Bruiser by Neal Shusterman 

If you loved someone, how much would you be willing to do for him or her? If someone loved you, would you allow him to suffer so that you could succeed?

There are a lot questions to ponder in Bruiser. I picked it because I thought it was a book about bullying—and that’s one of my current themes—but, though it does deal with bullying, it is a more complicated look at relationships and what it means to take advantage of others. What it means to be responsible for ourselves.

Brewster Rawlins is called ‘Bruiser’ at school and is voted the ‘Most Likely to Get the Death Penalty.’ He’s a loner and kids at his high school tell tales of his strange home life with his uncle and his brother Cody. No one is sure what happened to his parents.

When Bronte sees the Bruiser in the library looking for a book of Alan Ginsberg poetry, she is intrigued. She decides to go out with him although her twin brother, Tennyson, objects. When Tennyson later sees Brewster in the locker room without his shirt, sees the incredible mess of his battered back, he starts to understand that Brewster is the abused, not the abuser.

Both Tennyson and Bronte come to know Brewster. There’s a strange ‘reveal’ to his situation, and it’s not far into the book. Telling you what it is would help me talk about the book, but it’s something that I think shouldn’t be given away in a review.

I’ve been book-talking Shusterman’s Unwind for a while, and it’s a quick-paced adventure through a dystopian future. This one is different—it slows down a bit, gives you the chance to think about individuals and their situations, about friendship and sacrifice. Not only about what we’re willing to sacrifice for others, but what is appropriate in asking others to sacrifice for us.