Review: Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth

Seven Days by Eve Ainsworth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jess's life is difficult enough without Kez picking on her –- it’s turning school from a safe place into a nightmare. Kez has plenty of problems too but she finds comfort in knowing she is better off than Jess -- or so she thinks. SEVEN DAYS is told in alternating chapters between Kez and Jess. Jess struggles with her weight and her family's poverty. She lives in the tough MacMillan estate -- a neighborhood similar to a housing project in the US. Kez, on the other hand, lives in a nice house. But what's nice on the outside isn't always the same inside, and Kez has learned to become tough, to become like one of the Mac girls.

As the title suggests, the story takes place over the course of one week. It follows both girls as Kez bullies Jess, both in person and online. As the bullying escalates, so do the emotions of each girl until everything explodes and everyone must deal with the fallout.

What I loved most about this book was the way the author really dug into the emotional state of both girls. She showed how one little incident can nag at a person's thought process and cause that person to do something she might not have done before. I also appreciated the realistic look at poverty and abuse, and the ways in which those situations can affect kids. SEVEN DAYS just recently came out through Scholastic, and I highly recommended giving it a read.

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