Tease Hardcover – April 29, 2014

Amanda Maciel’s TEASE is a novel that instantly grabs your attention. From its opening line, to its atypical perspective, to its main character who is far from instantly likable, it’s a story that is at once refreshingly different, intriguing, emotionally charged and thought-provoking.Sara Wharton has been charged with bullying, which led to the death by suicide of Emma Putnam. She is not immediately remorseful for her actions. She does not see the part she played in Emma’s death. She does not feel she is the wrongdoer. She sees herself as the victim.Emma Putnam was the girl who stole her boyfriend. It was Emma who called her a tease. It was Emma who was the selfish one who took her life and caused Sara’s world to fall apart. It was all Emma’s fault, not hers.Told from Sara’s point of view, TEASE moves between the present and the past to reveal just what happened between Emma, Sara, Sara’s boyfriend Dylan, and Sara’s friends, including her mean girl best friend Brielle, to show how Sara’s life has changed, and how Sara herself has eventually changed, because of what had been done and what resulted.TEASE is not a light story with a happily ever after ending. While the writing has an easy flow, making it a quick read, the core of the story – bullying and suicide – gives it weight and importance. And its underlying messages of consequences and responsibility and understanding and sympathy give it depth.Sara is not a likely choice for narrator, as she isn’t instantly relatable, sympathetic or even likable. On first glance she appears cold and selfish. And it is only as the story progresses that readers will begin to see that she’s not the self-absorbed, cruel person she pretends to be. She is flawed and insecure and jealous. She desperately wants to fit in, to not be the outsider. And as the tables turn we get to see that she is not so different from Emma.Author Amanda Maciel does a masterful job of telling this story from the bully’s perspective without making her too sympathetic or losing sight of the real, if not the only, victim, Emma Putnam. With TEASE, she creates a story that feels very realistic – the bullies aren’t one hundred percent evil and the victim isn’t entirely pure and innocent. Her characters aren’t excused for their behavior but readers are given reasons why they act as they do.And she does this all in a way that is utterly compelling.

I find myself at a loss for words when reviewing this book because it is extremely unconventional. The subject matter of bullying is the main theme of this book of course, but rather than focusing on how the victim feels and lives through the torment, we are taken into the mind of the teenage bully herself, Sara. This is very clever on the authors part however, readers are going to find it very hard to relate and connect with the character simply because it was her actions (along with her friends) that lead to the suicide of a classmate whose name is Emma. There were many points in this book where I shook my head and even moments when I wanted to stop reading it because Sara is such an unlikeable character, but I kept reading anyway to see where everything would go. Was I disappointed? Yes and no. Yes because I felt like the ending was kind of a letdown – I wanted more justice than what was served - and no because it was so interesting to be able to get into the mind of the tormentor (which is rarely done in any books) and see how and why things progressed as they did.With that being said, this book really does a great job at diving into the minds of teenagers. Sure, many of us were not bullies in high school, but seeing the driving force behind everything in this novel made sense for the age. Adolescence after all, is a really hard time for many people, and when someone is stealing your boyfriend and screwing with your clique you are bound to do something unimaginable. Right? In high school, this is common. Everything seems more grandiose and life threatening at this age, and the author does a wonderful job of bringing this to life. Just be aware that if you do read this book that there is a lot of “slut shaming” and nastiness that will ooze from these characters. It may not be pretty, but think back to high school. I am sure some of you will remember exactly what that was like and how teenagers acted and ran off their mouths whether it be true or not. The author doesn’t seem to be condoning this behavior but she sure writes it as if she lived it herself to and I commend her for that.Overall, this is not an easy read and I am sure you will either love it or hate it. There really is no in between. But, because I am a reviewer I wanted to make sure that I understood the point of the story and where the author was going when she wrote it, so I remained partial to the story until I could come to grips with what I was reading. Now, for me this could have been a 5 star review because of its uniqueness and the message the author was portraying, but because the characters came off a little dry and immature (yes, I know this is normal for the age) I had to go down a star. But believe me when I say this, the story is very good ESPECIALLY because it’s so unlikable. This may not make sense to you, but when you read it you will know what I mean.