Lara's life has changed radically since her father lost his job. As the eldest, Lara tries to keep upbeat, and the one outlet for all her problems is her diary where she can be open about how dire everything is at home, and worse, the fact that she’s being horrifically bullied at school.
And then a shining light comes out of the darkness – the new young and MALE teacher, Mr Jagger. The one person who takes Lara seriously and notices her potential. The one person who is kind to her. The one person who she falls madly and hopelessly in love with. The one person who cannot reciprocate her feelings … can he?
Review
As I’ve mentioned before I want to get into reading more
Young Adult books and this one really attracted me with the synopsis. Lara’s
perspective was really interesting hearing her thoughts in both justifying the
relationship and how deeply she fell for Mr Jagger. It’s a situation that isn’t
right or allowed, so can you empathise with the characters and understand how
such a situation can come about?
I would say yes, while obviously Mr Jagger and Lara’s
relationship is obviously wrong, I would be lying if I said I didn’t empathise
with them, wishing it was a different situation. The way the relationship was
written made it so that, if you didn’t know they were teacher and student, you
would be rooting for them.
The relationship doesn’t start properly till quite a way through the book; the lead up is learning what leads up to Lara and Mr J getting closer. Lara doesn’t seem like the sort of girl who would intentionally go after a teacher. Yes, she fancied him, but didn’t seem to actively try to make herself sexier or more attractive/interesting. She only got closer to him after seeking refuge from the other major plot in the book, the bullying she endures.
The bullying she goes through is terrible, not helped by losing her best friend to the ringleader of the bullies. She also loses her favourite items that help her escape from the bullying either mentally or physically. It was truly horrid the things she went through! Add to this, her family's troubles where she is relied on to look after her younger brother while her mum works and her dad seems to just be depressed. She is going through a lot and I really felt for her.
The relationship doesn’t start properly till quite a way through the book; the lead up is learning what leads up to Lara and Mr J getting closer. Lara doesn’t seem like the sort of girl who would intentionally go after a teacher. Yes, she fancied him, but didn’t seem to actively try to make herself sexier or more attractive/interesting. She only got closer to him after seeking refuge from the other major plot in the book, the bullying she endures.
The bullying she goes through is terrible, not helped by losing her best friend to the ringleader of the bullies. She also loses her favourite items that help her escape from the bullying either mentally or physically. It was truly horrid the things she went through! Add to this, her family's troubles where she is relied on to look after her younger brother while her mum works and her dad seems to just be depressed. She is going through a lot and I really felt for her.
This books ending was quite short, but it tied everything
up, and actually I really enjoyed it. It was incredibly honest, I imagine that
would be exactly what Lara would feel like if she wasn’t a fictional character.
This book has it’s characters written very well, you really feel you understand
them, and that is the beauty of this book.
Published by: Electric Monkey
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review.
No comments:
Post a Comment