Guys, I read Bully by Penelope Douglas, and I genuinely regret it.

I don't necessarily think high of Y/A romance, but it's right up my alley since it's around my age span. At leat the protagonists tend to be around my age 16-18, me falling at that magical 17.

So when I saw this book, I just had to. But to be honest, there was nothing in general that pulled me towards this book, other than the cover which was kind of meh.

Though, I do feel like this book is loved by the general population of kids my age, if the rating on goodreads was any indicator to that:

So basically, it's the story of Tate/Tatum (I think that's her full, unnicknamed name) and Jared. So these two used to be friends until one faithful summer before high school started, and then Jared started bullying Tate, but then they fall in love and they live happily ever after, after Jared bullied her for four years. FOUR YEARS!

Now, I don't want anyone reading this book, and I'll say that I do like love/hate relationships. But this was just a miss for me because there's a difference between a love/hate relationship, and a "lemme bully you forever" relationship.

Bully by Penelope Douglas is like After by Anna Todd, just set in high school with twenty times less sex scenes, and less cheating.

Now, that's the end of that non-spoiler section.

First off, let's talk about the plot.

In all honesty, when it comes to books like these, they tend to be more character driven, which is fine, let's not let the eggs hatch before the chickens mate. But there was a semblance of a plot, which was just the two of them discovering that they love each other.

So, the book starts off with Tate, our main character, going to France for school. This was after her junior year. Now, let me be nitpicky here for a while. Unless, she went to an American school in France, which then defies the whole point of studying in France, she'd have to go back in Première, which is junior year in France. Then once she goes back in the US for school, she'd have to do her Junior Year again, because she'd have to pick a fillière, considering the year the book was written in. Either L, literature, S,  scientific or ES, economy and sociology or STMG, STG, STI2D and another variety of fields of studies. In other words, she would've wasted 3 years of her life.

But of course, the author researched this little information not, and just chilled and acted like French curriculum students like yours truly wouldn't actually pick up her book. Also, she came back from France for her senior year and I kid you not, this girl only knew how to say bonbons and a couple of other French words. One, bonbons aka candy aka sweets were made out to be exotic, when every country in the world has candy. And two, why the fuck did you pick up bonbons out of every French word you could've learned?

But I digress.

She comes back from France, her dad is still in Germany, and she lives alone, and the bully, Jared, is her next door neighbor. So, once she's back, Jared and his friends, start bullying her again, and everything is right with the world I suppose. But this is one thing, she came back from France with a backbone and now stands up to her bullies and whatever.

So basically, nothing has changed, other than the fact that she's so turned on by Jared that she just wants to bounce on his dick.

Jared in the meantime, goes out of his way to make Tate's life miserable, bullying her, spreading rumors, pulling pranks. The things we did back in grade school, ya know? Basically, he acts like an overgrown man child with a big dick.

But they bond anyway, and get closer together. We know this because this one time, they go to a race, while Jared is kind of like dating Tate's best friend to spite Tate and Tate has a boyfriend kind of thing, and Jared only trusts Tate to drive his car, which is a stick. By which I mean is a manual car and not an automatic. By which I mean, sticks are the real shit.

Okay, so, because she knows that Jared is using her friend they have this big fallout, Tate and K.C, which is all resolved in like a page or two, after Tate being friendless for chapters.

She ends up kissing Jared one night when he's drunk and smashing things, which... I need to talk about that a bit.

I'm aware, Jared has been a dick to her at every turn, but in that particular scene, he was drunk and coming from a very horrible place. And generally vulnerable. Kissing him, or simply kissing him back wasn't the best move, but it's Tate, so it's aight.

After, we discover that the boy Tate was dating is actually a douche since he records Tate and Jared doing the nasty and sends it to everyone from Jared's phone. Which is then Jared and Tate's big fallout, but it gets resolved in a chapter and the book ends.

Also, this was not recounted in order and I don't give two flying fucks.

Let's talk about writing.

I'll just say this. Penelope Douglas' writing ain't that bad. It's repetitive which is fine. It's Y/A, it's not like I was expecting Nora Roberts or Jane Austen style writing.

CHARACTERS

JARED

I genuinely hate Jared, even though I feel i could've liked him as a character if this was a different story and if he had a different arc. But he's not in a different story and he still has a whole arc directly linked to Tate, which I highly dislike.

So, first, he's abusive. In every sense of the word. And it's more like, he bullies her and I just can't respect a character who does that, no matter the reason they put behind it.

