There are days when the grind of adulthood starts to wear on me, and I find myself feeling nostalgic for my teenage days. Then I remember how, while in hindsight those problems seem a lot smaller, at the time, they feel overwhelming.
One major teen issue that I’d never want to relive is the bullying. It’s fun to think about going back in time as an adult and telling off everyone who made my teenage life miserable. But in reality, I can’t think of one way to have put an end to the verbal and physical abuse that tends to follow certain people around high school.
Author Kathy Greenberg has come up with a more creative approach to exorcizing those bullying demons in her book, The Bully Solution. Her story touches on this age-old issue from a modern perspective. Below is my review of The Bully Solution followed by an interview with Greenberg about her book.
The Bully Solution plot synopsis
It’s Audrey Wood and her best friend, and crush, Jason’s, first year of high school, and from the beginning, things get off to a rocky start. Audrey is quirky but secure in herself. Jason is less odd but somehow more of a target, particularly to their class bully, Krak.
As the school year progresses, the bullying becomes increasingly violent, and Audrey brainstorms ways to combat it. But then Jason lands in the hospital, and Audrey’s gloves come off. With the help of her older brother and frenemy, Angus, she hatches a plan to teach the bullies a lesson once and for all.
The story
The Bully Solution is very concentrated in its focus of presenting a typical bullying scenario and in demonstrating how it’s a complex issue with no simple solution. In fact, the wrong approach can even make things worse. And that feeling of powerlessness can make a person desperate. In Audrey’s case, she’s desperate to protect Jason, and in Jason’s case, he decides to escape the problem altogether by changing schools the following year.
Audrey racks her brain with several ideas for dealing with what seems like a bullying epidemic in her school. However, she doesn’t have much support in carrying them out. Not only does the faculty turn a blind eye to the issues but her ideas themselves require a strength in numbers element that she as a social outcast just doesn’t have.
Audrey is strong-willed, but she doesn’t have the influence on people that she would like to believe. While the reader can hear every thought, some you wish she’d kept to herself, there’s also a secretive element to her. This is especially true in her unrequited love for Jason.
In terms of family life, Audrey’s is pretty stable. However, she lives above her father’s veterinarian clinic and is forbidden to tell anyone that the business is also their home. This makes bringing friends home or getting rides pretty impossible. Her parents are present, supportive, and good listeners, but are also only so helpful in helping her with her cause.
The story stays light, though, thanks to its quirky protagonist who offers her quippy, almost stream-of consciousness narration throughout the book. You can feel her brain running a mile a minute as she navigates through high school life and struggles to get a grip on how best to pull through, and bring Jason along with her so that they both come out on the other side in one piece.
In between, though, she engages in normal teenage rituals, such as attending football games and the fall carnival. And she gradually branches out away from her small, Jason-centered world in the process.
The characters
The book is told from Audrey’s perspective. Though she’s not the main target, she isn’t exactly Miss Popularity at school. She changes her wardrobe each year, wearing only a single color throughout the year, fittingly choosing black this year. She spends her time memorizing Wikipedia facts, assisting her veterinarian father with routine pet operations, and butting into other people’s business, notably Jason’s.
Jason is your basic sensitive boy who bullies love to target because he is such an easy one. The boy won’t fight back, even when his life most depends on it. He and Audrey share a similar sense of humor and appear to be joined at the hip. But a difference in school schedules leaves Jason exposed to Krak and the rest of the football team who, because of their social status and their uniforms, are invulnerable to any major repercussions for their actions.
Audrey’s reluctant sidekick in her quest to take down the bullies is her annoying older brother, Angus. Angus is the equipment manager of the football team with a front row seat to the action. A prior victim of bullying himself, he tries to stay out of the way while feeding his sister some crucial information to keep her safe. The two have a typical love/hate relationship with Angus looking for ways to get on Audrey’s nerves one moment and back he up the next.
The message
The interesting thing about The Bully Solution is that Greenberg presents this idea early on that there is no actual solution to bullying. There are ways to dodge it but never to extinguish it. Because no matter what the Afterschool Specials used to say, talking it out doesn’t work, and even if one bully backs down, there will always be another waiting in the wings. They take on many different forms, and they have to be something you’re prepared to deal with throughout your life.
Without giving anything away, Audrey’s eventual plan isn’t the most moral decision in the world, but it is effective. It leaves you ambivalent, which is ultimately satisfying because it reflects the real world.
Audrey and Jason are people we all know. And it’s comforting to find that they too are in the same boat as we once were – or maybe still are. The ending isn’t meant to give you ideas about how to solve your specific bullying problem. It just creates a fun and entertaining version of our daily struggles.
My recommendation
I recommend The Bully Solution to outcast teenagers who are looking for a novel where they can find recognizable characters and situations. Audrey’s narration is energetic and keeps you turning the pages, even while getting tripped up on her sometimes unnecessary oversharing and sigh at her inability to stay out of other people’s business, despite her good intentions. She’s that weird friend we all have, or are, where you sometimes can’t stand her but like her anyway.
I also felt like the ending wrapped up a little abruptly and a little too neatly for the realistic messiness of its message. However, a lot of elements were left open ended, as if teasing at a sequel. I’d love to see where these characters end up next and follow the threads of its loose ends to new universal high school conflicts.
My rating
An interview with Kathy Greenberg
Did you do any research to prepare for this book? Do you like to read Wikipedia pages like Audrey?
I researched as I wrote. I refer to Wikipedia regularly, and I often find myself wandering down the rabbit hole. Writing this book was a perfect excuse to explore.
Did you have the story outlined before you wrote it, or did it develop as you went along? Is this your usual writing process?
Audrey was the central character in the first book I wrote. That story was awful, but I loved Audrey and wanted to keep her alive.
When I sat down to write The Bully Solution, Audrey’s character and personality were already formed. The storyline evolved as I wrote, which is pretty much my process. I don’t like to outline because it kills the thrill of discovery for me. Usually, I visualize and feel a character first. Then the first line or two pops into my head. I run with that.
What did your high school experience look like growing up? What social group did you fall into? Did you participate in any extracurricular activities?
I wasn’t in with any group in high school. I existed on the fringe. I transferred to a performing arts school my sophomore year (because my family moved out of state) and I really wanted to take the drama track. I would have been two years behind the drama kids, though, so I focused on academics instead.
My extracurricular activities included reading, watching TV, brooding, and obsessing about the Romanov family. I learned the Cyrillic alphabet from a set of encyclopedias and studied Russian with Berlitz my junior year. Nerd!
Is the story or are any of the characters based off of people you know?
Yes and no.
Do you have a favorite character?
Audrey Wood. I like Angus, too.
How did you come up with the teen speak for the kids’ conversations and Audrey’s internal dialogue?
My inner dialogue is fairly adolescent, so the teen speak came naturally. I’m never far from my inner child, who is a solid 8, and I remember a lot from my school-age experiences. It wasn’t hard to plumb those depths.
Do you think there ever could be a universal solution to bullying?
Sadly, no. I think bullying is part of the human experience. Isolated instances of courage and advocacy are more likely to occur than a greater movement to stop bullying. But small movements can initiate big changes, which is what The Bully Solution and Audrey are about. I have a lot of respect for the lone souls who stand up for what’s right.
Any plans for a sequel?
For a long time, I wanted to turn Audrey’s world into a series—one book for each year of high school. Each book would focus on a different social problem that Audrey faces and tries to fix. She’s an advocate in training, so I wanted to explore her choices, obstacles, etc. Right now, though, I have no plans for a sequel, but you never know…
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