Contemporary Realistic Fiction (Issues)

 These four realistic fiction books all involve issues that adolescents deal with everyday.  In Speak and Inexcusable, young ladies are suffering through the trauma of being raped.  In Speak, we have the perspective of the girl, in this case her name is Melinda.  She has been outcasted at school because other students do not know why she called the police to the underage party.  The other party goers blame her for ruining their good time.  Melinda won't speak to anyone about what really happened.  In the story Inexcusable, we gain the perspective of the male.  In this book. Keir doesn't know what he did wrong.  He thought his friend Gigi was having a good time with him.  He was holding her down, but he didn't hear her say NO.  Sexual harrassment and sexual abuse is a very real issue that teens deal with.
The other two books deal with school bullying or school violence.  In both books, the main characters create a list of peers that pick on them and they wish they would die.  In Hate List, the school shooting has already happened and we learn about the aftermath of this violence and how the students can try to stop the hate.  In Astonishing Adventures of FanBoy and GothGirl we learn how FanBoy has dealt with bullies in the past.  Kira (GothGirl) tries to encourage FanBoy to stand up to his bullies.  Kira has her own problems, with the main obstacle being dealing with her mother's death.  These characters all need to go see a therapist, if they are not already going to see one.