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First off, I admit: I'm a sucker for love/hate stories. And after reading the premise for Bully, I was super psyched to see where it would take me.

Alas, I feel like I've stepped into a trap.

I've come across a thousand FANFICTIONS that were so. much. better. (Hell, comparing it to that feels like an insult to fanfictions themselves.) But this is simply yet another blasted romance novel suffering from the 'new-adult-unoriginal-cliche-itis' that's been circulating around and contaminating 80% of the contemporary books I've read. God, I believe this is the gazillionth time I'm labeling a story as 'cliche' which is making my limited vocabulary feel somewhat cliched- but there's just no other way to put it when all these books turn out to be the same! A pity, really, because I felt this storyline held so much potential.

The central focus of Bully sticks with the relationship between our severely annoying protagonist, Tate (and in case you were wondering, she's a she, and to furthermore weird you out, her full name's actually TATUM. I know, I know. *shakes head in exasperation* A little advice to you authors out there: if you're intending to pick an uncommon name for your main character, make sure you don't mix uncommon with unusual. It serves to be highly distracting throughout the entire read, especially when you have these guys constantly popping in your head:



)

–and her best friend-turned-life ruiner, Jared. Two years into high school have been a living nightmare thanks to this guy and his ludicrous pranks and rumors (and I do mean ludicrous, because honestly, is the school comprised of absolute dimwitted idiots to believe all those blatantly false things about bowel diseases and STDs? Jesus fucking christ.) and for two whole years, she's done nothing to bring a stop to it.

Then one day, shes decides to pack up and leave for France for a gap year, and returns with no visible transformation in her personality�� which really confuses me because wasn't that supposed to be the whole point? But oh wait, guess I missed out the part where she gets sprinkled in pixie dust and spontaneously develops a bout of confidence and tough-girl bitchiness to face her bully (not to mention the fact that all the guys at school seem to be dealing with a sudden infatuation with her despite treating her no better than a leper before).

Cue a slew of kneez to the ballz, snarky t o t a l l y o r i g i n a l comebacks and heated confrontations. But besides all this BS, the real kicker was that she was so fucking enraptured by his dreamy good looks and just hubba hubba who cares that dickhead who heedlessly torments me for no apparent reason surpasses the douchiest of douchebags because my oh my look at those sweet set of abs!

WHAT IN THE WORLDS IS WRONG WITH YOU? I get that you were close to this guy in your tween days, but after the shit he's put you through, I think it's about time you sort yourself out and get. the fuck. over him. It's like she gets possessed by hormones every time she's around him, only to have said hormones abandon her next to practically any other guy. Especially Ben Jamison, who's not only charming and good-natured, but considered one of the most attractive hunks at school- and wonderful Tate here seemingly can't find a single fuck to give about him all due to the one lone fact that he has a taste for country music. Ugggh, where's my whip?

I can't even begin to tell you how awful it was having to bear with her narration! She deems it a necessity to hatefully label each and every female present in the story either a 'bitch' or a 'slut' or whatnot, but then takes pride in being considered one of those. According to her, she hasn't got any friends to hang out with, so I think it's safe to assume that Tate Brandt is an A+ judgemental son of a gun. Oh, and the only 'true friend' she does have is as shallow as they can get: people, I bring to you K.C! Seriously, is it that hard to just stick with Casey or do you find some sort of satisfaction at being ~different~ by not doing that?

K.C., being fully aware of Jared's assholish mistreatments towards Tate, doesn't hesitate in pursuing him after falling victim for his perfect looks *cringe* and insists on her best friend to let go of the past and accept him for who he is (in case you didn't know: a manipulative bag of dicks). *double cringe* Obviously, it's only fitting that Tate should get supremely mad at her for the way she's acting- except it's for all the wrong reasons. Whether she's ready to believe it or not, she's jealous of K.C. and wants her paws off her man so to say (and do remember, said man is the same guy who's turned her into a social monstrosity).

The whole ordeal is just so bloody infuriating, all I wanted was some bleach to douse my- no wait, their eyes out with. Not a single character in the book that I could give less of a damn about! They were all just...so...



Like I said before, the main focus was on the romance, which let me tell you, was just plain shitty. I felt no chemistry between Tate and Jared whatsoever and couldn't even find myself sympathizing much with his past (oh yes, did I not mention? Mr. Mysterious here has his very own secret past to strip away all his faults, how perfectly understandable!)

All my energy was just so directed towards my vexation at them, I couldn't take it anymore. The sole reason I even finished this off was to finally discover what had induced Jared's initial coldness towards Tate (spoiler alert: it's disappointing). And then I forced myself to reach the finish line with ragged breaths to see how the author planned on ending this because THERE'S ACTUALLY A SECOND BOOK???????? Gag me.

All in all, don't bother with this.
Just please.
Don't.
Rest assured, it's not going to be worth it.