Books › The Bully
The Bully
190 pages
A tense, highly relatable high school drama about finding the courage to stand your ground when you feel completely alone.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like walking the fraught, echoing hallways of a new high school where every corner holds a potential threat. The narrative moves at a brisk, highly accessible clip, designed specifically to hook readers who might normally shy away from reading. It immerses you in the stomach-churning anxiety of being the new kid targeted by someone bigger and crueler, capturing the suffocating weight of isolation and the fear of speaking up. Yet, beneath the gritty, grounded tension, there is a deep well of empathy and earnestness. It is a story that strips away literary pretense to deliver a raw, relatable emotional journey, ultimately rewarding the reader with a deeply satisfying, hard-won sense of empowerment and courage.
- Mood
- tense
- anxious
- grounded
- hopeful
- Tone
- earnest
- direct
- empathetic
- gritty
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- navigating new environments · overcoming intimidation · finding inner strength · the weight of isolation · standing up for oneself
- The writing
- Straightforward, accessible, and unadorned, prioritizing clear action and relatable dialogue to keep the pages turning.
- The arc
- Begins in a state of overwhelming anxiety and isolation, building toward a hard-won moment of empowerment and self-respect.
- Who it's for
- Reluctant teen readers and middle schoolers who crave realistic, fast-paced stories about everyday high school struggles.
Content notes
- bullying
- physical violence
- intimidation
About the book
Darrell Mercer, a 9th grader at Bluford, is at the center of this story. Darrell and his mother move to the Bluford area in the middle of the school year. Physically smaller than his peers, Darrell quickly becomes a target for Tyray Hobbs, the freshman class bully.
Description from Open Library.
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