Review: Freak by Marcella Pixley

[gehayi]

Title: Freak by Marcella Pixley
Pages: 144 pages
Rating: 2/10
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Comments

[insanepurin]

Ugh, ugh and a million times UGH. Thanks for warning me against this book. I'll be digging into my copy of Carrie now.

[gehayi]

UGH was my reaction too. Carrie was a lot more accurate about how damaging bullying is, actually. (Of course, King based Carrie White on two girls he knew who WERE bullied.)

[gehayi]

You're welcome! I'm glad you liked it!

[tabular_rasa]

I'm not sure how I feel about this, actually. I definitely agree that the lack of support from authority figures is unrealistic, not to mention terrifying. And I do think the ending is supremely implausible.

Weirdly, however, I think I might have liked this at the age I was being bullied. Considering my thoughts about being bullied at the time, I was into the whole "Well, she must have a reason for the way she is" thing, and being able to see her flaws and forgive her for what was borne of them was, while a bit self-righteous, my way of feeling like I had some power in the situation. I couldn't change her, but I could choose whether or not to forgive her. I was the saint with the power to judge, or something like that

[gehayi]

Honestly? I'd go with realistic. I don't like books that raise false hopes in victims, and I think that's exactly what this book does with the "if you're nice to them, then they'll be nice to YOU" philosophy.

But...YMMV.

[tabular_rasa]

I'm curious: What do you think would have been a realistic response? How would you have ended this story instead? (Anybody can answer with their thoughts).

[gehayi]

Well, I wouldn't have ended at this point. The physical attack, and the heroine's fear that things were going to get worse, would be in the first third of the book. The bullies would bide their time for about a week and then start to escalate. But at the same time, Miriam would notice that kids who were keeping their heads down and being nice and trying to avoid conflict weren't doing any better than she was

[imora_mi_savur]

I'm in two minds about this book, though I should point out that I haven't read it and my oppinion is based solely on this review.

Though it would seem that the author had the commendable intentions of providing some kind of comfort to victims of bullying who may read it, it does sound as though it is written very much from an adult mindset, and though I hesitate to say it, probably an adult who never experienced bullying to that extent in her own youth.

As someone who did experience it, and recently went through it again from a parents perspective, eventually having to move my daughter to a different school because both the teachers and the bullies parents refused to do anything to stop the 'poor misunderstood' little snots from terrorizing her on a daily basis, I cant help but feel rather angry at the blame the victim theme the book seems the veer into.

It's a shame, because it sounds like it started very well.

[gehayi]

As someone who did experience it, and recently went through it again from a parents perspective, eventually having to move my daughter to a different school because both the teachers and the bullies parents refused to do anything to stop the 'poor misunderstood' little snots from terrorizing her on a daily basis, I cant help but feel rather angry at the blame the victim theme the book seems the veer into.I'm deeply sorry, both for you and for your daughter. That's horribly wrong. And I wouldn't call the bullies who terrorized your daughter anything but evil. I don't buy that bullies are unhappy, neglected, looking for attention or misunderstood. I just think they're vicious swine who get off on having the power to hurt others

[albijuli]

>>I turned and stared at her. "You shouldn't be," I said.

...