Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Love & Resistance

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Love & Resistance by Kara H.L. Chen

8 reviews

aduchene's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I really enjoyed this story. There were harder pieces to read like the active bullying, cyber bullying, and trauma heavy parts. But, I thought it was really tastefully done and explored all the sides of everything without painting things as simple. I appreciated the humanization of everyone and the addition of complexities that others don’t consider. Harm vs change. Such an important lesson about intention.

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drtx_bwt's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

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booksforlife83's review

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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readingwithtrey's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Love & Resistance follows the story of Olivia (Livvy) Chang as she starts at her fourth new school. Heavily introverted, she has a detailed plan of how to fly below the radar on the social ladder. When she calls out the “Queen Bee,” Mitzi, for making racist comments, her invisibility falls, and Mitzi and her minions set out to make high school life difficult for Livvy. Livvy is soon introduced to the “Nerd Net.” A group of self-proclaimed nerds who decide it’s time for someone to break the “social norms” of high school.

This was a cute, relatable coming of age story. My heart broke for Livvy. High school can be so tough, and when you’re in the thick of it, it’s so hard to remember that it’s only 4 years of your whole life and there are so much better things coming. My absolute favorite part of the story revolved around the Nerd Net, more specifically, Peter. When they set out to shake up the social ladder and encourage people to step outside of the status quo and to stand up to bullies, Peter was often the voice of reason. Understandably, Livvy wanted Mitzi to feel just as bad as she did, but Peter often reminded the group that despite the everything that Mitzi and her followers did, they were still human beings, and the actions of the Nerd Net should never cause anyone hurt or humiliation. At the end of the day, you reach and possibly change more hearts with grace.

There was only one thing that I didn’t love and that was the reference to the American Revolution as an example of resistance. It didn’t work for me as I feel that that are much more impactful and meaningful examples of resistance throughout history that could have been used.

Read if you enjoy:
- Coming of age stories
- Teen drama
- Young Love

Thank you to BookSparks for my gifted copy of this book!

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bitesizedbeet's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This coming of age story has so much heart. It could be a balm for anyone who’s been bullied and a way to reimagine what the past could have been.

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mishale1's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This is an interesting story. I enjoyed the characters and the plot but felt it went on a little too long. I read the ebook and I haven’t actually checked the page count yet. Some of it felt repetitive regardless, that’s my only constructive criticism.

Olivia has moved to many different schools because of her mom’s career and she has learned to keep her head down and just try to blend in. She tries so so hard to do this that she’s actually trying not to even talk to anyone. That broke my heart because I kept thinking, how can Livvy ever make friends if her mission in life is just to ignore everyone. Poor thing. She came to this method of dealing with school because she had been badly bullied at a previous school. Now she just wants to blend in, graduate and let life begin in college.

But things start to change when she sits next to Griff at lunchtime. She thinks because he’s so quiet too that they’ll continue to sit there quietly together.
But they start to bond, even in their silence.
Then they get paired together for a project in class.

Not long after arriving at the new school, Livvy breaks her own rule: she challenges the popular girl.

Now, I’ve always thought that it’s interesting how *sometimes* “popular” doesn’t actually translate to “liked”. Mitzi rules the school, people envy her, but I don’t think they like her. It’s more like they fear her.

When Livvy upsets Mitzi, Mitzi launches an attack on Livvy. And what do they attack about her? That she’s Asian.

Griff notices what’s happened to Livvy and he pulls her into his secret, underground society: Nerd Net.
The Nerd Net keeps their eyes peeled for injustices at school and does what they can to right the wrongs anonymously.

But when Livvy joins forces with the Nerd Net it’s like it unleashes a reaction to every Livvy has just held her head down before. This time she wants to start a Revolution and fix the problems for herself and everyone else.

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bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

premise:

Livvy (Olivia Chang) is at her 4th school in 7 years & feels she is an expert in the social structures that uphold high school hierarchical systems
She understands that as one of the few AAPI kids in a small town (their high school has ~200 kids) her best route is to stay under-the-radar to prevent attacks/becoming a target of the popular/VIP kids
One day, she speaks up and is no longer ~*~invisible~*~ and is then bullied by the VIP kids (they begin to make horrible TikTok videos about her and they go viral around the school)
Livvy forms a friendship with Griff, & he then inducts her into the Nerd Net, a secret society that has tried to avert Mitzi & her VIP squad little by little
The Nerd Net begins to anonymously inspire change at their high school
Livvy is inspired by war and revolution tactics from history, that she learned from her grandpa
Livvy begins to examine her own biases against groups/cliques, and forms more nuance in her thinking process

thoughts:
I absolutely loved this debut novel from Kara H.L. Chen !!!! Wow, this was exactly as the description says: whip smart! Kara is an excellent writer and infused such humor, wit, and earnest commentary in this story about bullying, identity, social systems, microcosms, intersectionality, justice and hope. When people disrespect the young adult (YA) genre, I want them to read books like this to get that bias out of their heads. Kara truly dropped the mic with this book - Livvy's delightful and hilarious inner thoughts, the high school setting, the historical context of past revolutions, the authentic and relatable dynamics between characters, & everything else !!!

