Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 245
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★

This was the first YA book I read for the #cramathon and I’m really pleased because it was the perfect book to start with: fast, short and overall enjoyable. Seven Days was a book I also got from the library, which I’m so grateful for, because while I did like reading it, it’s not the kind of book I would have wanted to spend lots of money on. So, if you’re dying to read a certain book but are apprehensive about whether you’ll like it or not, why not check out libraries? Now, on to the review…

Seven Days is the story of Jess, an overweight girl who doesn’t have many friends, and is being bullied for how she looks by Kez, a girl with a lot going on beneath her angry surface. Matters aren’t helped when Lyn, Kez’s boyfriend, starts to get friendly with Jess and cause even more jealousy between the two of them…

The title, Seven Days, is a nod to the story telling. For each day of the week, the two main characters give their perspective of what happened, and it really helped to keep the story moving forward at a considerable pace! Once you’ve read one day, you have to see what happens the next. And, unlike a normal week in the life of Maddie and Bee, every day increasingly dramatic things happened that had me clinging on to this book until I’d finish it.

It was really hard to pick a favourite between these two perspectives, because even though I’ll always side with the bullied, rather than the bully, it was really eye opening to realise that everyone’s a victim at somebody else’s hand. While Kez was the bully for Jess, Kez’s father was the bully for her. I related a lot to Jess’s weakness and self-pity, and I related to Kez being confused about what’s taking something too far. I wasn’t expecting to come out of the book eventually liking both girls, but it happened. Redemption is a thing.

And while I don’t think this was intentional, I really liked how in some moments their voices could feel so similar. The very beginning of the book opens with what sounds like a suicide note and you don’t really know which of the girls wrote it. Having something so heart stopping at the start was a surefire way to make me read it in one sitting. I cared for both girls and their crappy situations and didn’t want bad things to happen to them, no matter how nasty they were.

While, of course, I expecting this book to deal with bullying and the psychological effects of it, Seven Days also covered the dangers of abuse relationship and self harm, which gave the average story of bully/victim an edge. I’d totally recommend this to anyone who likes dual perspectives and stories that grip you from the very beginning!