We should be afraid...over how easy it is to go wrong, trying to make others do right.

- Chapter 5

 

Sometimes, when you are feeling your worst, an extra stab of pain doesn't hurt at all. Hopelessness is a great anesthetic.

- Chapter 41

 

The best revenge you can get is making people see the worst parts of themselves.

- Chapter 47

 

Okay, so a book called Brutal Youth doesn't really sound like a feel good kind of book. And knowing it was about bullying, I didn't expect it to be all roses. But, this book was kind of difficult to read. There was a sense of hopelessness and a lack of control over circumstances throughout the book that bothered me. It seemed like no matter what some of the characters tried to do, they couldn't stop the worst from happening. 

The book is well-written and interesting. I always wanted to see what would happen next, but I still found the book a bit depressing. I always look for the best in people, but even some characters I thought were good ended up disappointing me.

So, the book is an interesting look at a culture that not only allows bullying, but seems to encourage it. And how people that have the best intentions sometimes end up causing the most harm.

Recommended to:

This book is for adults. There is a lot of violence and sexual references. If you are interested in books that examine youth and how wrong things can go, then this book is for you. But, I suggest you keep in mind that it isn't a feel-good book.

The day after Father Mercedes issued his threats, Sister Maria instituted the Brother-Sister Code. "The hazing tradition can go on," she told an assembly of students in Palisade Hall. "But seniors may no longer indiscriminately terrorize any given freshman. Each individual senior has four weeks to choose one freshman to adopt as a little brother or sister, which will last until the Hazing Day picnic. You can have your fun, and good-natured teasing is acceptable, but from that point forward, you will be a mentor -- not just a tormentor." After some initial grumbling, the upperclassmen seemed to accept it, though Sister Maria worried when she overheard some of them referring to it as the new "Master and Slave" program.

 

 

Do we have a fail-safe if an especially cruel senior chooses an especially weak freshman to be a personal punching bag?" Zimmer asked.

"Then we intercede," she said. "But in the meantime, at least he will have only one punching bag."

 

Um... How can this seem like a good idea to anyone, let alone in a high school where bullying and hazing are everywhere and most of the faculty is afraid to stand up to the seniors?  Just because the hazing has been happening for years and years, doesn't mean it's a good idea. 

Recommended to all the people who are in a really bad place right now: so you can see that it can be worse and that life isn't fair. Or maybe not.... If you are suicidal this book could convince you to make that final step.

I've boosted the rating for this book to 2 stars. 1 star for being entertaining (it did not bore me) and 1 extra star for the awesome character development.

After I finished this book I originally didn't wanted to write a review for it. I really liked the author's writing style. He kept his story interesting, it had a lot of good developed, round characters. But...

ALL.THAT.RAGE.

Story:[might contain spoilers]
It's about a private school where all the students are allowed to run wild. The seniors bully the freshman on the account of needing to relieve stress. This has been going on for (I kid you not) decades, since Davidek's father claims it was pretty much the same when he was young (a reason why he decided to quit the school). So, in short, the story is something like this: drama, bullying, bullying, drama, drama, bullying, bullying, drama, drama, bullying, bullying, drama, drama, bullying, bullying, drama, drama, bullying and it goes on and on and on.

Having one of the students almost committing suicide didn't melt their frozen hearts. It actually looked like it got worse. When Davidek enrolls here as a student he has no idea all the shit that's coming his way. Those kids are crazy and the teachers have no excuse. During the book I thought that closing the school was the best thing that could ever happen.

Now, I understand the author's intent to bring us a realistic story, to make us taste the bitter reality, but really, not even real life can be this bad. During the entire book you don't see one good thing happening. There are glimpses here and there, but in the end I, as a reader, didn't get closure, I don't even want to start on the characters. That Epilogue was the saddest epilogue I had read in my life. Compared to this one "Game of Thrones" is a walk in the park. They die, game over. Here the characters are tormented forever. And most of them (including us) never get to find out the truth.

Characters: The reason why you can't stop reading this is because of the characters. They are interesting, they feel real, they might be good intended and do all the wrong things and they might be bad indented and actually end up doing good. I loved that part :) .

1.Davidek

He's the only character that remains true to it's roots. He's courageous, he's nice, he's brought down by his family and that cursed school, but he tries to stay the same. He knows who his real friends are and won't take any bullshit. He and Hannah are the only 2 characters that made me go on reading this. Another reason why the end infuriated me to no end. I'm surprised how an abandoned child like him can show so much tenderness. I mean, his parents were awful, especially his mother, more interested in their own well-being than that of their son's. Now we can pretty much guess why they lost the first one and I have a feeling they will loose the second in the end as well.