Livvy is quite possibly my favorite young adult main character -- she is direct, self-assured, blunt, honest, borderline pessimist (but I think she's mostly a realist), and hilarious. Livvy's backstory with her dad especially gave us hints in the beginning of the book that there is more to her tough exterior than we see, but the way Kara unraveled this journey towards vulnerability and hope was beautiful. Most notably though, I thoroughly enjoyed her ruminations on history that her grandpa taught her. The reverence in which she speaks of him was so touching.

I also loved the side characters! Heidi & Will were so cute - I loved the ending moment with them heheheh !!! Peter was a champion of his friends, always excited and giving golden retriever energy, especially when talking about his girlfriend Carlie. Griff was the perfect love interest and first love for Livvy.

“Plainstown has tiny music and drama departments. This is what happens when you don’t invest in the arts.” Ethan lifted his glass. “Everyone turns into assholes.” All the poets cheered and clinked their cups together.

YA AIN'T WRONG!

I wish I could explain to you how well this was written but I'm not good enough of a book reviewer myself to explain to I'll include my favorite quotations below (though this itself was incredibly challenging because I nearly highlighted the entire book sheeeeesh)

Monsieur Griffin and I continued our little silent film relationship over the next week.

lmao, an example of Livvy's tone and delivery -- the humor is perfection for me

I was already more visible than I wanted to be. I should curl up like a pill bug and live the rest of my existence rolling through the halls and ducking into corners. But. I come from a long line of justice-minded people.

Once you are marked for social death, there is very little you can do to reverse the process. You can only try to extend your time on earth. I had the disease, and it was terminal. Suddenly, my comfortable life of invisibility ended.

I LOVE the angst here but I also think the way Kara writes it is authentic to a teenager, while not poking fun at it either. Bullying, especially in high school, truly feels like it will never end and that time slows down during the tough moments too.

My grandfather had been in the army before he left Taiwan, and had been a history and military buff his whole life. Before he died, he used to tell me stories every night before I went to sleep. Our favorite thing to do was to talk about war strategies, and how often the best way to win a war was to avoid it. But sometimes, you can’t. Sometimes it comes to you, whether you want it to or not. Sometimes you lose your temper and insult people instead of making the point you really wanted to make. Sometimes you bring the war onto yourself.

OOF!!!!!

I had learned, the hard way, that if someone wanted to target me, the most obvious, easiest, and most devastating thing to do was to shove aside my personhood and make me nothing but the shell of an other.

*insert sobbing emoji*

When you walk through life wearing a target—your face—there are times when you forget you are different. But there are always reminders. Sometimes it’s a too-long stare at the store. Sometimes it’s someone talking to you a little too loudly because they don’t think you speak English. In each case, it’s the same hard shove: You are not one of us.

WOOF

Note: it’s extremely difficult to pull off banter when your face constantly betrays you. Was there an evolutionary purpose to blushing? Did early Homo sapiens defend themselves against predators by making their faces hot and red? Methinks not.

LOL LIVVY HONEYYYYYY YOU SPEAK MY LANGUAGE

I remember when I first saw a picture of an iron maiden in one of my history books, the coffin-like structure, the spikes that would impale the person inside. I remember thinking: that is what bullying feels like. It is the shocking pierce through your body, the crush from all directions.

There it was: the irresistible pull of banter. It was the most perilous thing. Parts of my mind were perking up, stretching towards him. I didn’t care how muscular or athletic a guy was, or how much money he had. But a boy who could volley and lob le sarcasme? That was a problem.

Girl same hahaha

The stakes were high: Mitzi—and Adeline—had the power to crush a person’s social standing at school and in the vast, dark world of the internet. If the group did this—if they tried this and failed—it would surely mean the end for them, socially. It was true that Plainstown High had a population unlike any of the others. At my other schools, the people followed a relatively benign leadership, or were largely able to ignore the popular group and live separate lives. People coexisted in a type of commonwealth situation, or in independent fiefdoms.

I'm sorry but this is so clever and so spot the fuck on. DAMN KARA!

For me, I was the only one of two Asian Americans at Lake View. They didn’t know what to make of me. I got karate noises wailed at me, because we were in seventh grade and I guess that’s what passed as clever back then. I got asked why I wasn’t good at math. They didn’t bother to distinguish me from Rosie Vuong because it didn’t matter that we were two different people, because they didn’t see us as people, not really. I just wanted to be an ordinary student, to belong. But they never let me forget what I was.

Exactly this. People say, "why do you always make it about race?" when it's always been other people who never let me forget I was AAPI/bisexual/neurospicy/OTHER

There is honor in honest work, but things like honor and nuance don’t quite exist in the tabloids or on the internet.

I LOVE the commentary on social media and how central of a role it plays in this book. You can make fun of influencers all you want but this is indicative of our zeitgeist and time in history.

