Librarian review:

Tease was a difficult read and not necessarily in a bad way. In many ways Tease is a very important book that I am glad got written, but I am not sure that the right people will be reading it. Tease is a book for someone who has been a bully. As someone who was bullied in high school I felt a great deal of contempt for the main characters in this book. The two bullies both seemed so vapid and stupid that I really wondered if there was something inherently wrong with them.

The premise of the book is that the main character and protagonist of the book is telling how her life has become just awful since that girl she bullied committed suicide. Now she is being charged, has to see a therapist, has regular visits with her lawyer and even with all of this going on, all she does is blame Emma for killing herself.

The book is nicely stylized with some movements back in forth in time to tell the story, the characters are somewhat interesting, but at times you really have to wonder of they have any empathy at all. If you are someone who has been bullied this will not be an easy read. And I imagine that anybody who is a bully is probably not going to pick up this book and read it. My major issue with this book is that the main character pulls a 180 and out of nowhere develops a conscience when you least expect her to. This was not a satisfying resolution to the book as it felt all too neat and tidy and in my opinion not at all realistic. Sigh.

It is good that this book got written. It is topical, interesting and deals with situations that I have not encountered in teen literature a great deal. The only problem is that it seems to want a resolution that it was not working toward.

Youth Review:

As the title would suggest, Amanda Maciel's debut novel, Tease, centres around a girl named Sara Wharton whose life is completely derailed after what seems like harmless teasing leads a classmate to killing herself – and in this situation, Sara is the bully. She is now the one to blame for Emma Putnam's suicide. Written for Young Adults, I don't agree with the age recommendation intended for readers fourteen and older, because despite the seemingly heavy content matter that a brief description of the plot would suggest (the back cover's synopsis is actually quite intriguing), the novel is written in such a way that the simple language used fails to capture the intensity of what would otherwise be a suspenseful and gripping story. As an elementary school student, I would have had no trouble keeping up. The point of view of the story is told from Sara's eyes, and, perhaps suitable to the fact that she is a teenage girl, there is not enough depth in her thoughts and actions to make me think or wonder. Therefore, I do not anticipate. Therefore, I am bored.

          A rather disappointing book, I forced myself to finish reading in order to write this promised review. Some books will open with a grueling start that a reader must go through in order to reach the gold. In this case, I felt the potential for good writing, but Maciel's writing led me on to a point where I eventually gave up and stopped expecting excitement because I knew I would only be let down. Overall, the book was lacklustre. Not a single character was memorable. Sara Wharton is boring and angry, and her best friend Brielle (whose name I had forgotten until I looked it up again) is strong and loud but almost seems like a tertiary character. This is unfortunate, because Brielle is in almost every chapter with Sara, and yet, she is so unmemorable. I feel this is due to the fact that there aren't any good qualities shown in people. Nobody is kind, nobody is forgiving. Sara spends her summer being bratty and thinking about her life has been ruined when she doesn't realize how malicious she had been to a girl with no friends. Even Sara's lawyer, although portrayed professionally, does not give readers a sense that she should be liked. No character has an aura of charm; no character appeals.

          Probably the worst part of the novel was the romance. Young readers – teenage girls especially – demand romance. True, this novel is a challenge to write from the start, with such a difficult plot to present, but Maciel put herself between a rock and a hard place but incorporating a failed romance as well as a failing-to-blossom one at the end. Sara's ex-boyfriend is presented as disloyal and mean, even cheating on her with the one girl that Sara hates: Emma. This caused me to hold my breath when the character of Carmichael, a mysterious new boy, is introduced. Unfortunately, the climax of their non-relationship is on a page that describes Sara walking down the stairs to see Carmichael and her mother at the bottom, looking up at her. I don't want to have to say this, but…Twilight, anyone? I saw pale Bella and even paler Edward staring into each other's lifeless eyes (probably because the lighting in that first movie was atrocious) and any trace of hope I had for the book to get any better was gone. What's worse, Carmichael ends up eating tacos with her family at the end of the novel, and Sara is content with that, like she has accepted Carmichael as her brother or a best guy friend. A juicy story does not end with a best guy friend. Tease was definitely not juicy in any sense. As this was her first book, I give props to Maciel for undertaking such an interesting plot. As this was actually published into a book, I feel it deserved a writer who has a better grip on the English language and does not make her characters say things like "D-bag" and "spaz skank" when attempting to insult other characters. Honestly, that's just not classy. Tease was thoroughly dissatisfying. In simple terms, I like my stories like I like my steak: absolutely dripping with the good stuff. No good stuff here.

Note: I realize this review may seem harsh or inappropriately critical to those who actually like the book, and to those of you who do feel this way, I would just like to say: screw you. Write your own review if it bothers you so much. Cheers.

-Sophia

een Review: