Effortlessly Reading

My Rating: 3.5 Obtained: Through Goodreads First Reads When I first won Shut Up from a goodreads First Reads giveaway, I honestly wasn't expecting much. The summary made it seem like a twelve year old couldn't get things her way, so she just ran off to make a point. I kept putting off reading this book even though I won Shut Up a very long time ago. After actually reading Shut Up, I highly regretted doing that. The summary doesn't do the book any justice. As I was reading Shut Up, I felt so bad for Mary. She took the blame for her brother Paul's mistakes (her parents actually expected her to lie to authorities for what Paul did!), gets verbally abused by Gwen for just existing, and spanked so badly by her parents for the smallest reasons that she bleeds. No one listens to her, even when she tells the truth. Mary is very neglected and all everyone seems to care about is Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, the Creep, and the baby. I couldn't help but cringe in horror when I read what Mary went through. If I was her, I would have ran away a long time ago. In fact, things got so bad for Mary that she, a twelve year old, was actually considering suicide, or at least, inflicting physical pain upon herself. I wasn't totally satisfied with the ending. The least Mary's parents could do was apologize to her for the way they acted. They kicked Gwen out of the house, which made things a lot better for Mary, but they should still apologize for making Mary their scapegoat just because they were frustrated about their own problems. Before I end this review, I want to comment on Anne Tibbet's terrific writing. She sure knows how to write. Shut Up is full of suspense (the parts where Mary is deciding where to run off to) and tons of drama that makes readers feel so many emotions. I can tell right off the bat that if more people read the books Anne Tibbets writes, she'll be a really popular author. I'll be happy to read another book written by her if I can get my hands on them.