BOOK REVIEW: BULLY by Penelope Douglas

Bully by Penelope Douglas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This post will feel like a rant in some (most) parts… Sorry. I really want to like this book but, sorry.

I stumbled upon the Goodreads link for this book when the old reviews of my friends kind of keep on popping out. At first look, the title (BULLY) and book cover got to me. That’s why I ended up checking out the synopsis. It got my interest again because of the bully premise (how will the author handle this very common issue?) and the childhood friends element of the story (what truly caused their fall out?). So, I decided to mark it and read it.

Bully follows through the story of Tatum Brandt being bullied by Jared Trent all their years in high school. But can you believe it that they’ve been childhood friends? Shocking is it? So what went wrong to Jared and drove him to just bully his dear friend? Well, only Jared knows … (and that’s what will drive you to carry on reading this book.)

BUT is it a good reading experience when you’re just FRUSTRATED with most parts of the book? Psh.

Okay. I’m happy that Tate stood up for herself. BUT, would she really stand up for herself if her friend didn’t gave her the idea of standing her ground and that she will win against the taunts of Jared? Maybe yes or maybe no? In any case, I’m still glad that she pulled all those smartass comebacks and not much of a fan of harming them physically (but given her situation, okay then) just to prove her point. Her bullying experience drove her to fight back. And that’s good because she had let on this bullying to her for a long time already. She didn’t even let her dad know about this, which is kind of sad. Lesson: Kids, we have our parents to help us in situations like this. I’m sure they would want to protect us from people who treat us like trash because no one deserves to be treated like that. There’s nothing to be afraid of approaching your parents in times like this one.

Jared’s reason why he’s been bullying Tate is downright PETTY. Yes, he has this grave past but it’s an unacceptable reason to treat Tate like that. He could’ve gotten help after those episodes with his father. It’s fairly possible for him to enter a treatment after experiencing that shit to help him cope with it, counselling or something. He could’ve told Tate and together they asked for help but he decided to turn the other way. Then he gets off from bullying Tate, I CAN’T EVEN. Sick. And as the story progresses and he says when he realized that it wasn’t Tate’s fault … WHY COULDN’T YOU REALIZED IT EARLIER? (Because of the story, I know) Like way before everything was messed up? He’s blaming or putting his anger to the wrong person and making her life hell. After realizing at least, he could’ve gone to Tate and make amends with his previous actions.

Forgiveness is forgiveness. I’m not against it but what I didn’t like (or it didn’t come across as realistic) is the fact that Tate handed forgiveness to Jared easily. Even then that he shared his past to Tate, no it’s not easy to forgive someone like that. It will take a lot of time to be able to comprehend, accept the sorrys and forgive. If I was in Tate’s shoes … I wouldn’t even care that Jared’s hot and all, STOP. Your hotness is nothing compared to the PAIN I’VE SUFFERED FOR YEARS.

But this is Tate and Jared’s story so whatevs. Despite Tate’s raging hormones, I like that Tate really stood her ground in fishing out what really happened to him in the past before she went all the way with him. At least she still got her mind.

KC. This part of the story EXTREMELY PISSED ME OFF. Yes, she’s intended to have her own judgments about Jared but TO REALLY PICK HIM OVER YOUR BESTEST BESTFRIEND was JUST LOW! What makes it worse is that IT WAS JUST A FREAKING FLING. A FLING, GUYS! YOU TRADED YOUR FRIEND FOR THAT ONE PERSON WHO’S MAKING YOUR FRIEND'S LIFE A LIVING HELL?! She wants to have a fling with someone, BUT WHY CHOOSE JARED? Out of all the people in the fvcking universe, you chose him. Wow. And that’s really saying something about her character. Girl, you need to snap out of it. Your hormones are getting the best of you. And then Tate’s like being guilty for leaving some space between her and KC, TATE DIDN’T HAVE TO FEEL GUILTY FOR THAT! Another scene that pissed me off was when KC was asking Tate to join her during the race thing in the Loop. Seriously, is she fvckin’ dense? Can she even consider Tate’s feelings for a moment?

Was that a realistic situation? Yes? No? Maybe? But honestly, if I were in Tate’s position, I would’ve felt utterly betrayed to the core and wouldn’t care less about KC. She didn’t even consider my feelings. Seriously. While reading this part of the book, I was either pounding the mattress of my bed or pulling my hair out. I can never accept this thing. Girls like KC should be taught a lesson or something about how their logic works and not their hormones.

I like Madoc though. Thank goodness for his character because he gave us some light moments in this book. Savior. I'll definitely be reading Rival, the book two for this series because it's going to be about his character. Yipee. I wonder what's going to happen to him there.

Then when everything seems to calm down already, Miss Author pulled out another curve ball to us again. Sex video. Oh please, spare me some more drama. By the point that that happened, I couldn’t care less on how this book will end. So when I flipped the last page of the book, I was just like “Oh okay. That’s it. I’m done reading the book”. If you want your head to explode because of too much drama, go read this.

Bye x


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