Bait

Discussion page for //Bait// by Alex Sanchez This is a powerful book. Sexual abuse, cutting, and suicidal tendencies are all addressed without being explicit. There's a positive male role model who is gay. And it shows that abuse can happen in "nice" families. Also, that there's help and hope for kids who have been through abuse. This is not done in an afterschool special type of way, it's a page turner. It's a heavy book, but I liked it. I'd be interested to get at least one other person's opinion on it, though.

I agree that this is a very powerful book. It deals with the subject of a boy being sexually abused and raped by his stepfather without getting truly graphic. It also explores how the victim, Diego, turns his life around - not all at once in a happy Hollywood way, but lurching slowly forward, and occasionally backwards, as he would in real life. It is unusual to have a book portray a young man as a cutter, and the psychology of this is explored without getting bogged down by emotion. I loved Diego's nervousness over talking to a girl and inviting her on a date. This is an excellent book, and oddly enough I didn't find it too heavy. Probably because the whole way through I was cheering for Diego to succeed in overcoming all the stuff life had handed to him. I would like to see this book on the list because it encourages boys not to be afraid of expressing their feelings and offers ways for them to deal with anger. Sally Nelson, Leach Library.

I just finished this book and I'm glad I offered to read it. As mentioned above, there are many mature topics, but they weren't done in a way that were particularly graphic. I wanted to read the whole thing and I was encouraged that it offered some positive ways of dealing with anger and opening up to others. I recommend this for the list. I do think that even though we hope boys will read this that they probably won't. I think even though it was mostly a male story it would take coaxing for boys to take it out. ~Kathy Watson, Kimball Library