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A review by kellyhager
Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman
5.0
If you read the synopsis for this, you're probably thinking that it sounds like an After School Special, right? Or like a cheesy Lifetime movie, one that will probably involve suicide, a trial, a ton of uber-preachy lectures about bullying (both online and in real life) and lots of tears? Lots and lots of tears?
Here's the thing about Sarah Darer Littman's books: she can take a hot button topic and make you feel sympathy for everyone involved. And she can take what would be a complete train wreck of a topic by anyone else and turn it into something that's compelling and fresh, and make you absolutely feel every word on the page.
Obviously, you'll sympathize with Lara. She's treated absolutely horribly by Christian and, even worse, by people that she thought were her friends.
And you'll sympathize with Sydney (Lara's sister), who's been living in Lara's shadow forever and whose entire life, it seems, has to revolve around Lara's attitudes and whims. And with Liam, who's Bree's brother. The two of them are also friends, and their relationship is affected by what's going on between the two families. They're collateral damage in this whole fight.
But the impressive achievement is that you'll also feel sorry for Bree. This is the story that's not told in these cyberbullying cases. While Bree does some horrible things in this book and completely betrays her former best friend (and seemingly takes a complete delight in doing so), she's also a kid. And she has to deal with so much because of what was just a really, really bad decision.
And that's the heartbreaking thing about this book: so many horrible things happened because of a few bad decisions and a few misunderstandings.
This is an amazing achievement and I need to read her backlist. (So far, the only other one I've read is Want to Go Private?, which is another stunning novel and one you won't soon forget.)
Highly recommended.
Here's the thing about Sarah Darer Littman's books: she can take a hot button topic and make you feel sympathy for everyone involved. And she can take what would be a complete train wreck of a topic by anyone else and turn it into something that's compelling and fresh, and make you absolutely feel every word on the page.
Obviously, you'll sympathize with Lara. She's treated absolutely horribly by Christian and, even worse, by people that she thought were her friends.
And you'll sympathize with Sydney (Lara's sister), who's been living in Lara's shadow forever and whose entire life, it seems, has to revolve around Lara's attitudes and whims. And with Liam, who's Bree's brother. The two of them are also friends, and their relationship is affected by what's going on between the two families. They're collateral damage in this whole fight.
But the impressive achievement is that you'll also feel sorry for Bree. This is the story that's not told in these cyberbullying cases. While Bree does some horrible things in this book and completely betrays her former best friend (and seemingly takes a complete delight in doing so), she's also a kid. And she has to deal with so much because of what was just a really, really bad decision.
And that's the heartbreaking thing about this book: so many horrible things happened because of a few bad decisions and a few misunderstandings.
This is an amazing achievement and I need to read her backlist. (So far, the only other one I've read is Want to Go Private?, which is another stunning novel and one you won't soon forget.)
Highly recommended.