BOOK REVIEW: Shut Up by Anne Tibbets

Shut Up

Author:  Anne Tibbets
Paperback:  118 pages
Publisher:  Premier Digital Printing (April 15, 2012)
Language:  English

Mary's older sister, Gwen, has royally screwed up her life.  Not only is Gwen pregnant at seventeen, but she's also decided to marry The Creep who knocked her up.

Now Mary is powerless to stop her family from imploding.  Her parents are freaking out, and to top it off, The Creep has a gross fascination with Mary while Gwen enjoys teasing her to tears for sport.

Despite her brother's advice to shut up, Mary can't keep her trap closed and manages to piss off Mom so much it comes to blows.  Mary doesn't know what to do, and all her attempts to get help are rejected.

When she finally plans her escape, she fails to consider how it could destroy them all.

I found Shut Up to be an interesting read in that I felt compelled to finish the story about Mary and her dysfunctional family.  I found the writing style of Anne Tibbets to be genuine in its intent and her flow was remarkable.

I found the character of Mary to be very personable and I felt the need to finish her story as you read the escalation in bullying that she encompasses from her older sister, Gwen.  Gwen is a despicable girl, who is never happy and is always complaining and calling Mary names.  The family becomes raveled into Gwen's torment as each family member begins to use Mary as their scapegoat and emotional punching bag.

Twelve year old girls are already dealing with a lot emotionally and when Mary begins to feel betrayed by those who love her, she decides to take her own life.  However, before this occurs, Gwen moves out and life returns to normal.  Everyone in the house can feel the stress that has been removed and everyone becomes their normal selves.

Then the dreaded occurs and Gwen returns home and within a short period of time, life resumes to the negative mess it was before.  This time though, Mary cannot keep up with the pressure and she resorts to her "shell".  Her inner demons are urging her to either run away from home or take her own life and without anyone to turn to, Mary must decide her fate on her own.

I would give Shut Up a three and a half stars out of five.  While I enjoyed the read, I wasn't sure of the importance of telling us Mary's point of life from Paul's angle.  There were a few chapters given in his viewpoint and it lead me to believe that Paul was going to have a bigger role in the story, which I failed to see.  I would've liked to have seen the book from either everyone's point of view or just Mary's.  However, it was a decent read, well~written and believable from beginning to end.

**  Reviewed by me...as I see it~!!  **