Book Review: Shut Up-Anne Tibbets

Goodreads description:

"Mary's older sister, Gwen, has royally screwed up her life. Not only is Gwen pregnant at seventeen, but she's also decided to marry The Creep who knocked her up.
Now Mary is powerless to stop her family from imploding. Her parents are freaking out, and to top it off The Creep has a gross fascination with Mary while Gwen enjoys teasing her to tears for sport.
Despite her brother's advice to shut up, Mary can't keep her trap closed and manages to piss off Mom so much it comes to blows.
Mary doesn't know what to do, and all her attempts to get help are rejected. When she finally plans her escape, she fails to consider how it could destroy them all."
3 and a half stars

Shut Up is an emotional read about Mary, a young girl struggling to deal with abuse and feelings of worthlessness. Mary's older sister Gwen gets pregnant at 17 by her boyfriend who Mary calls The Creep. The Creep is constantly doing/saying things that make Mary uncomfortable, Gwen is constantly saying things with the goal of making Mary cry and Mary is getting punished for every little thing she says or does.

In summary, basically everyone in Mary's life is making her feel bad about herself. Her sister verbally assaults her, The Creep sexually abuses her and her own mother punishes her constantly. And when I say punish, I mean her mother goes a little crazy with fly swatters and wooden spoons.

This was a very short, quick ebook but it was full of sadness and hurt. I didn't completely understand why everyone were so cruel to Mary but sometimes, it doesn't make sense why people are abusive. I really felt for Mary because her situation was so unfair.

I felt really sad when Mary tells a teacher,“I…can’t…do…anything…right.” and the teacher just says "Oh, we're in this phase, are we?" and dismisses Mary as if she's being an annoying teenager. Mary thinks, "I just told her I couldn’t do anything right and she thinks I’m joking?" It's just so sad to see Mary reaching out for help only to be mocked. I was also sad at how when Gwen leaves to live with The Creep, she's nice to Mary and Mary thinks this is going to be their new relationship. However, when Gwen comes back to stay with them again, she goes back to her old ways of ridiculing Mary.

This is a very heavy topic and I think the author did a great job with it. The end is as happy as it can be. Not everything is completely resolved but there is hope that things are going to be better. It was definitely a heartbreaking read, told with an honest voice.

Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Lisa x