Review: Bruiser

Title Bruiser
By Neal Shusterman
For Fun
Source I own it

First sentance
If her touches her, I swear I'm going to rip out his guts with my bare hands and send them to his next of kin for lunch.

Synopsis
Told from the view points of four different characters we learn about the mystery that is Brewster (Bruiser).

General thoughts
This is going to be hard to review. I don't want to give anything away about the mystery that was revealed in the pages of this great book so I'll just tell you that I really enjoyed this one! Neal Shusterman has a way of writing that has you laughing one minute and crying the next that I rarely experience with other authors.  Bruiser had a great moral to the story that had me smiling sadly and hoping somehow it would all end OK. If I HAD to complain about it I would say, that for a brief number of pages after the big reveal I felt let down just enough that I had a hard time jumping back into the story again. Still, it was a great read, one of those books that reminds me why I love reading.

Characters
Tennyson was easily loveable despite his "jock" status. I enjoyed watching him pretend to be so tough and yet, he was probably the biggest softie in the whole book. He was wise beyond his years and I think I developed a bit of a crush on him. Bronte was harder for me to like. She was a little too bossy and  a bit of a know it all, which is funny considering she was the most clueless character in the book! She does redeem herself in the end and I liked her a little better, but if I'm being truthful, I just couldn't like her. Brewster (Bruiser) was such a wonderful, tortured character. He could have come off as a holier-than-thou and self righteous but he didn't and I felt such sympathy for him. And Cody. I loved reading from his point of view the best. Yeah, he was young and a little selfish but it was all he'd ever known and I really liked him.

Would I recommend it?
Do you have to ask? Of course I would!