Marciel, Amanda. Tease. New York: Harper Collins, 2014. 978-0-06-230530-5. 336 p. $17.99. Gr. 9 and up.

Emma is dead, and it is all Sara’s fault.  This is what Sara’s town believes to be the true.  Told from the bully’s, Sara’s, point of view, readers learn the events leading up to Emma’s suicide.  The novel goes back and forth between past events, and Emma’s current life as a pariah.  The story unravels how Sara is caught up in the act of bullying using both face-to-face interactions and  cyber-bullying to extend the taunting outside of the school day.  After Emma’s death, Sara becomes the target of bullying as she faces a criminal trial, psychiatric counseling, and must examine how she came to be a bully.  Marciel includes a note about her reasons for writing the book a list of anti-bullying resources.

Realistic          Robin Burns, Salisbury High School

Ripped from the headlines of today’s newspapers, Emma’s story is unfortunately not uncommon.  However, the retelling of events from the bully gives a new view to a serious issues plaguing teenagers.  The different types of bullying, both in person and online, are detailed in the text.  The title is a good fit for realistic fiction fans and would be a good addition for high school collections lacking issue-based novels.