Friday 6 June 2014

Tease

Presenting Tease by Amanda Maciel.

Here is the summary of the book:

A gripping, controversial debut about the nature of bullying.

Emma Putnam is dead, and it's all Sara Wharton's fault.

At least, that's what everyone seems to think when 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. But Sara is sure she hasn't done anything wrong, because Emma brought it on herself. Sara is adamant that she was the victim - not Emma.

Inspired by a true story, TEASE is a thought-provoking must-read that will haunt you long after the last page.


A heartbreaking tale of the consequences of bullying through the eyes of the perpetrator. In case in point of bullying and stories based around such acts, we usually get to read the happenings from the victim's point of view. So brownie points to Maciel for using the instigator instead. Regrets and forgiveness abound, Amanda Maciel's Tease is brim full with heavy societal topics that raises a lot of questions.

Alternating to and fro between past and present, Tease tells the story through the accused, i.e., Sara Wharton's perspective. She and her friends are charged with bullying the depressed teen Emma Putnam that eventually led her to her suicide. Sara of course proclaims she is not the one at fault because it was Brielle who executed the crime and she just followed through. According to Sara, Emma had it coming for her what with sleeping with everybody's boyfriends like that.

As we progress we see exactly why Sara thought she was not the one at fault and experience how she deals with everyone and everything after Emma's suicide/ At first Sara exhibits a cold indifference towards her plight, staunchly attesting that it was Emma's fault for leaving such a mess behind. But through the course of the novel we get to see her change and begin to accept what she did and who Emma was and must say I really enjoyed reading about it.

Every character here have their personality. Sara slowly made her own impression on us. Brielle of course was brash and rude. Dylan was the kind and naive boyfriend. Carmichael, out of all the characters I loved him the best. He was a truly understanding kid and considerate. He proved to be the best person out of all of them and the real friend and love interest Sara needed in her life.

Emma Putnam on the other hand was the crux of the story. But I still wouldn't know how to categorize her. We didn't get to actually see how her mind worked. About why she did what she did and why she was so depressed. Sara printed a rather unappealing version of her as the boyfriend stealing, spoiled freak. So, the kind and depressed Emma kinda got lost in translation. While I enjoyed the story, a little bit from Emma's perspective would have had me giving it that 1 more star it deserved to make it a 5 rather than a 4 star at present.

Based on a true story, Amanda Maciel creates the perfect attention grabber in the form of Tease. Bullying is a heinous crime and Maciel's story taken from the viewpoint of the bully raises a perfectly amazing moralistic story that everyone show read at least once.

"Heartbreaking and thought provoking page turner"
Genre :      Young Adult, Contemporary

Publisher: Hachette Children's Book

Release Date: 1st May, 2014

My Copy: publisher and netgalley

Rate:              4/5 (Really Liked It)

Buy:           Amazon | Book Depository

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