Xing Li’s world has been taken from her and she has to fend for herself. Not only are things harsh at home – but life is brutal at her new school – horrifyingly so. The school is very prestigious and Xing Li is not only Asian she speaks with a cockney accent at well. Certainly not a worthy person in the eyes of the other students who are absolutely cruel. Xing Li is bullied and vilified almost to the nth degree and her only support is Jay, a part Chinese, part Jamaican boy who is also bullied but is more resilient.

As the book opens Xing Li has very little life experience, having been sheltered from the nastiness in the world by her mother. With her mother gone, and a grandmother who is almost as bad as the kids at her new school, Xing Li has to grow up quickly and learn to fend for herself. I have to admit though, I actually didn’t warm to her as a character although I sympathised with her predicament. I felt the bullying was a bit unbelievable, not the fact that bullying happens, but the level of the bullying that occurred; and the fact all this widespread activity was never discovered or noticed by staff at the school. And yes, I know bullying can happen at schools and fall through the cracks, but not in this type of situation – large scale – massed events. Unnoticed bullying is usually small scale – done when alone or there are no adult witnesses. No less traumatic but harder to prove and report. If the events were as bad as described in the story this would NOT have gone unnoticed.

Having said this, the story is important because if you don’t fit the norms of a society – the prevailing ethnicity, religion, disability etc – then you are very much likely to be suffering some type of bullying because of your difference. This, I think, is what the book is trying to get across. You may not recognise someone is a victim of bullying or abuse because you can’t tell by looking at them. I was also angry when Xing Li excused her grandmother’s punishments, yes this is abuse too, because her grandmother only wanted the best for her and had had a hard life herself. That’s ok then – grandmother was abused so it’s alright for her to abuse me – love you grandma! Now that right there is the attitude of a victim. And maybe I missed something, because this book has received rave reviews and a Fiction prize nomination, but I’m not sure how effective the message of the nastiness of bullying is going to be as overall it is a very depressing story – with little to no hope, and an ending which left me asking more questions than giving me answers.