2.Stein

What can I say, I loved Stein from day 1. He's funny, takes no bullshit and knows what he wants. He was such a promising character. I shed some tears when Lorelei betrayed him. He was the sacrifice of this book and it infuriated me to no end that his sacrifice was in vain. :(

My favorite Stein quote:
"JayArr crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. “And when my brother got to be a senior, you better believe he and his friends did the exact same thing to their freshmen. It’s called revenge, dudes.”
“Except the guys your brother squirted chocolate sauce on weren’t the guys who did anything to him,” Stein pointed out. “Sounds to me like he got his just desserts.” He leaned back, smiling proudly, awaiting accolades from the table for his cleverness—but nobody got it.
“I think you’re getting hung up on the banna split thing,” JayArr said.
Stein rolled his eyes. “No, I mean, what your brother did to those freshmen is not revenge. It just means your brother is a dickhead, same as the guys who did it to him for no good reason. Karma just happened to catch up with him ahead of time."

In all that school, there was no one else who decided to point this out to the rest of the students?

3.Hannah

Yeah, she's cool. She found a way to keep the harassment at bay and I was hoping, just like Davidek, that she would have a plan to take revenge on everybody. I guess that was impossible anyway, and I must agree with her:

"The best revenge you can get is making people see the worst parts of themselves."

The only redeeming female in this book.

4.Lorelei

Her is the story of miss popularity. The story of a beautiful girl that wants to do good, but in the end will choose the wrong path all the time. Because it is easy, it's safe. Lorelei was a weak character and I hated her. I also hated the fact that it was never very clear why

. Her mother was her eternal punishment, but she was also the one who chose to be miserable. I couldn't feel pity for her. I tried, but all I felt was disgust.

5.Sister Maria

The picture above describes her pretty well. She wants to do good, she's the most well intended person in the entire book, but putting a bunny suit and jumping around won't really atone to much now, will it? If you take a closer look at all her actions she lies just as much as Father Mercedes does. She's incompetent and can't control her students, yet she does not want to admit defeat and close the school. She saves anyone as long as it doesn't imply her loosing her position. In the end she's far from a saint or a good character. We try to excuse all her shortcomings because we knows she means well, but that should not stop us from judging her. In the end, she fails in everything she does.

6.Father Mercedes

And here is our main bad character: he gambles, he has tasted all the deadly sins from what I can tell, but vanity still remains his top one. He's the sort of man who will step on graves and after, make you step on them as well. He has no scruples and will do anything it takes (and I do mean ANYTHING) in order to save his skin. He was horrible and only made me hate this book even more. The weirdest part is that he wanted to close the school and for this, I was on his side. I do think that school is a horror house that can only release monsters into the world. Of course, his reasons for wanting it closed are not that charitable, he just wants to hide the fact that he used school money for his own gambling.

7.Mr. Zimmer

Ok, that image doesn't describe him really accurate, but I was upset that he never did go and confront any of the problems he had. He just preferred to pity himself and never questioned the decisions of the staff. His ending was another reason why I hated this story.

8.Bromine

She is Lorelei's future, I believe. She also used to be beautiful and popular but now she's a failure as a teacher and a human being. Hateful and full of resentments she's easily one of the most annoying characters in this book. She also got way better than she deserved

9.LeRose

He was a tool, he remained a tool and will always be a tool. I was happy that most of the times he was Davidek's tool, but it didn't change the fact that he was a tool....

10.All the other students:

About that, what's wrong with that school? For teachers to tolerate such behavior it can mean only 2 things: they don't care or they really are too stupid to notice.

How I would have solved the problem:

THE END

Everyone is hurt, lonely, misunderstood and has been abandoned by the ones who were supposed to protect them from harm. Everyone is keeping secrets that are causing problems for themselves and others. Father Mercedes is the worst! What lengths would you go to protect yourself? The students and faculty at Saint Michaels deal with that question everyday.

*What went down with the Sister and Mr. Zimmer back in the day when she was a teacher and he was a student?

The cruelty in this book is astonishing. Freshmen are terrified of school, not knowing if at any minute they'll get plummeted. Oh, and there's no gender discrimination here. The girls are treated just as bad. The adults in the book are worthless humans, just infuriating. Every one of them has their head in the sand.  Just when you think that, "Ok, now someone must step in" no one does. Okay to be fair, there is a teacher who tries to help but he's just as afraid of the seniors as the freshmen he's trying to protect.