Michael Harmon’s new novel is aptly titled Brutal. Poe Holly has a razor sharp tongue, enough anger to burn down a town, and the guts to speak her mind no matter how brutal the truth may be.
16-year-old Poe’s mom has dumped her with her long-estranged father in a quiet, well-to-do California wine country town where everything is absolutely perfect on the surface. Poe’s punk look, anti-establishment attitude and anger issues mean right away she won’t fit in to the status quo. And she finds out quickly enough that lurking behind the perfect exterior of this town and its perfect high school is a painful truth no one has the courage to face.
The focus of this highly charged novel a question that has dogged high-school students from time immemorial: why is it that the more socially elite students get to prey upon the less so? And the answer Harmon comes up with is that it’s because the adults who run the school allow it. Some incidents seem exaggerated, but any teenager will recognize the hypocrisy of both the adults and the system and will delight in the kick-butt way Poe stands up for what’s right, what’s true, and what’s real.
- Posted by Cori