Santa- By Nicola Mar

Description

"Spanning the course of a few weeks, Santa; details the physical and emotional deterioration of June, a victim of severe bullying after she survives an attack by her classmates. With no one and nothing to trust but faith, she struggles with the idea that the human spirit may not exist"

Ten percent of the sales of this book will be donated to Project Semicolon, an organization providing love and support to those who are struggling with depression, self-injury, and suicide. Visit them online at www.projectsemicolon.org

As a woman, and as a mom  I found this to be a difficult read but I suppose that speaks in favor of how realistic this story feels. Santa is the tale of a teen girl who is bullied both in person and over the internet, attacked, assaulted, raped and shamed to the point that she would rather die than live another day this way. It could have easily been taken from the headlines and was in fact inspired by such headlines. Schools claim a zero tolerance policy and yet they apply such policies to little boys who chew pop tarts into inappropriate shapes while they do little to nothing about the torment millions of students face daily in their halls.

I received a copy in exchange for review