We Are the Bogeymen, We Are the Bogeywomen

http://cre8here.com/2012/11/29/we-are-the-bogeymen-we-are-the-bogeywomen/

I haven't written anything about this story yet? Why is that? This must be remedied.

Maria Gartner's short story is defiant and sad. A teenager and her friends and other students at her school are being bullied, and there's nothing they can do about it. But that doesn't stop the narrator from deciding to take matters into her own hands, and fight back! While others became victims, she did what most others do not, and that is what I like the  most about this story. Bullying is an epidemic in high schools, and it is time for it to stop. Reading a story like this is one way to do that, by raising awareness of the problem and making people realize that this is not okay.

The other great thing about this story is the obvious black blocks in the text. Yes they're supposed to be there. The slurs and smears are not spelled out, and so they are left up to the imagination to fill in whatever words would hurt the most to the reader. That gives the story another dimension, another way to see the story aside from the obvious.

I loved this short story because it hurt. It brought up memories. I have always been on the receiving end of bullying, so I can't imagine how someone who has done the bullying could feel. But I hope that if they do read this, they can see what pain their actions cause.