Typical Mom.
She told me she teared up a bit while reading it and thought I'd probably enjoy it, so I plowed through it yesterday when I had some free time, and then we discussed it for like ten minutes after she got home from work. It's like mother-daughter book club all the time in our house, man.
Tease (which has already been released) is the story of Sara Wharton, a pretty, popular Nebraska high schooler who is part of a group of friends accused of causing the suicide of Emma Putnam. (It's based off a true story, too - I think I know which one, if I remember the news story right.) Sara is staunchly clinging to the story that she's not guilty and that it's Emma's own fault she's dead; after all, suicide is self-perpetrated. The idea that Emma should have just bucked up and figured out another plan is ever-present in Sara's mind.
The novel uses an interesting format that reminds me of Looking for Alaska: the book begins with a chapter set months after Emma's death, then the following chapter occurs months before. This alternation occurs until the timelines "meet," so to speak, with the last "before" chapter centering on the day of Emma's suicide and the last "after" chapter focusing on the plea bargains of all the accused tormenters. We see everything from Sara's point of view, which makes for an interesting read as other characters drop hints that maybe Sara's not the most unbiased of narrators.
Sara definitely has her own issues, as we learn throughout the novel. Her dad's a jerk who's not around any more, she has to balance having a social life with helping her family, and her best friend Brielle is an even crueler Regina George type. She's also worried that the new girl, Emma, is going to steal her boyfriend, Dylan. Brielle latches onto this worry of Sara's and they begin a two-woman campaign of terror against Emma that we already know ends badly.
In the end, Sara begins to realize that maybe she wasn't as blameless as she believed she was, and there are implications that she's going to try to do better. It's not a complete 180, but it's a believable, mostly satisfying start.
The "mostly," however, is what kept me from fully enjoying this novel. I was expecting something a little more akin to Thirteen Reasons Why or, again, Looking for Alaska when I started this novel, so I was surprised when this didn't hit me as deeply as I expected it to. I think I just wanted more out of this novel, because there was so much more to explore.
What do I mean by that? Well, I can name at least three characters off the top of my head who I would have liked to understand better: Carmichael, Tommy, and Brielle, all of whom have moments of deeper backgrounds that get brushed aside like they don't matter. I also would have liked to know more about Emma herself, since the picture of her we get from Sara is so obviously skewed.
And yes, I realize that that's probably the point: Sara was so self-absorbed that she didn't pry about these things, so we remain just as blind as her. I can't help but wonder, though, what this novel would have been like from a multi-character perspective - would it have been harder-hitting, getting to see Emma's POV just to have it go dark? I think so.
(Sara and Brielle's constant slut-shaming and name-calling also bothers me, but that's more of a personal preference - do kids these days really call their best friends "bitch" and "skank" all the time? My friends and I sure don't, but we're also in our early twenties, so maybe we're just not hip anymore.)
Overall, this novel was easy to read and interestingly crafted, but left me wanting so much more. 3.5/5 stars.
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