7 Days

By: Eve Ainsworth
Location: FIC AIN
Genre: Youth Fiction- Bullying


I was bullied at school- no fun. I was the geeky new kid at the new school who would not go down to the back field and smoke. That was a recipe for months of torment and mocking that led to a decent black eye and the perpetrator being expelled from school.
Being bullied is consuming, it is utterly destructive, it is dehumanizing and it leaves you just not wanting to be!
I got over it- made some good mates, finished my Yr 13 and have a life. The bully- did not finish school and ended up a teenage mum with a not much support and mates that lead her down a futile path- at the end of the day she has suffered far more than I
did.

This bold, compelling and topical story about bullying is told from the perspective of the bully and the bullied. You won't be able put it down until you've reached the conclusion. Jess's life is difficult enough without Kez picking on her – it’s turning school from a safe place into a nightmare. Kez has plenty of problems too but she finds comfort in knowing she is better off than Jess - or so she thinks. A hard-hitting and even-handed look at bullying and the issues facing teenagers today.

As the title suggests, the story takes place over the course of one week. It follows both girls as Kez bullies Jess, both in person and online. As the bullying escalates, so do the emotions of each girl until everything explodes and everyone must deal with the fallout. 

"Seven Days is intense and addictive reading. Eve tackles the disturbing issue of bullying with sensitivity, but never lets up on the cracking pace. The tension builds and builds leading to an exciting and gripping conclusion, with plenty of emotional twists and turns along the way. Both carefully-constructed main characters, Jess and Kez, victim and bully, have their problems and I found my sympathies veering from one to the other throughout the book. Very cleverly done. 

At times the story made for uncomfortable reading but rightly so - Seven Days brilliantly demonstrates how complex bullying issues can be. It is thought-provoking, grim and tense in equal measure. "
J M Forster.
The Author has a great blog- check it out
http://eveainsworth.com/