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A review by rereader33
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman
5.0
Allow me to get these obvious out of the way: this was an amazing novel! Neal Shusterman has been a favorite of mine since Challenger Deep, but the more I read the more I love his work. His writing is well-done, most of his characters are fun or at least interesting, and the pacing is spot on. I can never seem to put down his books once I start them and they always seem to fill my thoughts afterwards. Anyway, let's discuss this hidden gem, shall we?
I don't have much to say about the story aside from I'm glad it went in the direction it did. It was briefly touched on in the story that if the general public learned about Brew's abilities, he could be sent to a lad to be researched or used as a tool. I was worried this was where the story was headed, but thankfully it stayed grounded. I really liked that because, aside from Brew's abilities, this was a grounded story. That's all I really have to say, on to characters.
At first, I had mixed feelings about all of the characters sans Brew. Bronte was pretty obnoxious for most of the novel, but I was glad she remained consistent. She did change her personality on a dime and she didn't change for Brew, which could be either a good or bad thing. I didn't like how headstrong she was about fixing problems mostly because she always thought what she was doing was right. That kind of thinking can be dangerous and it proved to be just that when she and Tennyson practically blackmailed their parents into fostering Brew and Cody. However, I will say that I loved her interactions with Tennyson, I found them to be realistic and the banter enjoyable. Tennyson was a good character, a foil to Bronte in one way yet similar to her in another. On one hand, Tennyson tended to act in his own interests, which clashed with Bronte's need to help others. On the other hand, both are selfish if you consider how Bronte tends to help others without their permission, so in a way both exhibit selfish behavior, it's just Tennyson is aware of his selfishness while Bronte isn't. Brew himself was a great character, I loved his POV. I'm not much of a poetry person, but I loved, loved, loved how his POV was written in verse. It added depth to his character and was an absolute joy to read. Cody was a completely realistic child and as such I wanted to punch him for some of the decisions he made. Not a bad character, mind you, just kind of annoying. The parents were pretty awful, but this is YA, what do you expect?
As for the writing, I adore Neal Shusterman's writing. It's fun, casual, profound in places but heart-wrenching in others. Yes, it can be very on the nose, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. Also, I understand some YA fans have complained about the number of snarky, sarcastic characters proliferating YA novels. To add my two cents, I totally get where people are coming from and having so many characters like that in YA can be frustrating, but I will probably never be frustrated by Shusterman's sarcastic, snarky characters. Call me biased, I don't care.
Also, that ending was great. Loved it.
Overall, loved this novel, love this author, highly recommend it and his other novels.
I don't have much to say about the story aside from I'm glad it went in the direction it did. It was briefly touched on in the story that if the general public learned about Brew's abilities, he could be sent to a lad to be researched or used as a tool. I was worried this was where the story was headed, but thankfully it stayed grounded. I really liked that because, aside from Brew's abilities, this was a grounded story. That's all I really have to say, on to characters.
At first, I had mixed feelings about all of the characters sans Brew. Bronte was pretty obnoxious for most of the novel, but I was glad she remained consistent. She did change her personality on a dime and she didn't change for Brew, which could be either a good or bad thing. I didn't like how headstrong she was about fixing problems mostly because she always thought what she was doing was right. That kind of thinking can be dangerous and it proved to be just that when she and Tennyson practically blackmailed their parents into fostering Brew and Cody. However, I will say that I loved her interactions with Tennyson, I found them to be realistic and the banter enjoyable. Tennyson was a good character, a foil to Bronte in one way yet similar to her in another. On one hand, Tennyson tended to act in his own interests, which clashed with Bronte's need to help others. On the other hand, both are selfish if you consider how Bronte tends to help others without their permission, so in a way both exhibit selfish behavior, it's just Tennyson is aware of his selfishness while Bronte isn't. Brew himself was a great character, I loved his POV. I'm not much of a poetry person, but I loved, loved, loved how his POV was written in verse. It added depth to his character and was an absolute joy to read. Cody was a completely realistic child and as such I wanted to punch him for some of the decisions he made. Not a bad character, mind you, just kind of annoying. The parents were pretty awful, but this is YA, what do you expect?
As for the writing, I adore Neal Shusterman's writing. It's fun, casual, profound in places but heart-wrenching in others. Yes, it can be very on the nose, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. Also, I understand some YA fans have complained about the number of snarky, sarcastic characters proliferating YA novels. To add my two cents, I totally get where people are coming from and having so many characters like that in YA can be frustrating, but I will probably never be frustrated by Shusterman's sarcastic, snarky characters. Call me biased, I don't care.
Also, that ending was great. Loved it.
Overall, loved this novel, love this author, highly recommend it and his other novels.