Title: Nothing
Author: Janne Teller
Genre: Realistic fiction
Pages: 240 (Paperback)
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date: March 20th, 2012
Synopsis from Nothing's Goodreads page
When Pierre-Anthon realizes there is no meaning to life, the seventh-grader leaves his classroom, climbs a tree, and stays there. His classmates cannot make him come down, not even by pelting him with rocks. So to prove to Pierre-Anthon that life has meaning, the children decide to give up things of importance. The pile starts with the superficial—a fishing rod, a new pair of shoes. But as the sacrifices become more extreme, the students grow increasingly desperate to get Pierre-Anthon down, to justify their belief in meaning.
I read Nothing by Janne Teller in January, and it took my awhile to figure out how I felt about the book. I was really hoping that I would love it, and I had been looking forward to it for so long, but I was a bit disappointed with it.
I had originally thought that this book would be about how a group of young children were helping their friend to find meaning in life by giving up their favourite things, and that it would help their friend to see the good in life, and that life was worth living. Instead, I got a book about a group of seventh and eighth graders who were being bullied by their friend into believing that life was meaningless, that everyone was going to die eventually and then be gone, and that life was completely useless. Not only that, but it wasn't about these kids donating things that had meaning to them, but instead it was about how they each forced someone to give up something that they could not live without, and then that person would go to the next, who would go to the next, ect. Not only that, but these young kids were forcing each other to give these things up, and they got more evil and more gruesome the further they got along. These kids were tormenting and torturing each other to try and help their friend who was bullying them, and as someone who can vividly remember my life and my classmates when I was in seventh and eighth grade, I know that we never would have even thought of doing the things these kids are doing to each other.
I had problems with believing some of these kids' thoughts and their motives, and what I found completely unbelievable was that not a single person told a parent, anyone outside of their class, and that they were all totally okay with what they were doing. I know that this book takes place in Europe in the relatively close past, and that I live in Canada and that things are very different over there, but I still can't believe that none of the parents found out, or got involved.I found some of the characters to be a little childish, and that they all seemed to be very young minded for their age, and that may have affected what was going on in the story.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the writing style, and I did feel emotions for the characters. I was completely shocked during many parts of the book, and I feel that now, knowing what I know, that I may be able to enjoy the book better the second time, as I know that it is more of a gruesome story then the contemporary book that I was expecting.
Overall - ★★★.5☆☆
