Mean Girls Series
I am having a hard time giving a rating to this book. It's about bullying, both within the family and at school. Remmy is 12, her mother having remarried and they having moved cross-country. She now has a step-sister, Sandy.
Sandy and her clique devote themselves to making Remmy's life as miserable as possible. They do a great deal of verbal bullying and it moves beyond that to when they send her a totally mean 'present' which Remmy's classroom sees.
The situation gets worse at a school dance which is where I have my first misgivings about the book. Verbal bullying is bad and inexcusable. Unfortunately most of it seems to take place semi-secretly and any school teachers or administration would probably not know what is going on. Schools often claim a zero-tolerance for bullying but so far I've never read of a single school actually following that statement.
The dance is a particular example because some teachers are there, witness what happens and yet there is no follow-up on the part of the administration.
It gets even worse for Remmy as the abuse moves from verbal to physical and this is where I draw the line.( I checked the description of the next book before I wrote this review.) What takes place basically involves holding a person against their will (which seems to be kidnapping in a way) and doing something else to them physically (not sexually, thankfully.) This should have been something that the administration should have immediately dealt with and, in my opinion, given the abusing girls involved at the very least a two-week suspension but, preferably, expulsion. Yet from the description of the second book (and looking at the reviews) nothing seems to have been done.
This sends a wrong message, that even people who physically abuse others can get away with it in school.
The book is good, though, in that it shows how bullying takes place and that it can be girl-on-girl bullying. I do wish, though, that the book had put some links to places on line where people can get help learning how to deal with bullying. (I'm very torn on the actual rating to give this book. If I could give it a 2.5 that's what I would have rated it as. )
The bullying continues for Remmy. Sandy and her 'vampire' group make things much worse, including a major attack on FB (which I assume stands for Facebook). It gets a whole lot worse when Remmy is framed for the theft of a teacher's laptop.
If this wasn't bad enough Remmy has to deal with possibly losing Charlie's friendship. She also has to deal with the effects of this on her family and whether or not it will cause problems for the proposed wedding between her mother and Marcus, Sandy's father.
The extent of Sandy's hatred for Remmy becomes clear and this all forces a family confrontation.
The author also has Remmy liking one of my favorite groups, Little Mix, and my favorite song of theirs, Black Magic. Reference is made to The Ring movie which, again, is one of my favorites (along with its follow-up movies.) Fortunately the principal of the school is willing to listen to all sides and does the right thing when he has all the evidence.
The way the books handle bullying is well done.
Book three sees the bullying of Rebecca by Sandy and her emotional-vampire group continue. The truth about the bullying has come out and, as a result, the marriage between Rebecca's mother and Sandy's father is postponed.
Although Sandy is punished it doesn't put a stop to her bad treatment of Rebecca. There's a set-up at school which could end up with Rebecca being kicked out for a long time. Even at her mother's wedding the bullying continues, this time resulting in physical injury to Rebecca.
There's more threats by Sandy, the possibility of Sandy taking over Rebecca's place with Charlie and, fortunately, one bright spot for Rebecca.
There's also this friend Amelia, which helps and here is where I'd like to take a guess. I don't think Amelia is actually human. I think she's an angel that is sent to help Rebecca, especially when she's really down.
Book four of the series has Sandy being nice to Rebecca. She even helps draft a set of rules for Rebecca to follow in order for her to become popular.
Such things, though, especially from someone who has been a bully for the first three books in the series, comes with a price. A very high price.
A price that could cost Sandy all her real friends.
Sometimes Rebecca can be just too trusting. Still, a good book if you are following the entire series.
Sydney is nice to Remmy. Charles and Bridgit, though, are still mad at her. It seems that Sandy is being friendlier to Remmy. Personal problems seem to be cleared up and then there's a class over-night field trip to an aquarium and things start to change. Remmy does a good deed for Mike before they go there.
Suddenly the shoe is on the other foot as Sandy becomes the object of bullying. It gets rather nasty and there is no way of knowing just who is behind it.
Questions remain, though. Is Sandy's niceness real or a fake? Who is behind the bullying that Sandy is getting?
Sandy uses the locker room after some track training only to find out that her backpack with her clothes and phone have been stolen. Remmy shows up and Sandy blames her. The parents show up and Marcus calls the police.
Remmy tries to help Sandy by making a list of students Sandy has bullied. Remmy is cleared.
The bullying of Sandy goes up a notch when it becomes cyber-bullying. Remmy again tries to help her. School is no better for Sandy and gets even worse when someone literally raises a stink but it seems Remmy's plan to get Sandy to change her behavior starts to work anyhow.
Both Sandy and Remmy begin to suspect a certain person but find that setting a trap can backfire on those who set it.
Ano
ther book in this series dealing with bullying. An attempt to find out who has been bullying Sandy goes wrong. There's a school camping trip that she goes on but Sydney causes problems. She cheats and steals from the other girls. What, if anything, can Remmy do about her?
A sleepover that goes terribly wrong at Sydney's house. This goes way over-the-top as both her parents work with her to scare the girls who are there on a sleepover. It's such a terrible prank that Remmy is traumatized by it. The pressure on her gets to be too much and she finally tells her mother what really happened. Unfortunately, though, this doesn't stop the bullying. It's going to be interesting to see just how far this goes before Sydney and her group are stopped.
The bullying situation gets much worse in an action that could have proven fatal to Remmy and Bridget. The 'vampires' fake a party invite to the two girls and then refuse to allow them in when they get there. The two are out alone, at night, in an area they are not familiar with, having to deal with potentially dangerous drivers, dogs, and guns.
Bridget gets injured. Remmy's family has to deal with what has happened and Sandy's hatred of both Remmy and her mother. Amelia, who I still think is an angel, shows up to give Remmy advice.
The question becomes how much worse, and how much more dangerous will the bullying get before someone finally does something to stop it.
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