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Brutal, by Michael Harmon
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With her martyr-doctor mother gone to save lives in some South American country, Poe Holly suddenly finds herself on the suburban doorstep of the father she never knew, who also happens to be a counselor at her new high school. She misses Los Angeles. She misses the guys in her punk band. Weirdly, she even misses the shouting matches she used to have with her mom.
But Poe manages to find a few friends: Theo, the cute guy in the anarchy Tshirt, and Velveeta, her oddly likeable neighbor—and a born victim who’s the butt of every prank at Benders High. But when the pranks turn deadly at the hands of invincible football star Colby Morris, Poe knows she’s got to fix the system and take down the hero.
With insightfulness, spot-on dialogue, and a swiftly paced plot, Michael Harmon tells the story of a displaced girl grappling with a truly dangerous bully.
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #1549290 in Books
- Published on: 2011-03-08
- Released on: 2011-03-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x .56" w x 5.50" l, .44 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
From Booklist
Sixteen-year-old Poe Holly is “the outcome of a sperm donor program called Poor Choices and Bad Mistakes.” Her workaholic mother has taken a year off to practice medicine in South America, unloading Poe into the custody of a father she’s never met, a straitlaced counselor at Poe’s new school. The pierced and mohawked Poe mostly abhors the homogeneity and elitism of her suburban classmates, though she finds two exceptions: the whip-smart punk-rocker son of the town mayor, and Velveeta, the troubled pariah on the hit list of Colby, the school’s untouchable bully. There is little earth-shattering here, but that’s part of the book’s low-key charm; Harmon’s dialogue is crystal clear and authentic, his youth characters intelligent, and his adult characters finely drawn. The central conflict—the growing hostility between Colby and Velveeta—leads to an ending of contrivance, but that should not take away from an admirably realistic portrayal of a rebel coming to realize that rebellion can be elitist, too. Grades 9-12. --Daniel Kraus
About the Author
Michael Harmon's hobbies include backpacking, fishing, woodworking, and building skateboard and snowboarding ramps for his kids in the backyard. His first YA novels, Skate and The Last Exit to Normal, are also available from Knopf, and he is currently at work on his next book for young readers, The Chamber of Five. Visit his website at BooksbyHarmon.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
If I'd known I'd be living in Benders Hollow, California, when I was sixteen, I would have traded back every complaint I had about my life for a bus ticket out of this place. No can do, though. I'm stuck here for a year. Then I'll be gone, back to Los Angeles and on my own.
I met Benders Hollow four minutes ago via a Greyhound bus because my mom, Dr. Nancy M. Holly, decided her "path" didn't include being a mom anymore. As I stepped on the bus to come here, she stepped on a private chartered jet, headed to some South American jungle village to help "world citizens" lance boils and disinfect festering monkey bites. All so she could come back and tell her doctor friends how she helped the underprivileged peons she looks down her long nose at.
Not that I'm complaining. At this point I don't care if I see her until I get a monkey bite. I get in the way of her life, and we're like gunpowder and lightning together. First it was two weeks in Syria helping refugees. She missed my seventh-grade graduation for that one. Then it was a month in Africa. Scratch my fifteenth birthday for that trip, but add a purple Mohawk to greet her when she got back. Sometimes spite tastes sweet, and she refused to take me to any of her "functions" because it's not who you are, it's what you look like, and until I looked normal, I was out of the loop. Damn, no more jumbo shrimp cocktail and old pervert doctors ogling my ass.
Now it's a year in South America. I don't even know what country. I didn't ask.
Not that her being gone is much different from her being here, because even when she's here, she's gone. Whatever. My mom is saving the world one person at a time, she likes to say. I like to ask her how it feels to think you're a god. She rolls her eyes and walks away.
I'm in a no-win situation, though, and I know it. Poor disaffected me. We're rich. I've been quietly "transferred" out of three high-end private schools due to my inability to follow stupid rules. My last school counselor asked me how I could possibly complain about having such a great life and wonderful mother. Yeah, everybody loves her, and she loves everybody loving her. For such a stupid and lame question, I started crying before I got pissed about it. My mom cares more about strangers than about me.
She saves lives and that's good, and I love her because she's not always as selfish and egotistical as it seems, but it ends with the one thing more important than her status. Money. I asked her how many families she put through bankruptcy while she was saving their lives and she didn't speak to me for a week.
Anyway, now she's working as a surgeon in remote parts of a jungle where her daughter isn't, and I'm in Benders Hollow to meet my father for the first time because she wouldn't let me stay home alone. It's not like I haven't taken care of myself since I was ten, and it's not like he has. I can order out. I know how to use a toaster. Big deal. No different from when she's in town.
My mom likes telling me I'm spoiled. I'm a rich kid stuck in a not-rich-kid mind. She says I am who I am because I'm reactionary to her perfectness. But I'm not. I fit nowhere in her life, and the embarrassment I see in her face and the way she falters and casts her eyes away when she introduces me to "colleagues" makes me want to vomit on her four-hundred-dollar shoes. But I know who I am. I'm Poe Holly, and I'm pissed off.
"Poe?"
I recognized him from a picture I saw once, but more than that, I recognized his voice. I'd talked to him a few times before. Once at Christmas when I was ten, another time on my birthday, and then after I'd been caught drinking last year in the locker room of my last private school. My mother's daughter doesn't get suspended. It was decided Oak Grove Preparatory School was not good enough for me.
