Review: Bullied by Jeff Erno

Although Bullied is published by Dreamspinner Press, it's not a conventional romantic anthology. Instead it's a set of seven short stories aimed at adults and YA, which all focus on the high school bullying of gay students.  Apart from maybe two of these stories, the rest do not have romantic themes and there is no sex in the book. Instead the focus is on friendship, tolerance or lack of it, the effect of suicide and the reasons for bullying or being bullied.

I had a couple of concerns coming into reading this anthology.  Firstly, I was worried that the stories were going to be depressing, or that they would all end up badly and I would be left feeling unhappy.  Actually, despite there being some difficult scenes, all the stories are essentially about hope and mostly end well.  Even the most difficult story containing suicide has an ending where there is a significant change in attitude and a reason for hope.  My second worry was that because of the theme, each story would be too similar.  Again, this turned out not to be the case on the whole.  The only similarities in the story tended to be the physical characteristics of the victim - usually small, slightly effeminate in voice and mannerisms, and unwilling or unable to stand up for themselves - and the bully, who tended to be athletic, popular and and bit of a jock.  However, given that, on the whole, those tend to be the characteristics of a victim of bullying and of the bully in real life, I could forgive that similarity.

What made this anthology very interesting in my view was that each story showed bullying from a different perspective.  The first story, Blending In, which actually turned out to be my favourite, was written from the point of view of gay student, Bryan. He is not being bullied because he's quite straight-acting and not out to anyone except his friend.  The victim of bullying is the rather flamboyant, Christian, who's over-the-top behaviour and actions makes Bryan cringe.  At first he has little sympathy for Christian and genuinely believes that he brings the bullying on himself by not toning down his 'act'.  As the story progresses and Bryan gets to know Christian a little better, so his attitude and willing to help Christian changes.  I liked that the story highlighted that it's not only straight people who can be complicit in bullying incidents.

In fact this was not the only story to explore the idea that those who stand back and do nothing are just as to blame as those throwing the punches or making the threats and calling names.  In what turned out to be the most emotionally painful story,  Different, the story takes four separate narratives. The first narrator, Caiden, is gay and the victim of sustained bullying because of his size and lack of athleticism. The second narrator, Rick, is openly gay, but his confidence, athleticism and charm means that he's generally well liked and so doesn't get bullied. The third narrator, Tina, is a tough lesbian who despises weakness in others and uses her strength and  sharp tongue to ensure she never gets bullied.  The fourth narrator is the mother of a teen suicide who looks back, too late, on how her behaviour and words contributed to the death of her son.  It was powerful and moving to see how the actions of all the characters, had they been just slightly different, could have altered the tragedy that occurs.

My second favourite story was the last story in the anthology, Kirby, which tells of Kirby who, as well as being gay, is also fat.  His best friend from school betrays him in a humiliating way and Kirby feels lost and alone until he meets Dustin, a new kid in school. I like Kirby a great deal and rejoiced as he slowly gained self-confidence. The scene at the end, left me smiling and was a good way to end an anthology of stories containing what had been a difficult theme to read at times.

As well as having the views of the victims of bullying a couple of the stories are taken from the views of bullies. The first of these stories is taken from the view of a jock who bullies a weaker gay student and the way his girlfriend helps to show a different side to the victim. The second story focuses on a student whose Christian upbringing blinkers him to the fact that his intolerance towards his former best friend is a form of bullying, especially when he turns a blind eye to how others are treating his friend.  I was a little concerned at first that this would turn into a 'all Christians are intolerant bigots' story, but that wasn't the case at all and the story was actually very balanced in its handling of the theme.

The theme of bullying means that there are some scenes in these stories which will be painful for some readers.  There are descriptions of violence, casual taunts, cyber-bullying and sustained abusive behaviour towards those who have done nothing to deserve the treatment they get.  However, as I said earlier, each story contains a thread of hope and many left me feeling happy that things are changing for the victim, mostly because of the actions of a friend and the knowledge that the victim is no longer alone in their struggles.  I urge you not to let the more violent parts of the book put you off reading the stories.  As well as being about bullying, the stories are also about the struggles that teenagers face in school, in their friendships and in their relationships with adults. It would the ideal book to give to a teenager who is struggling with bullying, as the YA theme is sensitively handled.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this anthology.  Yes, it was a difficult theme, but it was also very rewarding and satisfying to read these stories. The quality of the writing was high and the use of the first person narrative was particularly effective in getting into the minds of the victims and the bullies.  Even more encouraging is that the author is giving all royalties made in the first year of selling this anthology to an anti-bullying charity and DSP is matching those contributions too.  Talk about putting your money where your mouth is!  I'm recommending Bullied with a grade of 'Excellent'. It's a book you should read and recommend to your teenage children or grandchildren.

Buy this book HERE.