This review is part of Melody’s Summer Reading: Diversity Spotlight. Enjoy!
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman
Release Date: October 4, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult Sci-fi
ISBN: 978-0061134104
Source: Bought
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TENNYSON:
Don’t get me started on The Bruiser. He was voted “Most Likely to Get the Death Penalty” by the entire school. He’s the kid no one knows, no one talks to, and everyone hears disturbing rumors about. So why is my sister, Brontë dating him? One of these days she’s going to take in the wrong stray dog, and it’s not going to end well.
BRONTË:
My brother has no right to talk about Brewster that way – no right to threaten him. There’s a reason why Brewster can’t have friends – why he can’t care about too many people. Because when he cares about you, things start to happen. Impossible things that can’t be explained. I know, because they’re happening to me.
BREWSTER:
Stealer of screams and thief of anguish, I am a criminal, but you can’t see it, blinded by your own relief as my body becomes a battlefield in a war that can’t be won. Will I be the bullet that ends your pain, or will you end mine?
Award-winning author Neal Shusterman has crafted a chilling and unforgettable novel about the power of unconditional friendship, the complex gear work of a family, and the sacrifices we endure for the people we love.
Bruiser is my first read outside of the Unwind series that I’ve read by Neal Shusterman so I had high expectations that I was trying to keep in check and I’m so, so thrilled to say that this blew me away. This only reaffirms that you know you’re going to get a phenomenal story when you pick up a Neal Shusterman book. There are so many reasons why.
Like Unwind, this story is told through multiple points of view. Shusterman is a master at multiple POVs. He nails every voice, making each so wonderfully distinct with so much depth. Brewster’s voice was so poetic and made me fall in love with his words, his story even faster than I was already falling.
Where sorrow waits,
With cold and clammy hands,
Shaking in grim anticipation,
Is where I must return.
Home.
The relationships had so much depth as well. For a story like this, it’s necessary to feel the weight of each relationship as we discover that Brewster is an empath. Brewster has to literally not care about people in order to survive. So he pushes everyone away. He sets guard rails up everywhere all while taking on the pain of his younger brother and the Uncle they live with. An Uncle whose guilt over Brewster’s ability turns him into the worst version of himself. This leads to abuse in the home, making this a very emotionally tough book to read. The tension is heavy. The tone of the story gradually gets darker and darker as Brewster takes on more and more pain. As he endures the darkness for those around him, almost to the point of death.
It’s a tough pill to swallow but Brewster must learn to stop allowing himself to take on other people’s pain and those around him must learn to own their faults, their mistakes, their pain in order to grow, in order to be whole. Bruiser is a devastating story about what happens to the one person taking on all of the despair of the people denying the world around them, the world within them and how they all learn to heal because of it.
Bruiser is an arresting tale about what it means to have hope for a world that asks you to be selfless over and over again with nothing given from them; it’s a story about what it means to have joy when you can’t love over and over again. It’s about the fight of a child’s life, a fight that very few can see but so many are unknowingly affected by. Bruiser is extraordinary and in saying all this, I still don’t think I’ve done it justice. This is not an easy book to read, it’s a dark, dark book about the will to love. The will to let love in. The will to love selflessly. The will to do what’s right despite our love. It goes there. But it is so worth it, so if you think you can handle it, read this book and read it now. It will leave a much needed bruise on your heart, one that you won’t want to have go away.
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman is available today.