Book Review; Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth

Summary:
This bold, compelling and topical story about bullying is told from the perspective of the bully and the bullied. You won’t be able put it down until you’ve reached the conclusion. Jess’s life is difficult enough without Kez picking on her – it’s turning school from a safe place into a nightmare. Kez has plenty of problems too but she finds comfort in knowing she is better off than Jess – or so she thinks. A hard-hitting and even-handed look at bullying and the issues facing teenagers today.

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Have You

The synopsis of this book really grabbed me. Incidentally, I’m a sucker for books that involve bullying and I loved the idea that this book looks at the story of both the victim and the bully, which isn’t often done. Now that I’m finished I can admit that although I did like this story, I did find it a bit repetitive as well as having a few other flaws. However, despite this, I am very glad I read this book as it as one that I essentially enjoyed – I just think it could have been so much more.

Ever Wondered

Jess is being bullied about her weight, her look and her clothes. Kez is the one instigating it all. I found the plot of this book worked well as you got to see all sides of the story and I thought it took the journey in an interesting direction. On the other hand though, I also found a lot of the plot cliche-d and it was very obvious what was going to happen. On top of that, a lot of it felt repetitive as you got all the scenes from two perspectives. I think if these were cut down, this book could have been given more time to explore the issues set out in the book and would have helped to make this a more intense read.

What Their

Possibly one of my biggest problems with this book are the characters. While they were relatable, I also found them all to be very stereotypical. I think this, again, is because there just wasn’t enough time to flesh them out. I did find the thoughts that both main characters had were realistic and a lot of their actions were too but I just fell that you didn’t get to know them enough and thus they felt a little two-dimensional. Which is definitely unfortunate as they could have really made this story a lot more interesting.

Motivation Is?

Seven Days is a quick, easy read that opens up the topic of every story having two sides. It is a likeable book with realistic features and relatable characters. So if you’re looking for a light read, than this is probably a good book for you. I would recommend this book to teens aged 11-14 but feel that older teens may find it a little juvenile. While I did find it to be a nice little story, I was a bit disappointed it didn’t have more depth and didn’t delve further into the issues it looked at. A simple, thought-provoking, read.