The book I chose to read is called Cracked by K.M. Walton. It is a young adult novel discussing the topics of abuse, bullying and suicide. The protagonists of the novel are Victor Konig and William "Bull" Mastrick. Victor is a scrawny, 16 year old boy who gets abused physically by Bull. They have been sworn enemies since the first grade. Although Victor may not be the most popular kid in school, he is very intelligent; he received an almost perfect score on all his SATs and that was still not enough for his parents. He describes them as "alien" since they show no human emotion towards him. Bull on the other hand, has opposite living circumstances compared to Victor. His family is very poor and his mother and grandfather are alcoholics. He gets physically abused at home while Victor gets emotionally abused. The two boys foil, although they are quite different in these ways, they are also similar. They were both wounded mentally and decided that they had no reason to live. Ironically, they both ended up in the same psychiatric ward, and in the same room. There were quite a few conflicts while the 2 boys stayed there but over the…show more content… Statistics reveal that 71% of students between the ages of 13-17 have been bullied at least once at school. Bullying appears a lot in our modern world, in the news, and mostly on social media. Cyber bullying is the most common type of bullying that occurs in middle school and high school. The internet and social media outlets allow bullies to hide behind screens and terrorize innocent children. It can have a very big impact on how a child develops. If a child has been bullied emotionally by a parent, like Victor, they will never feel like they are good enough. In Bull’s case, he also got neglected by his mother and grandfather; on top of that, when Bull was born; his father left home. Bull had a grudge against his dad because he left his mother and him in a vulnerable