Customer Reviews

Names Will Never Hurt Me

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

One year has passed since the death of a fellow high school student.
This book takes you inside the lives of four high school seniors for one day.

Ryan, The "Jock", who thinks he is everything, loves girls; yet faces an abusive dad.

Kurt, The "Outcast", who always gets beat up; but keeps the anger bottled inside himself, while dealing with a neglecting family.

Tisha, The "Bi-Racial, who's smart, has a best friend and a good family; but faces racist remarks and actions by other students.

Mark "Floater", the "Snitch" who works for the principal, telling him everything happening in school; but his lust for power and popularity will be his greatest downfall.

You learn so much about these four students and what they have to go through each day, but on this fateful day, another tragic event will happen.
What and who is affected?

The shocking climax and resolution made this one of the best books I've ever read in my book.
Not only does it have great character developement, but it makes you feel like you are right there watching them.
I hope the author makes many more books like this because I will be reading thing.
5/5
-Jay.Jay.

Extremely well written, this book keeps the reader hooked from the first chapter. Four points-of-view, four voices, effortlessly flows from scene to scene until we understand the story and how the tragic events affect each character. Worth the price for the superb writing alone.

Names Will Never Hurt Me
By Jaime Adoff
Reviewed by Spencer

This book takes place in current time at a high school where one year ago, a murder in the school occurred. There are four main characters, Ryan, Kurt, Tisha and Floater (Mark.) Kurt and Tisha are low on the social scale. While Ryan is higher on the scale, pretty close to the top and finally there is Floater at the very top. This book takes place over one school day and each person problem has there own problem except for Floater. But Floater can make or stop any of their problems because he is the "principals in" on what is happening in the school during the day. The only way for them to get rid of there is to work with Floater and each other.
This book is very interesting and is "suck you in" kind of reading. The thing that makes it interesting is that there are four stories that finally combine into a monstrosity of problems with an odd ending. Also in the beginning it is hard to know who is talking and what is going on. They are always transferring between people and their stories. The overall thought of the book is very high and extensive.

In the novel Names Will Never Hurt Me by Jaime Adoff, four high school students take you inside their lives to reveal secrets about themselves and each other. The first person you meet is Ryan, a senior football star who love girls just as much as football. Unfortunately he is also facing a problem with his abusive father. After that you met Kurt, an emotionally disturbed kid who is ignored by his parents and beat up by his peers. Tish is next, a smart girl who is loved by her parents but has a problem with other kids because she is "bi-racial". Finally you meet Mark also know as Floater who is sort of the eyes and ears of the principal and knows just about everything that goes on in the school. The book takes place on the one year anniversary of a shooting that happened in a the schools bathroom and took the life a student named Jake. So with news reporters on school property and a sexual assault charge being fired at someone things turn ugly when guns are put into play. With all the commotion, who will be the hero and save the school from a repeat of the horrific incidents that happened just one year ago. A must read! I couldn't put it down!

Written in prose, this novel takes no prisoners as we are transported to a high school that is and could be Anywhere.
Kurt the "freek"; Tisha the "biracial"; Ryan the "All-American boy" with a secret; and Floater, the one who spys on his fellow teens for the principal. Each one is different, but they all have problems, and each will play a role in a memorable day at their high school. Even the students who seem like they have it all don't, and the ones that are the "losers" can be winners. In the face of all the school violence we have had, I think there need to be more books like this, ones that show the true side of things.

I bought this book thinking it would have a great content because of the good reviews it had received and how everyone was so "in love" with it. Names will never hurt me is about bullying in schools in different levels, like the bi racial girl that nobody likes because she doesn't want to choose a side, the shy guy who's parents don't know half of his problems and that everyone in school seems to nag, the chubby boy, the sportsman, all this characters set in one school.

The story is a very typical bullying story with a lot of different characters that portrait how they get affected by the different types of bullying they encounter inside and outside of school and how this affects them and reflects in other people. The story is not half bad but the 5 star reviews are deceptive, instead of a very deep book you find one that will have some plot twist and "i can relate to that" parts.

In the end I wouldn't recommend this book unless it was something that you saw on a shelf and everything else was kids magazines, the book is not terrible but it is totally forget-able, Names will never hurt me seems like those books that teachers make you read in school for a book report and that you will end forgetting when you turn in your report.

Reviewer: Lauren Arthur (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews
Wow. When your think you have read a good book you just haven't really read a great book until you read this one. Names Will Never Hurt Me by: Jamie Adoff is absolutely amazing. There is no book to compare. My favorite chapter of this book is the last one, which is were the most action for the conflict takes place. This is where Ryan's dad, The Colonel, comes to Rockville High School with rage towards the principal because he has charged his son with sexual harassment. He puts a knife to the principal's neck because since he charged his son with the sexual harassment which doesn't allow him to play at the final game of the season. This book is full of suspense and has characters any teenager including me can relate to. Since this book is written from teenager's point of view I encourage any adult who wants to know what's going through their child's head to read this book. I truly enjoyed it because of the emotional characters and the way it was organized. Enjoy!

What can I say about this book that will make you read it? I really don't know for sure, but I'm going to try because this is a book that needs not to be unnoticed.

This book is about the All American football player, the girl that feels out of place because she is bi-racial, the Floater that was once nothing but worked himself up to be what he is now, and the "Freek", that has the idea the a gun might be the way to solve his problems and listens to ATTAAK often. This book takes place on the one-year anniversary of the shooting, and killing, of Jake, once a student in these characters' school. The book deals with a lot of things that teenagers have to go through daily. Bullies, sex, guns, and football are all here in this book that are real problems of life.

In this story these characters really have nothing to do with each other except that the Floater and the "Freek" like Tisha, the only girl in the story. This all changes when the Colonel finds out that his son, the All American teenager Ryan, gets charged with sexual harassment. The Colonel then comes to the principal with a knife, fighting for his son's future. These characters also have their secrets. Ryan mostly, with his past by the horrible way of being treated by the Colonel.

This book really touched me. It felt all the things that these amazing characters went threw. Love. Hate. Fear. Passion. Hurt. Happiness. And everything else we teenagers are faced with. Thank you Jaime Adoff for writing this amazing book with such grace. I enjoyed it and I hope you do too.

My daughter approached me the other afternoon, this book in hand and said, "I don't think I can read this." After reading the less than 50 pages she had already been subject to, I agreed.

The book reviews say nothing of Ryan's describing sex with his girlfriend and planning sex with another girl as well as the accusation of rape from yet a third girl. All these sex acts take place on school grounds, during school hours. When I showed it to my daughter's school librarian and principle, it was immediately removed from the library.

Profanity is used throughout the book. Add that to the "adult content" and school violence themes and the book read more like a hustler meets Tom Clancy book.

I think the story could have been told just as effectively without these elements and themes. Our children can be knowledgeable about these subjects without having to read vivid descriptions of the acts themselves.

Regardless, the book--being sold as a "young adult" novel--is more suited to 11th and 12th graders rather than the 6th-8th grade books.

Almost all entertainment (movies, television program, music, even video games) require the purchaser to be aware of adult content, nudity, language, and violence, hence warning labels. This "young adult" book requires a big one, right on the front.

My daughter wanted this book and she could not put this book down. She loves to read but I've never seen her so engrossed in a book. Kuddos!