Once Upon a Twilight!: Blog Tour: Tease | Amanda Maciel

Welcome to our stop on TEASE tour for Amanda Maciel. This tour is hosted by Book Nerd Tours. Today we share our 4.5 star review.

Tease
Author: Amanda Maciel
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Science Contemporary
Released: April 29th 2014
Review Source: Blog Tour | Balzer + Bray

Emma Putnam is dead, and it’s all Sara Wharton’s fault.

At least, that’s what everyone seems to think. Sara, along with her best friend and three other classmates, has been criminally charged for the bullying and harassment that led to Emma’s shocking suicide. Now Sara is the one who’s ostracized, already guilty according to her peers, the community, and the media.

During the summer before her senior year, in between meetings with lawyers and a court-recommended therapist, Sara is forced to reflect on the events that brought her to this moment—and ultimately consider her role in an undeniable tragedy. And she’ll have to find a way to move forward, even when it feels like her own life is over.

In this powerful debut novel inspired by real-life events, Amanda Maciel weaves a narrative of high school life as complex and heartbreaking as it is familiar: a story of everyday jealousies and resentments, misunderstandings and desires. Tease is a thought-provoking must-read that will haunt readers long after the last page.

Talk about Mean Girls in a whole new level. If you’re a fan of the movie ‘Mean Girls’, like myself, then make sure you pick up a copy of Tease. Even if Tease takes it to a whole new level…

Sara Wharton is about to go to trial. Why? Because all she ever desired was for Emma Putman to leave her and her boyfriend alone. Since Emma wouldn’t leave them alone, along with the help of her best friend and Queen Bee, Brielle, Sara began word-harassing Emma. And now, Emma is dead.

Honestly, I liked and didn’t like Sara at times. People may not like her because she is the bully. But I felt bad for her at times, even if she is as stubborn as it gets. After all, she is a high school student and her biggest mistake was to try to fit in. I am not making excuses for her actions. She should’ve known better but she didn’t.

Reading this unique perspective, of the bully, I am not going to lie, it is refreshing. We tend to read books in the victim perspective, Emma in this case, and we usually feel sorry for them. But Emma is no angel. At all. She is the girl that tends to steal boyfriends. Just the fact that the victim irritated me… YES, I KNOW, I feel bad, but Amanda did an amazing job in sucking you in Sara’s shoes. I know, even if she did these things, this didn’t make it right for Sara and Brielle to make her life impossible – by spreading rumors online and calling her very insulting names in public places. Seriously, it is a battle with your own persona while reading this book! (Well in my case). She help spread rumors, talked bad about Emma, but who didn't do this while being in high school? Just like in Mean Girls, we all would raise our hands when Ms. Norbury asked "I want you to raise your hand if you have ever said anything about a friend behind her back". Now imagine treating, what high school girls would call "your enemy", the girl that stole your boyfriend.

Amanda, I applause you for making this bold move. Writing in a bully’s perspective is something unique and honestly I enjoyed it. Amanda tacked a very serious topic and seeing it on this side of the story is an eye opening. We all have said things that have hurt people. Probably we didn’t intend for anyone to lose a life, like in this story, but we must learn that life is complicated and we have to start apologizing for things that we didn’t mean to happen… Even if you have your own story to tell.

Amanda Maciel has worked in book publishing since graduating from Mount Holyoke College and is currently a senior editor at Scholastic. She spends her free time writing, running, or riding the subway with her young son. She lives with him, her husband, and their cat, Ruby, in Brooklyn, New York. Tease is her first novel.