Sully, Messed Up

Sully, Messed Up, a believable, contemporary story, uses humour to approach some very deep, thorny issues: school hazing, bullying, race, sexual dynamics and family violence. The Grade 9 main character, Sully, has a victim mentality and doesn’t understand how to stop attracting bullies. The story’s written in third person from Sully’s point of view, and by story’s end, he has done a gradual and well-paced change to becoming more assertive and less selfish. Sully, Messed Up is very heavy on dialogue which is consistently well crafted.

The author is brave in tackling such dark topics no-holds-barred, but personally, I was uncomfortable with mixing humour and violence. On the other hand, I believe some young readers will be drawn in by the humour and process the heavy stuff because of it. A more serious-toned book on these evils would not attract the same crowd.

The writing is delightful.

Maybe it was coincidence that, at this exact second, the thunder cut off mid-rumble. In the sudden silence, the dark skies parted, yanked like curtains to reveal a warm pink dawn beneath.

The dialogue (even if it’s nonstop teen-talk insults) is crisp, creative and fun. The pacing is flawless, and the plot is compelling. Even if the characters are not deeply drawn, they definitely pull on the reader’s heartstrings. The main character’s problem with inadvertently attracting bullying is defined skillfully by his actions, attitude and conversations.

He stood in front of the class as the bell rang. Despite his manufactured bravado, his knees knocked together with such force, they were in danger of dislocating each other. His tongue felt like an old sock, while his nose gyrated in frantic circles.

The bullies are uber-mean and the bullying situations are grave.

“Riddle me this,” said Dodger. “What’s physically short, short on self-respect, and now on a list that is short [for being hazed]… If you had any spine at all, maybe you wouldn’t be quite so short.” Tank had halved the space between them. All he had to do was reach out his hand and Sully was toast. “The only thing that might save you is that you’re so pathetic, it’s almost boring. It was a point of debate, Sully. You’re such a loser, there’s almost no sport in it.”

The dialogue also serves to message readers how to avoid being a target.

“And stop being so afraid,” said Blossom. “Don’t you know that bullies can smell fear? It fuels them. You think it would make them stop, but it doesn’t. It makes them worse.”

However, one minor character is mentally challenged, and the fact that he doesn’t get what is going on around him is used as part of the humour. I question the appropriateness of that. Also, the principal, most of the teachers and the parents are so busy interpreting circumstances to suit themselves and interrupting teens who are trying to tell them about the bullying, that, unlike the kids, they seem less than realistic.

Then there’s the touch of magic realism in which the main character’s facial features start churning about when he is stressed. Since no one but he (and one old lady he meets on the street) can see this, it feels like an unnecessary ploy to milk yet more humour from the story, a distraction when Sully, Messed Up is a read that already qualifies as one difficult to put down.

So, if the humour-violence combo doesn’t put you off, go for it. Perhaps Sully, Messed Up is a winning formula for coaxing today’s teens to contemplate today’s dark issues.