A tad juvenile feeling, but a quick read.

I've been wanting to read this for a long time because I love books about real-life issues. And also books like this always make me really happy that I didn't have to deal with social media when I was "growing up". I can only imagine all the stupid stuff that teenagers do to each other over the internet just because it's easy.

My heart breaks for all the kids out there going through online bullying and having to see the mean things that people write. If you're one of those people, just know that people suck, and Facebook makes it easier for sucky people to show off their suckage. They would never say it to your face, they're just cowards w/ a keyboard. (I know that doesn't make it any better, but I wish there were words that could!!).

As far as books go, I wouldn't put this up with my favorites. It had a good story: girl with a history of depression gets dumped publicly on social media, peers jump in and "like" the post, girl ends up in the hospital over it... and other spoilery stuff I can't mention. It was a book I read really fast and wanted to keep reading and reading, but there was a lot I didn't like about it also. The characters weren't my favorite. I like a flawed character, but all the characters in this book were mega-selfish and had MAJOR brat moments, even the adults. It's like each character was trying to yell louder than the other character to be able to be heard. And they all got super pissed if anyone else was getting the attention. I can take 1 or 2 people like that, but everyone? It was super difficult.

Beyond the brat-attack moments, the book also felt a little juvenile. I read almost exclusively YA, and most of them don't feel this young. I don't know if it was because the characters were less developed or what, but I definitely would recommend this to younger readers. Also, the cautionary, after-school specialness of it would be for the younger reader.

The ending frustrated me a little because I wanted people to feel bad, and not just for themselves. There are things that happen in this book that deserve many apologies and very few of those apologies went around. Yes, many (all) of the characters were self-centered, but I wanted them to GROW and they didn't. It was all about ME ME ME in the beginning and it was the same in the end. I did like that some things were left up in the air. Problems weren't just magically fixed, but more character growth would have been nice.

OVERALL: I liked it, not anywhere near loved. I'm glad I read it, and even enjoyed reading it, but it wasn't without it's flaws. The characters got on my nerves, and there was a frustrating lack of character growth, but it was an issue that I'm glad a book was written about. I'd say it's worth a try, but get it from the library.

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Lara thought that Christian liked her, but then one day he publically posts on her Facebook wall that the world would be better off without her. Lara tries to commit suicide, leaving her and the people around her to deal with the backlash. Bree, Lara’s former best friend, is partly responsible for what happened on Facebook, but in some ways she feels that Lara deserves it for being depressed and self-absorbed for so long. Sydney, Lara’s sister, is dealing with feeling constantly overshadowed by her sister and feels like her life is constantly ruined by what is happening with Lara. Liam, Bree’s sister, is dealing with a sister and mother he can’t understand and not wanting his life to be ruined by their decisions. Online life collides with real life in this book while they all work on dealing with the backlash, anger, forgiveness, and moving on from the mistakes that have been made.

This is a hard book to read because of how much it can apply to real situations. Based on real-life episodes of cyberbullying and online manipulation, Backlash tells the story from the perspective of innocent bystanders, the victim, and the bully. No one in this book is perfect. In fact, they are all deeply flawed but perfectly human. Some people might think that Lara’s willingness to kill herself over a boy she’s never met is unrealistic, but that is something that has happened in real life. This book shows the consequences of online bullying and how people need to carefully think before they do something. The ending is perhaps a little too neat and hard to believe that they moved on from the horrible things that happened to them that easily, but the overall book shares an important message about how something that might seem like a simple act can ruin someone’s or multiple people’s lives. Backlash is an emotionally-charged story to help prompt discussion about the consequences of cyberbullying. ( )

"This novel thoughtfully balances the four alternating perspectives, giving an element of humanity even to the perpetrators of severe bullying while maintaining a strong moral judgment. The writing and pace may not be compelling enough for reluctant readers, and there are disturbing scenes portraying bullying and severe depression. However, it's an accessible complement to an anti-bullying curricula that would serve as a good starting point for discussion of ethics with teens."

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libsrv.wku.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=51&sid=f35...

High-school student Lara tries to kill herself after a boy who'd friended her on Facebook cruelly rejects her with a public post to her wall, saying the world would be better off without her.

But the boy, "Christian," was a made-up account and the person who was really behind it was Lara's neighbor and former friend Bree.

A friend of Bree's knew and offered suggestions to make Christian seem more believable -- and when Bree's mother found out, she wanted to play-act Christian too.

Their involvement comes to light during the investigation, and they are vilified and shunned; Bree's phone is hacked and the new recorded greeting invites callers to leave her death threats. Bree's entire family suffers from the fallout, even though her father and brother were unaware of the incident.

Author Sarah Darer Littman said she was inspired to write Backlash "after reading news stories about several cyberbullying incidents and the online vigilantism that occurred in the name of making the bullies 'pay.'"

I'd been familiar with some of these headlines myself, given my personal history as bullying-target turned crusader, who advocates that school- and work-communities unite to defeat bullying.

So with that history, I was drawn to read Littman's book, and I found it very impressive.

Multiple-character viewpoints portray the broad and destructive impact that an incident of bullying can have. I recommend this book be read by teens and adults. ( )

This took a while for me to get into. In the beginning, I could not really understand why Lara did what she did. I just couldn't connect with her. I also really did not like the person who messed with her and could not understand her actions either. Lara's sister Syd I could see why she felt invisible next to her sister but also really she could be selfish. Eventually, I got emotional and empathized with everyone's issues. ( )