Edge the Bare Garden

This is a phenomenal book from the point of view of a bystander that paints a realistic picture of school bullying in the digital age. Most students will be able to relate to the narrator - not quite the bullying Queen B nor the weird kid who gets relentlessly picked on. Most kids are the ones in the middle - the bystanders - who struggle with whether to mind their own business (SAFE) or stand up and say something (DANGER DANGER). The characters are nicely developed and the story is John Green-esque; without a neat bow at the end. The story is a quick, engaging read that leaves enough at the end for the reader to draw his or her own conclusions depending upon what narrative they need to believe.

“I was an In. Always had been, always would be. And Agnes… she was an Out.”

Agnes’s young life has been full of daily taunts and rejections, so when the opportunity arises for her to get a little payback from the people who’ve hurt her, she takes it. But serious questions arise when her online revenge spirals quickly and irreversibly out of control. At what point does retribution go to far? Who is responsible in an online world where no one is willing to take blame?

Let me start by saying this was a very short book. That’s not a bad thing, as sometimes a quick read is that much needed kick up the bum to get you out of a reading slump. I managed to finish this one in one sitting – which for me is pretty unheard of!

This book paints a realistic picture of what school life is like today – this I know, for I am a teacher myself. It is raw, meaningful and emotive. It highlights how unkind teenagers can be to one another and has a solid message about the importance of doing the right thing. We live in a society where social media is becoming increasingly important. It’s impossible to walk down a school corridor without seeing a child on Facebook on their phone, tweeting, or snapping their latest instagram photo. But what happens when it all goes wrong? Children will, and do, unfortunately mess up, mistakes are a part of growing up, and with internet activity at an all time high it is often at the forefront of these mistakes. It is so easy to post something hurtful on social media as there is a lessened sense of accountability. It almost doesn’t feel as mean because you can hide behind your computer screen. But what children don’t often understand is that it is still as hurtful, it will reach a wider audience, and theres almost always no way of taking it back. This book tackles this issue well and really makes the reader think. Ultimately I enjoyed the characters internal debate about what is right and wrong, and was proud when they finally found their voice.

This is a strong book that could be used within then education system to touch upon the issue of bullying and social media as it really does provoke thought and conversation.

★★★★★

Agnes has never fit in. She has accepted this. She is bullied. When she finally reaches her breaking point, she takes matters into her own hands. She starts a blog where she starts telling secrets she knows about those who have tormented her. However, as things usually happen, things get out of hand. I would start the reading of this book by asking my students to answer the question; is it ever okay to seek revenge? What are some possible consequences of taking matters into your own hands?
I have decided to promote this throughout my school. This is a book that needs to be in each of my department’s classroom. As a middle grade English teacher I definitely could see this happening to any of my students. I have seen some of the things they post online to each other. It is so easy to be so nasty to each other. Teens today don’t consider it is the same as walking up to that person and saying it to their face. The major difference is that online, it is open for anyone and everyone to see. It becomes very public. They detach themselves from what they have written. I understand why Agnes did what she did. However, I think she could have handled things differently. Once something is out there online, you can’t take it back. This comes with questions in the back which help out the teacher. Every parent should read this with their child or along with them to facilitate those all important discussions..

Edge the Bare Garden is a very engrossing, compulsively readable book, I made my way through it in less than a day. I can see this book as a great tool for starting conversations about responsibility and bullying. The book very clearly portrays the difficult fact that our actions (and inactions) have consequences both small and enormous. When in tough situations we often instinctually KNOW the right thing to do, we just need to be brave enough to do it. All the themes are nicely woven into the story and I don't think the author was ever trying to hit the readers over the head with a message. The messages ARE indeed there, but they unfold organically from the narrator's character growth.

I loved that the narrator remains nameless throughout the book, this was very effective to make them anyone, relatable. I got the impression that the narrator was female, but I just realized that I don't think it was ever specifically mentioned. I wonder if a boy reading the book would imagine the narrator as male.

I would definitely recommend this to parents and young people. It's straightforward and carries a genuine positive message that isn't overbearing.

Wise Ink Creative Publishing and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Edge the Bare Garden, in exchange for an honest review.

At West Edge Middle School, you are either an In or an Out. Agnes is an Out, unlikeable from her first day in town in the second grade. Always picked on, with her weirdness out for all the world to see, Agnes decides that a little retribution is necessary. Although the first few posts are pretty harmless, what happens when things start to spiral out of control? Is turning a blind eye to a situation the moral and just thing to do?

