Saturday 21 June 2014

Review: Tease

Tease by Amanda Maciel
 
Title: Tease
Series: none
Author: Amanda Maciel
 
Published: Hachette Children's Books; 2014
368 pages, kindle edition
 
Source: Netgalley
 
Rating: 2 stars
 
 Description (from Goodreads):

 Emma Putnam is dead, and it's all Sara Wharton's fault.

At least, that's what everyone seems to think when Sara, along with her best friend and three other classmates, has been criminally charged for the bullying and harassment that led to Emma's shocking suicide. But Sara is sure she hasn't done anything wrong, because Emma brought it on herself. Sara is adamant that she was the victim - not Emma.


 
My Thoughts:

 Tease was not the book that it wished to be. It could have been good and there is going to be a lot of people who will love it. Unfortunately, I am not one of those readers. For a book that attempted to look into such a controversial topic it was oddly juvenile and the protagonist was not nearly as emotive as was needed. This had so much potential yet it dragged and I was consequently bored.

I had major problems with Sara, our main character. She was unforgiving, overdramatic, stubborn, rigid, cold-hearted and a bitch to put it frankly. I thought Tease was supposed to be about bullying, making mistakes, moving forward, forgiveness and all that jazz. This however turned into a repetitive and dull whinge-fest. Sara didn't care about Emma. She didn't care she was dead or that she might've, at least in part, influenced her decision to kill herself. She couldn't care less. She thought Emma was a slut. She cheated with Sara's boyfriend and then "stole" him away. This made her death acceptable to Sara. She deserved it... and we heard about this over and over again.

Emma was a boyfriend-stealing bitch right up until the day in March when she killed herself. I didn't do anything wrong, but she totally ruined my life.

While it was nice to read from this sort of fresh perspective - how many times do we get to read from a "mean girl" perspective? - I expected more from it. I wanted more from it. I loved seeing how Sara thought and how she justified her, somewhat awful, actions and decisions but she was simply a whingey brat that I just didn't find fun to read about. I also felt that her carefree attitude was a little over the top. It was almost as if the author wanted you to hate her for what she did... and feel sorry for Emma. I, however, wanted to hate Emma. No, I take that back. I wanted to be able to understand why Sara and Brielle hated Emma, yet I still don't feel like I do. I just feel manipulated.

The plotline was also way too jerky. The flashbacks weren't set out very well and there were parts that I was very confused about what had happened and what hadn't yet. I also felt the ending was too cut off. We spent so much time building up to the trial and then what? We don't get to find out the decision? Not fair! I actually hope there is a sequel because otherwise that was all a waste of time.

Overall, I wasn't very impressed with Tease. I can see that some people are going to love this, and there are going to be others that absolutely hate it. The idea was there but the execution was not. Quite disappointing!

Note: a copy was provided courtesy of Amanda Maciel and Hachette Children's Books, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. No compensation was given or taken during this process.

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