And, he literally goes out of his way to make Tate's life a living hell, but it's all okay because he loves her.

I wasn't okay with this, especially since there were no repercussions to his actions. He was portrayed as untouchable, and everyone wanted to be with him.

Simply put, Tate could've either:

1) Changed schools and be done with it. Also convince her dad that they should move and Jared problem would be solved.

2) Gone to an adult about being bullied. And put an end to it.

I'm also not comfortable with knowing that the guy we were supposed to be rooting for bullied our main character for the better part of her high school years.

Granted there was an explanation to why he suddenly grew cold towards Tate.

1) He loves her which is disgusting that this is actually a reason.

2) The summer he went with his dad, he found out that he had an adopted brother and that his dad abused his brother. Which led to Jared being abused by his dad. So, obviously when he came back, his father in jail and a brother out of nowhere, he was messed up and got jealous of Tate's perfect family. Even though Tate's mother is either dead or somewhere between here and there.

None of those two reasons I consider valid enough, but the author wanted us to believe it.

I do agree though that for a fourteen year old suffering through something of the sort, his reaction is justified. And his back story could justify his actions, the seek of thrill, the drinking and bullying Tate.

But see, this reason wasn't put forward as much as the fact that he loves Tate, for whatever reason.

TATE

Gosh, this one is just. Urgh.

Tate is portrayed as not being like other girls over and over again. Mostly because most girls don't know how to drive a stick, but she does, and she's a virgin and most girls are absolute sluts. And whatever.

I hated this. While the author never blatantly stated it, Tate clearly fit into the "I'm not like other girls" trope and it was annoying at best. I hate that trope with passion.

Also, Tate went to France and came back with thick skin. Also know as enough bitchiness to stop the Congolese Ebola Epidemic.

I also, I don't really understand how she just accepts to forgive Jared so easily. I would understand that she did feel a bit of whatever for him, but does that really excuse anything? In the prologue, Tate wouldn't so much as dare pronounce his name. So why is she suddenly so forgiving? Questions questions and yet no answers.

There's not really much to say about her, since as far as characters go, she's pretty one-dimensional, a cardboard cutout. A cookie cutter character, who's unbelievably horny.

K.C

She is Tate's best friend, and I think she deserves her moment in the spotlight for being the biggest idiot and worst best friend to have ever existed.

1) KC urges Tate to forgive Jared because he's insanely hot now and every girl likes him. Whatever he did to her bestie doesn't matter because abs.

I don't appreciate this. Mostly because a lot of best friends in y/a romance are actually like this.

I found this factor to be quite disturbing because KC had no reason to tell that to Tate, and urging Tate to forgive Jared because he's hot and he was nicer when she wasn't a around is absolutely inconsiderate.

2) KC actually falls into Jared's little trap and has a fallout with Tate because of it.

I didn't know what this bitch was actually expecting. She does also clear up that she was just using him but did that honestly really matter when he bullied your best friend for 4 years?

In this instance, Tate's concerns were justified, she was looking after her friend, who was being stupid. Yet again.

In general, KC is really inconsiderate whenever Jared and Tate are concerned. You shouldn't be pushing the victim into the hands of their abuser. Period. No matter how many six packs they have.

the romance

They had the guts to call this blatant romanticization of bullying a romance. I'm just done.

This was my main problem with this book. It pushes the belief that if a boy is mean to you, it's because he likes you. Which may be true for some boys out there, but it shouldn't be glorified either or pushed as a correct narrative to go by.

Frankly, if a boy is mean to you and later on says that he liked you, run away. This for me is an absolute red flag and should be like a warning for the start of an abusive relationship.

I do understand that the author wanted to play on the whole enemies to lovers type of thing, but generally, when people do that they don't make it outright disgusting bullying, and it's generally on both ends. Point is, there's not one person on the receiving end and another on the giving end.

Here we had a clear romanticizing of bullying, and it's disgusting.

What irks me the most is that a lot of people actually like this book and think that Jared is a good love interest and that Jared and Tate are #relationshipgoals.

You could see where this could be problematic.

I don't also believe in the "I can change him" trope hidden in this book.

Two things:

1) If you believe you can change your significant other, you shouldn't be in that relationship if that's your sole purpose, it just shows that it's abusive.

2) Dating your bully is a bad idea. It's a horrible one in fact.

I just heavily disliked that the bullying was portrayed as okay since it was done in the name of love.

I don't think this book is sending out a good message for the young boys and girls out there. It's just wrong on so many levels.

But I digress.