Emma Putnam is found in her parents' garage, hanging from the ceiling by a piece of rope. It's Sara Wharton's fault. Or so everyone seems to believe; after all, she and her best friend Brielle were awful people who bullied innocent Emma to an unforgivable extreme. But there's one odd thing about this whole situation: Sara is convinced she hasn't done anything wrong.
This book had pretty mixed reviews. Amongst these reviews are some seriously negative ones, so I'll admit I was wary when I finally plucked Tease off of my shelf and began reading. I'm glad to say that in the Love or Hate community of people who read this novel, I was on the Love side. I think a big reason why so many people disliked Tease and it's main character, Sara, (although I could be wrong) was because a lot of people expected to read a story in the perspective of the bully and end up sympathising with and rooting for them like any other protagonist in YA. But I don't think that was the point of Tease. Tease is not a book about a bully who is then revealed to be a victim. Sara is a bully: she's no saint. Sara is self obsessed, selfish, mean and her whole world revolves around trying to "be someone" who goes to parties and be popular.

Tease isn't supposed to make you like Sara, it's supposed to make you understand her more. When I reached the end of this book I still didn't like Sara very much, but I could see why she did the things she did. That doesn't mean it's justifiable, because all the horrible things Sara and her friend Brielle did to Emma were awful, and Emma in no way deserved them, but at the same time I can't despise Sara as much as the media in the novel would have her be despised. Sara was someone who was desperate to be accepted so she did what her so called best friend told her to, even though she began feeling uncomfortable with the lengths they both took with the bullying. She depended on her boyfriend Dylan to feel wanted, so her jealousy of Emma before and after Dylan cheated on Sara led her to do and say awful things.
In the end this book didn't make me feel sorry for Sara, but that's okay because I don't think that's what the author was trying to do. It made me see that there's always more than one side to a bully story. It's not as black and white as "the bully was an awful person but victim was perfect with a bright future". There is far more to it. And no matter how upset or angry we are, every side of the story - whether there is two or two-hundred sides - deserves to be heard.

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