The narrator tells the story of what can result from pushing an individual too far. On the periphery and not really engaged in the actions of other, the narrator soon learns a valuable lesson in social responsibility. When the bullied is pushed to the point of retaliation, what should the punishment be? I was quite impressed with how much the author was able to pack into a relatively short novel. The valuable lessons gleaned from these pages are important for both teenagers and adults. I would recommend Edge the Bare Garden to both of the above age groups and I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

Edge the Bare Garden is a surprisingly thoughtful and important story. It’s not very long, around 120 pages by my copy, but it portrays very real and complex issues within today’s society – the issues of the safety of the internet when it can be accessed by all but still be anonymous, and the issues of online revenge and accountability.

It’s told from the perspective of a former high school student and her experiences one year when another student, Agnes, created a blog that detailed confidential information about their classmates. It explores the problematic contents of the blog, the way Agnes has been treated throughout school, and ponders over what the right thing to do in a difficult situation is. Agnes is seen as an ‘Out’, someone who is isolated and removed from any of the cliques or friendship groups in high school, and is seen as the ‘weird kid’. The problem with this, of course, is that no one really knows Agnes or why she’s like she is, all they know is that she has a fairly strange home life and that her sister died when she was young – you can’t know someone based on that little information, but it’s often what happens within school and life in general. It’s easy to be on Agnes’ side for starting the blog – after all, people have been cruel to her – but we know that it’s not the right way to go about it, and the frenzy it caused on social media shows the issues with anonymous posting and lack of accountability, as well as the problem with internet ‘trolls’.

It was much more insightful than I thought it would be – I was expecting a fairly light story about internet revenge gone astray but the author presents the reader with a vast amount to think about regarding the internet and how people behave towards one another. You end up wondering who was really right or wrong during the story – Agnes for revealing people’s secrets, or the people who were mean to Agnes during her time at school? It really shows that there is no ‘right’ when someone is doing wrong to another person, and that a situation like that can never be resolved. The narrator gradually comes to realise that the only thing you can ever do is the right thing even if that seems unbearably difficult. Unfortunately it’s hard to always do the right thing in this age of such easy internet access and all the ridiculous things hidden away online – we no longer feel responsible for things we post or we care too much about the things we read.

It’s a well-known saying that everyone is fighting something, going through their own personal battle, which is something incredibly relevant to this story and particularly to the current trend of sharing so much over social media. If everyone could just try to be a little kinder and do the right thing, we wouldn’t have all the drama that plays out on social media and that has to be a good thing. The narrator addresses it when talking about the blog posts by saying it’s like a train wreck – it’s something horrible but the students couldn’t get enough, couldn’t look away and we really need to get out of the habit of revelling in other people’s embarrassment and misfortune.

She was different; she was the one who stood out amongst the others, a choice that she made on her own. She was an out, an outgoing and vocal out. Everyone had noticed her whole family the minute they moved next door to the elementary school, their family a bit different than everyone else’s. Agnes immediately became an out, embracing this identity and owning it. Being an out, she didn’t have a circle of friends, she had no one to talk to, and she was vulnerable and invisible to others. Not taking this lightly, she rebels against her classmates. I found myself loving the character of Agnes. I felt that there was something going on inside Agnes, that we are not seeing the true Agnes and I wondered if we ever would. The ins, they belong anywhere as they always would, the ins belong to some group or another because once you’re in, you’re in. Unfortunately the ins, make up the majority of Agnes life and they make her life complicated. I liked many of the perceptions that run through this novel for their messages were precise, worthy and significant to the novel. Some of these observations discussed forgiveness, secrets and the idea about the ins and the outs. These insights made me stop and think about how perfectly they fit to the situation in the novel and I enjoyed how the characters spoke from their hearts. I would have loved to see Agnes perform her slam poetry of Loser. I visualized her performance, the whole thing from the beginning to the end when she was finally taken off stage and it moved me. There was probably more talent up there on that stage as she performed than there was all night and in my mind, she rocked it but from the reaction of the people in the audience, they missed it. That moment, they broke her and now she just wants to even the playing field. The secrets, people are being exposed and everyone feel vulnerable.

What an excellent novel! I can’t condole Agnes actions after that night on stage but I do understand why she did them. I think she has been hurting since she walked in the front door of the elementary school in third grade and now, she has had enough. Agnes is not always a hard, tough girl – she shows a softer side of herself when things become personable and private. Those moments were rare and I cherished them for Agnes had a story, a real story that she was hiding.

I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley and Wise Ink Creative Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to read this novel.