“Why do you want to spend time with me?” I should just know now. Get it over with. “If Peter’s right, and I’m so condescending and reductive?”
“He didn’t say you were condescending and reductive. He said your comments were,” Griff said. “There’s a difference.” Was there? I didn’t think so. “One is something that you’ve said. The other is who you are,” Griff said. “He’s not saying that you’re a terrible person. He’s just disagreeing with you.” That distinction had never occurred to me. Maybe because no one had ever made the effort—or had the patience—to point it out before.

I think way more people need to get the above lesson inside their heads.

I realized that I had gotten it completely backwards. I always looked at friend groups and wondered what was wrong with me because I could not fit in. As if friendship were a container I needed to squeeze myself into. But these last few weeks were showing me that you do not have to make everyone like you. You don’t even have to make the majority of people like you. The thing you have to do—the only thing you need to do—is find the few, invaluable people who will click with you. Who will be your true friends. That is all.

when kids finally realize what genuine connection is, I can't help but get emotional ughhhh

I had never been to a poetry slam before and had a vague idea that there was going to be a lot of rhyming stuff, or maybe some dry Shakespeare monologues. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This—this was words and rhythm and rawness; it was tears and grace and passion. This was rage: women calling out men for harassing them, a Japanese boy articulating his fury for having his masculinity stripped in the media. This was hysterical poetry, joking about first dates and being bad at sports. But through it all, the poets were incredibly vulnerable. These were strangers talking about feeling alone. Feeling unattractive enough to get plastic surgery. Crying for a parent who didn’t care. They splayed out their most painful and hidden parts, unfurling it onstage without apology. It was the most magnificent, fearless thing I had ever seen.

I felt so similarly at my first open mic lol

I thought I was doing good by being in isolation. That I was protecting myself. But I was also letting the systems around me continue.

If it was so easy to label and discard each other, and if almost everyone did it, then what chance did the Nerd Net have of ever succeeding in this revolution? What do you do when the enemy is within all of us?

THE SELF AWARENESS ! SO PROUD !

I never would have talked about this at any of my previous schools. I never talked about it with anyone else, period. But now I climbed on the thin branch and trusted that it wouldn’t snap.
But people can’t change without first acknowledging the wrong. Mea culpa. And the wrong was this: ignoring the fact that each person carries their own burdens, ones we are not aware of. Yes, there were those who were truly horrible, who were not capable of remorse. But I wanted to believe that there was a greater number of people who, when confronted with the impact of their actions, would pause, and think. Maybe atone.

Not every boulder could be smoothed over. Maybe there were some that were too spiky, too broken. But you couldn’t know which stone was which until you placed it into the river.

We have to ~*~TRY~*~

Life to her was a zero-sum game; she thought loosening her sweaty grip on power meant she would lose everything. But acknowledging a wrong wasn’t a weakness. It was the first step towards making the broken thing stronger.

I know soooooo many people who share that mentality of zero sum. It's exhausting.

I knew that not everyone deserved forgiveness. But you can seek understanding without granting agreement or absolution. You can keep protesting.

Love love love this message.

Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial

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muraven88's review

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and represent my honest feelings. Huge thank you to HarperCollins and EpicReads for this opportunity.

Solving some problems is easy. They have simple solutions that can be implemented with little effort. The bullying that many students face on a daily basis, especially cyber bullying, is not one of those problems. But in the case of Love and Resistance by Kara H.L. Chen, the complexity of this problem helped create a novel that was both thought provoking and memorable.

Love and Resistance follows Olivia, who makes it her mission each day to simply be invisible so that she can survive the trials and tribulations of high school and graduate. However, when one of her classmates makes a racist comment, Olivia finds that she can no longer stay silent. By teaming up with a group of students known as the Nerd Net, she hopes to shed light on the issues of bullying and racism, and enact real change.

This book is remarkable for so many reasons, but it does one thing really well that I’ve personally never seen done before; it explores more than just one side of the larger issue of bullying. This starts early on as Peter, a poetry-loving member of the Nerd Net, tries to explain to Olivia that people are complex individuals with different motivations and goals that cause them to act in certain ways. This includes those that bully others. Peter also challenges Olivia to explore the preconceived notions she has about different clicks in her school. As the story progresses, you see that no character is free of fault or blame. Each side makes mistakes. For this reason, the book felt real and relatable.

But the story doesn’t stop at just presenting and exploring multiple sides of a complex problem. Towards the end of the novel, through the power of creative storytelling, the author presents some ideas that students might take and use in their own schools to combat any bullying that might be happening. This isn’t just a novel, it’s a call to action to combat bulling in the only way possible.

In regards to the presence and prevalence of a key romantic relationship. Our main character does have a love interest in Griff, a fellow student who has his own reasons for wanting to combat the bullying he sees going on in his school. There are some sweet, tender moments between Griff and Olivia, and their blossoming romance reads like a realistic slow-burn one might actually see playing out in the halls of a high school. This will capture romance fans like myself. However, the romance is never the main plot line of this novel, and the deeper themes of bullying and racism easily overpower it. So, if you enjoy romance (like I do), it is there. If you do not, you will still be satisfied with the key themes and main plot line.

In conclusion, this novel is nothing short of brilliant, and it needs to be taught in classrooms across the nation. I was honored to receive an advance reader’s edition and will be watching for this author’s next work!

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