at every opportunity. I've been humiliated, shut out, and gossiped about all through high school. His pranks and rumors got more sadistic as time wore on, and I made myself sick trying to hide from him. I worried about what was around every corner and behind every door.

So I left.

I spent a year studying abroad and bathed in the freedom of life without Jared. Now I'm back to finish up high school and get the hell out of here forever. I'm hoping that after a year of breathing room, he's moved on and forgotten all about me.

But even if he hasn't changed, I have. I'm not interested in avoiding him or turning the other cheek anymore. We're going to go head to head, because neither of us wants to back down.

Anyone who knows me well enough knows I don't like contemporary romance. Before I read this book, which was years ago, I had only liked one self-published novel, and although I'm open to reading new adult, I had never actually read one. I know fully well about the bad rep on the last two, and a part of me kind of agrees with it. Taking in the fact that I mostly believe that contemporary romance plus new adult plus self-published equals garbage—which, now that I think about it, practically exempts me from reading ninety-nine percent of new adult novels—because I'd never heard of a good example or even a decent summary of this combination before, never had I actually expected to read this... and love it.

No, that was not a typo. I loved it.

Because of this book, Bully, I'm going to give that combination a chance now, and you have to read this, too. I don't care if you're a sci-fi fan, a purely YA lover, or a person who doesn't read books at all. You must read this, and here's why.

"I'll have you in tears in no time."

Understand this: Jared was a complete and utter asshole, along with his dipshit friend Madoc over there. The minute they opened their mouths, I wanted to bury them alive, straight after putting them through years and years of slow, intense, and painful torture. Bullies are awful, awful people, and in real life, don't try to put up with their crap or expect them to miraculously change.

Penelope Douglas makes no attempts to hide Jared's douchebaggery, and to make hundreds of readers sympathize with a jackass like him and even Madoc is an impressive feat. I would not have forgiven Jared for the things he did to Tate, ex-best friend since childhood or not.

But I can understand why though. I felt sorry for what had happened to him and made him the way he was. I know people who have been through similar things and have seen how much bitter they've become after. I couldn't untangle the mess of emotions I felt for him in the end and although I still couldn't forgive him for his action, I thought he deserved a second chance. I liked that he didn't make the unbelievable but common complete change into sappy Mr. Nice Guy in the end and still retained parts of his personality.

"You've already made me cry countless times." I raised my middle finger to [Jared] slowly, and asked, "Do you know what this is?" I took my middle finger and patted the corner of my eye with it. "It's me, wiping away the last tear you'll ever get."

I can't believe that I'm actually supporting this relationship between Tate and Jared, but I am. The author managed their power balance just splendidly. If you ever need another relationship like theirs to read about, and I can only think of one at the moment, check out an adult historical romance novel called Lord of Scoundrels, by Loretta Chase.

Even though I've never been in a situation like Tate, I found some aspects of her so relatable and most so likeable. She's strong, brave, funny, quick-witted, and smart. The damage that was done to her, heck, if I were in her shoes, I would have broke under the pressure. You would literally would have to drag my cold, dead body back to that town. There's so much I admire about Tate, and I'm proud of the way she fought back.

The only problem I had with her was her attraction to Jared when he still acted like a douche. I get that it was physical, and left over from her old friendship-crush thing, and that she was fighting it, but it still felt wrong in a way. Some of Tate's comments about a certain girl named Piper also ventured a little too much into s%#t-shaming for me. If this was young adult and not new, I would have taken down a whole point from my rating.

The side characters are equally great and very well-written. Just overall, amazing characterization and development on Penelope Douglas's part. Besides that this is self-published, as I mentioned earlier, I was even more surprised to have discovered that Bully was really the author's debut novel. I've heard about it before but after I finally read this, I really couldn't quite believe it.

Now a good book is not without its flaws. I think what pushed me away a bit was the writing style. Seriously, read this and try not to groan or roll your eyes: "The stabbing sensation in my throat surrendered to the tears wanting their release", or "I tried to blink away the disturbance to my equilibrium", or mood-breakers like, ""His lips devoured me, hard and fast, like I was being eaten alive." Halfway through though, I don't know what happened but I think the author had gotten the hang of writing a normal teenager's voice, and the try-too-hard language toned down while the humor went up.

I repeat, read Bully. You are missing so much, and I am sure you will not regret it.