I saw the resemblance in his eyes. The color of flagstone, just like mine. Other than that, he was totally and completely average. He could be any Joe Schmoe walking down the street in a small town: slim build, beige jeans, and a tucked-in slate green short-sleeved polo shirt. Every woman's dream if her dream was bland: he was about as clean-cut and boring as you could be. The only thing cool about him was that he wasn't wearing an article of clothing worth over fifty dollars. Maybe we'd get along.
His hair was cut ultra-conservative, dark brown like mine if I didn't dye it black, and he was clean-shaven and looked older than I had imagined. I knew he was thirty-five, but his face was a bit drawn and the shade under his eyes reminded me of a person who read too much. He smiled, standing with his hands in his pockets. I could tell he was nervous. I stepped toward him. "Hi."
He nodded, shifting his feet. "Hello."
We stood there, me in my punk getup and him looking completely forgettable with his loafers and neatly parted hair. I hitched my bag on my shoulder, wondering if this had been a good idea. "You're not holding a sign."
He blinked, then furrowed his brow.
"A sign. Like at an airport. It's supposed to say my name. Poe Holly. So I don't miss you in the crowd."
He brightened, then smiled, looking around the vacant sidewalk. "Nobody else got off at this stop."
"I was the only one on the bus. I take it the usual tourists don't come by Greyhound."
He laughed. "Benders Hollow isn't Los Angeles, and no, they don't."
I looked around, taking in the touristy setting. Mom had offered to have a limo bring me up. "Seven hours on a bus?" she'd said. "Poe . . ." Blah blah blah. I sighed. "Well, I'm here."
He held his hand out. "Let me take your bag." He took it, then looked to the bus idling at the curb. "Any more baggage?"
"Mom wouldn't fit in a suitcase."
He smiled, but a darkness passed through his eyes. Then he slung the huge thing over his back and we walked down the street. "That's why I like it."
"Like what?"
"Benders Hollow."
I looked around. It looked like a small town to me, all right. "Why?"
He chuckled, but barely loud enough to hear. "Because it's not Los Angeles."
From the Hardcover edition.
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
It was a good read....
By Tash
I started this book and loved Poe's voice but then things got long winded.
Characters:
The characters are general cut outs with Poe Holly (a rebellious Gothic teen with a parent complex), he mother (a neglectful work obsessive socialite doctor who left her to go work on a charity project), Her father (the quiet school counselor/writer who left when she was born but is really cool), Velveeta "Andrew" (her weird friend who is picked on), and Theo (her very intelligent best friend/boyfriend who is a rebel and mayor's son). The cast is entertaining enough (I loved Theo even though he was unrealistic), but Poe's attitude becomes really annoying. She is so angry at the world when she has a lot more than other kids have, like Velveeta. Her family is very dysfunctional but at least she has the support. Her rebellious act gets old after awhile. Also, all her speeches and arguments were so well planned she becomes a megaphone for the author.
Plot:
The heart of the story is Poe finding out who her father is and fighting the system. Poe fights against bullying and how high school forces students to form cliques. The school has a policy that everyone is in one giant school clique but that is broken down.
Overall:
The book was okay. The characters are a little too perfect and sound a little too "adult" for teenagers. Their fight against bullying and cliques felt tired and unresolved. It is written in a very down to earth style and Poe's narration was always fun to read but you just get tired of it.
It is okay if you like spunky girls with all the answers but it would be better from a library than purchasing it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
By-standers to bullies
By Whatcha Reading Now?
Brutal's main character Poe Holly is a girl too tough to be bullied. Sassy, savvy and street smart, she is forced to live with her father in a perfect little house in a perfect little suburb giving up singing in her punk band so her doctor mother can go to South America to help "world citizens." Writer, Michael Harmon, puts Poe in the impeccable Benders High School where Poe finds out their dirty little secret; the adults don't look the other way during bullying incidents- they perpetuate it.
It's subtle and important distinction that Harmon explores in Brutal. If the teachers are supporting the intimidation of some students by the popular and athletic ones, what hope is there of eliminating the problem. Certain students are given privileges and it's those students who are the bullies. Colby Morris is Brutal's untouchable football hero who has singled out Velveeta, a misfit of a boy who lives near Poe, for his put downs and degradations. Poe won't allow it, and the tenacity she used to get herself kicked out of three elite Los Angeles private schools will be needed if she is going to take on the system starting with her father who is Benders High's guidance counselor.
Readers will root for Poe, because of her for her inability to let go of what she knows is right.
-- Reviewed by Cathy Castelli
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
cute quick read
By Sarah Librarian
a cute story about Poe, who is sent to live with her absentee father after her mother deserts her to provide aid in South America. The story follows Poe as she tries to get to know her dad and figure out why he left their family in the first place. Also, at her new school, Poe tries to stir things up by pointing out all the unfairness to school administrators. This causes some trouble as her dad is the school counselor. The main story revolves around Poe trying to protect her sort of friend Velveeta after he becomes the target of some vicious bullies.
The story was interesting, but I would have liked a little more character development with Velveeta and Theo. It was a fast read and will appeal to boys and girls age 13+
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