Author: Veronica R. Tabares
Pages: 284
Version: Paperback
Publisher: Sun Break Publishing
I've not had too much time to read lately, but I finally just finished Gray Zone last night. I got this book off of a goodreads giveaway (Thanks!) and to be honest, I really didn't know what to expect when I started it. The first thing I noticed was the cover which is actually pretty nice except that the placement of the title and author's name drove me mad. In addition, the "one" in Zone is a bit hard to read over the light background as well. I don't particularly understand the shape of the girl on the front, but I like it anyway so that's all fine. The book also feel really nice. The cover has some sort of strange texture that I really like. Anyway, onto the book. So at first, I was a bit iffy on it. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it in the beginning because it's not the type of book that I normally read. Autumn was written a little weirdly because she's supposed to be a sophomore in high school, but she doesn't actually sound like one a lot of the time. I tried to just overlook all of that though because it's not the most important thing. The plot would seem to be somewhat boring, but the message that it puts out is extremely powerful. It deals with all the sorts of emotions that go into bullying and how it effects people. In addition, it also talks mostly about cyber-bullying and the new ways that bullying can be spread online. Personally, I've been lucky enough to not really experience bullying first hand. That being said, I could feel the emotions of the characters and saw what they went through. This book brings the emotions of bullying through incredibly well. After reading it, I feel like I understand bullying and how much of a problem it is a lot more. There was one story arc in it with a character of a bully that I felt maybe should have been continued more to show why bullying happens, but the end was sort of left on a cliff hanger and I can see how that could be carried over into the next book rather successfully. If the author is planning on writing another book, I think I would definitely check it out. Overall, I would recommend this book to someone who wants an emotional book that reveals some of the consequences of bullying.
