Bruiser

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman (audio book)

I have been looking at Bruiser for literally months. It is an Abraham Lincoln Nominee and I had planned on reading it forever ago, but my desire to read a Young Adult novel must have been low, while my need to keep up with the sequel machine was desperate. Oh if I had only ignored that desperation and reached for my requirement. Bruiser is a winner in my book despite future Abraham election results!

The novel introduces sixteen-year-old twins, Tennyson and Brontë. Yes, it is quite obvious that their parents are professors of literature at the local university. Their chapters are punctuated by the power words that their parents have force fed them since birth. Tennyson is the aggressive super athlete who describes every situation with sarcastic humor. He is a bully although he doesn’t recognize the negative character trait within himself.

Tennyson and Brontë are both smart and athletic, but that is where the similarities end. Brontë is sufficiently popular to be both comfortable and confident enough to feel that she can make a difference and change her world for the better. She has a habit of collecting strays. She has had success in the past with animals and she is ready to move on to boys…

Enter the central character, Brewster Rawlins, aka the Bruiser. The teen voted most likely to get the death penalty. He is a hulking brute and loner. He lives on the wrong side of the tracks with a questionable family situation. Everyone stays well out of his way until Brontë discovers he has a passion for angry poetry, (she volunteers in the high school library.) The more she learns about him, he has a photographic memory for instance, the more thinks she can remake his image. The first step is making him her boyfriend.

Brewster, Brew, lives in a ramshackle shack with his Uncle Hoyt and his little brother Cody. Neither of the boys ever knew their (different) father which was probably for the better. Their mother died young of ovarian cancer and their Uncle took them in not knowing what he was getting. But no one can spend any amount of time around Brew without noticing that life is different, better, calmer, healthier. Doesn’t mean it is perfect though.

One day after Tennyson decides to make a decisive stand against Brew dating his sister, he walks in on the massive teen in the locker room. Brew is just pulling on his shirt, but Tennyson catches a glimpse of his back which is covered in welts, bruises, scars. Tennyson cannot imagine what kind of violence would inflict such painful-looking marks, but begins to think that Uncle Hoyt is a child abuser.

I want to say right here that Uncle Hoyt isn’t. But he is. Just not in any possible way you can imagine. And I don’t want to spoil this intriguing captivating story. The best way I can describe it… this novel is a precursor, in my opinion, to Lois Lowry’s The Giver. Let us just say, before there was Jonas, there was Brewster.

A note: This book is intended for the Young Adult audience. It is almost entirely free of vulgar language. There are no sexual situations. Alcohol and drugs used by minors is absent. But there is one adult situation that is integral to the storyline, not including the child abuse. The twin’s parents are going through the first moves toward separation. Their father committed some unmentionables in the not so distant past and mother, “God rest her soul,” is suffering by no longer truly living. Until she gets herself a boyfriend.

Highly recommended to young adults and adults. This novel proves once again that one cannot experience happiness without also sharing in the pain. There must be balance.