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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
This book infuriated me, but it was still pretty damn good.
It's always interesting to find a book where I can't stand most of the characters.
For example: Jillian and Beth pulling that "Waaaaaah it's so hard for girls!! So hard!! We didn't have a choice but to torment someone we used to call a friend to death! Boo-hoo! Pity us! Men can't judge us because they don't understaaaaand!"
I wanted to slap the life out of them. How dare they pull that crap when they bullied a girl to death? I'm a woman and I'll judge them plenty for what they did, moreso since they couldn't take responsibility for it.
(On that note, I really and sincerely hope that that piss-poor defense was meant to be taken as the girls wrongly trying to excuse their actions, and not the author trying to make the audience feel bad for them, because there is nothing in this world that sets me off like girls trying to use the "boo hoo girls are treated so badly in society" to excuse their monstrous behavior.
No amount of excuses changes the fact that they aided in bullying another girl to death. Leslie is the victim, not them.)
Brad was a piece of crap. Utter, utter piece of crap that had no problem glossing over the seriousness of what happened to Leslie.
Macie and Krista- they were horrible beyond horrible. I wanted to see them crash and burn in the worst kind of way.
Thank God for Katherine and Jake. I'd have set the book on fire if it wasn't for them.
It's always interesting to find a book where I can't stand most of the characters.
For example: Jillian and Beth pulling that "Waaaaaah it's so hard for girls!! So hard!! We didn't have a choice but to torment someone we used to call a friend to death! Boo-hoo! Pity us! Men can't judge us because they don't understaaaaand!"
I wanted to slap the life out of them. How dare they pull that crap when they bullied a girl to death? I'm a woman and I'll judge them plenty for what they did, moreso since they couldn't take responsibility for it.
(On that note, I really and sincerely hope that that piss-poor defense was meant to be taken as the girls wrongly trying to excuse their actions, and not the author trying to make the audience feel bad for them, because there is nothing in this world that sets me off like girls trying to use the "boo hoo girls are treated so badly in society" to excuse their monstrous behavior.
No amount of excuses changes the fact that they aided in bullying another girl to death. Leslie is the victim, not them.)
Brad was a piece of crap. Utter, utter piece of crap that had no problem glossing over the seriousness of what happened to Leslie.
Macie and Krista- they were horrible beyond horrible. I wanted to see them crash and burn in the worst kind of way.
Spoiler
The fact that they basically got away almost completely clean in the end makes me want to break something.Thank God for Katherine and Jake. I'd have set the book on fire if it wasn't for them.
Maybe I will come back to this in the future, but after setting it down for three days and never feeling compelled to pick it up again, I'm giving it up.
This book put me in an irritable mood. I hate that Macie got away with it. She didn't even see the error of her ways. At least Beth, Jillian, and Katherine did.
Read it all in one sitting, as the topic and writing pulled me in from the start. I think it might be one of the more realistic portrayals of bullying, teen suicide, and the fallout from both of those I've read in a while.
http://cuddlewiththisbook.blogspot.com/2012/12/review-i-swear-by-lane-davis.html#comment-form
I hesitated before writing a review because while I thought the book was important and interesting, I'm still not sure if I liked it. As a high school teacher (and former teenager) I can see places where this is spot on. But the writing is far from great and I had issues with the multiple points of view because we never get to know enough about the characters for them to have an established voice (with the exception of Katherine, who was distinguishable only by the author's HORRID attempt of the Southern dialect). All the characters are flat, bland, and terribly unlikable. So yes. I think this book is an important concept, which ultimately bumps my rating from 2 to 3 stars, but a lot is lost in translation.
Not much has been said and the ending is not as thrilling as i expect it to be. I was asking for more depth and twist but the piece just gave me a tiny drizzle of water to drown myself, so i say it's not enough. Although all in all, it's filled with reality and what you get from hanging out with the clique and letting your real self hide under the covers along with the consequences you have to face once all is out.