Title: Mean Little People
Author: Paige Dearth
Publisher: Fiction With Meaning LLC
Date of publication: April 2nd, 2017
Genre: Horror
Number of pages: 466
POV: 3rd person
Where you can find Mean Little People: Amazon
Book synopsis (from Goodreads):
Seven-year-old Tony has one choice…to live or to die.
Tony Bruno just wants to fit in, but the bullies at his school are cruel and relentless. At home, he leans on his mother Teresa for strength and comfort, but she’s no match for his father, Carmen. His father, a fighter, and bully himself hates Tony. He is embarrassed by the child for not fighting back and wishes that Tony was never born.
Then as a teen, in one-act of blind courage, Tony fights back shifting the balance of power with his peers. Even after Tony sets things straight with the neighborhood boys, his father continues to terrorize him.
At school, Tony is now respected by his classmates. One day he stands up for a bullied kid named, Salvatore, and the boys become friends. One night, Salvatore commits a horrific crime and Tony suffers the consequences of his friends’ actions. Tony’s punishment changes the course of his life.
All alone and nowhere to call home, Tony sets out to find the life he longs for, one filled with love and acceptance. But nothing comes easily for him, and he is forced to draw upon strength from deep within to survive.
From the dark world, he lives in, Tony does unimaginable things to leave his unwanted life behind.
Mean Little People is a haunting story of one bullied child deprived of love and taunted by corrupt individuals along his journey. Tony’s story will make you question the balance between good and evil.
My review:
Mean Little People is not one of those books that start awful and ends up being all sunshine and flowers afterward. No, this is a story that starts off violent and stays violent the entire book. This is a story that will also break your heart because of the abuse Tony had to deal throughout his life. I will add a trigger warning to this book, so if you trigger easily, do not read the review.