Bruiser (friendship, supernatural)

Book Title: Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Topic: friendship, supernatural

Thoughts: Mrs. Berger recommended this book to several teachers during her in-service this summer.  Shusterman is one of my favorite authors, and I knew I would not be disappointed in this book.

Twins Tennyson and Bronte (parents are college literature professors) befriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, Brewster, and try to help him come out of his shell to live a normal life.  Everyone thinks Brewster is a "Bruiser", but Tennyson the literary athlete is the real bully.  He even uses his bullying to save Bruiser from his classmates who enjoy torturing him.  

Brewster is kind of a Christ figure: when he likes a person, he ends up taking on their pain, both physical and emotional.  But Tennyson and Bronte do not realize that the more they try to help Brewster, the more they are hurting him. 

While I wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat worrying if the characters would live or die, I did feel for each of them and was able to put myself in their shoes.