Thursday, December 29, 2016

Release Day Blitz: Bullies Like Me by Lindy Zart: Review

Title: Bullies like Me
Genre: YA
Author: Lindy Zart
Rating: 5/5 Stars
 
Synopsis
 
If you can make it out of Enid High School alive, you can make it through anything.
Alexis is the new girl at school, and she’s ruthlessly bullied. Hopeless, and drowning in her present reality, she takes pills—lots of pills. She’s sent to a mental health facility, where she meets a boy. Only the boy can’t save her, and no one can save her from herself.
Nick has secrets. He wants to open up to Alexis, but there’s the dead boy who haunts him. In his dreams. While he’s awake. He wants to be brave, but he can’t tell her about his past, and he can’t leave the facility.
Melanie rules over the school, until a nobody named Lexie tries to disrupt her reign. She won’t allow that. She also can’t stop it. She plummets into notoriety, but she’s determined to take them all with her. The girl, the boy, and their secrets.

 Review

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!  Bullies Like Me was completely epic!!! Mind blowing!!!  Words cannot describe how much I loved this book.  I still can't get this book off my mind and I finished it several days ago. Anyone can relate to this story, these characters, on some level. In some way, we have been the bullied, the bullies or their followers, a bully to the bullies, or a bully who has seen the error of his or her ways. We have been one of those people! We have experienced what these characters went through in some way. This book is so raw and real.  The feels!!  So many feels!  I felt as though I was right there with this characters, experiencing and feeling everything that they felt.  It took me back to the past to when I was in school.

"I wasted too much time on the things that didn't change anything, instead of focusing on the things that could, for the better."

Alexis was the new girl at a new school.  She got bullied so much that she made a life and death decision.  Coming back from that and getting the help that that she needed, she became stronger.  But, she became two different people.  With Nick and her family, she was Alexis.  The girl she always was.  At school, she became Lexi.  A girl no one recognized.  A girl seeking revenge on the ones that tormented her.  She became a bully to the bullies.  

 "They take, and they break, and they are without regret. They need to repent. Anyone they've hurt deserves an apology. I'll make sure they get it, even if I'm the only one who witnesses it."

Melanie was one of the main bullies in this story. She was very mean and had to be completely perfect.  She was the queen of the school.  Her two sidekicks Jocelyn and Casey were always there as well. One of these sidekicks wanted what Melanie had so was constantly sabotaging and taking from her in some way.  The other sidekick was the follower.  At times, she didn't like what she was seeing, but she didn't do anything about it.  Just watched or left.  When Lexi, starts exacting revenge on these three, things start changing, especially for one of the bullies.  We see her start experiencing and feeling what all the other bullies felt. We start seeing her realize that who she is now isn't who she is meant to be. I just want to point out that I hated Melanie at the beginning, but grew to like her by the end. 
  
"Choices are easy to make-living with them is entirely another thing." 

Nick had a huge secret.  I was constantly trying to figure him out. He was constantly seeing a dead boy that had to do with something from his past.   I loved his relationship with Alexis.  Neither one told each other why they were at Live.  They just lived in the moment and not let the past change anything. They each pulled one another out of the dark abyss.
  

"Holding grudges hurts the person holding them more than anyone else."

 Bullies Like Me was an unforgettable story that pulled at my heart-strings from beginning to end.  This book literally took me on an emotional roller coaster.  There are so many secrets and surprises in this book that I was constantly on the edge of my seat!  That ending about gave me a heart attack!!  There is so much pain, heart ache and regret in this book, yet there was also love and forgiveness.  These characters changed so much by the end of the story, and that is what I loved the most about it.  The growth that I got too see.  Who they were at the beginning to who they became at the end. Bullies Like Me was a beautifully written story that will forever be in my heart! It is a MUST read for everyone!  


Excerpt
Nick’s arm brushes against mine as we cross the street, and he flinches.
I grit my teeth, holding in my irritation until we reach the beginning of the path. Then I slam my hands on my hips and glare at him. “Okay, what is your deal? If you really didn’t want to be with me today, why didn’t you just say it?”
He opens his mouth.
My glower deepens.
“I don’t like being out in public. I don’t…like being around people,” he says after a pause. “I like to be alone.”
I throw my arms up in frustration. “Then why did you agree to this?”
Nick steps closer. “But I like to be with you more than I like to be alone, and even though I don’t like to be around people, I like to be around you—probably more than I should. How could I say no to being with you, even if it’s in a setting I despise?”
“That’s messed up,” I say, shaking my head, even as a warm glow fills my insides.
“I’m messed up.”
“You’re not, not really.”
He lowers his head, taking my hands in his. Examining them. It feels like fire and ice when we touch. Sparks and frost. “You have no idea, Alexis.” Nick threads our fingers together, lifting our hands between us, and looks at me.
“Tell me,” I whisper, feeling like I can’t breathe. My air is caught somewhere within the magnetic pull of blue-green seas. Who needs to breathe anyway?
“Someday,” he promises, and then, with our hands still entwined, he leans forward and kisses me.
His lips are soft, firm. Magic. Tasting of dreams and hope. And grief too. I’m kissing not only Nick, but his soul as well. I feel his heartbeat with my lips. I taste the feelings he has for me, and they are overwhelming. Catastrophically beautiful. The kiss lasts long enough to rearrange everything inside me, to steal my breath, to give it back. To let me know Nick has the power to ruin me. To let me know I’d probably let him.


Universal Buy Link: books2read.com/bullieslikeme
 
 
USA Today bestselling author Lindy Zart writes in a multitude of fictional genres because, well, her brain requires it so she stays somewhat sane. She has been writing since she was a child, but luckily for readers, her writing has improved since then. 

She lives in Wisconsin with her family. Lindy loves hearing from people who enjoy her work. She also has a completely healthy obsession with the following: coffee, wine, pizza, peanut butter, and bloody marys. ​
 
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