Me and Mr J

by Rachel McIntyre

[Leah]

When I spotted Me & Mr J up on Netgalley, I was intrigued. We've all seen the news stories and read the articles about teachers and students who fall in love. I mostly read them in disgust, because ew. But it's not very often you get the chance to read a fictional story that takes on such a taboo. It's a hard one to decide to read, because you're just not sure how this kind of novel will be received. My absolute kudos go to Rachel McIntyre for writing such a topical, difficult, bound to create waves kind of novel for her debut. That takes some large ones.

I was actually mightily impressed with the novel, and seeing it through Lara's eyes, I kind of wonder if student-teacher relationships are as gross as made out. I mean, they ARE, but when you read Lara's story you kind of wonder if what they had was love. A lot of teacher-student stories you read are all about grooming, being groomed, it's all the teacher's fault etc. but Me & Mr J left me not knowing which way was up. Was what Lara and Mr J had wrong? Right? Completely screwed up? I STILL DON'T KNOW!!!!! I have literally no idea how I felt about Lara and Mr J's relationship because it just didn't seem like something that was black or white. And we only see it from Lara's point of view (I would literally kill for Ben's point of view - now THAT would be an interesting read) so it's hard to condone something that's the only bright spot in Lara's life. But, on the other hand, that's what probably makes it worse. ARGH.

Another huge plot of the story was the bullying Lara suffers, for what seems like no other reason at all than the colour of her hair. If people are so small-minded to bully someone for the colour of their hair they should be shot. Lara was right - you can't bully someone for the colour of their skin without repurcussions so why can you bully someone for their hair colour? It made me want to sit in a ball and weep. A lot of people know what it's like to be bullied, me included, and it's just the worst thing ever. I mean, secondary school is bad enough, isn't it, really, without other kids making your life even worse? It was just despicable. What they do to Lara made me so angry and got me so worked up that I wanted to punch them all in their scummy faces. It felt real, and it just made me so sad that they had to pick on the girl who basically had no one to turn to and no way to make it stop.

It's so tough to explain how Me & Mr J made me feel. It made me feel everything. And it's so easy to see how Lara could so easily fall in love with Mr J because her life was just so pants. Her parents are on the breadline, she's bullied and picked on and harassed like no one's business and Mr J offered a bit of a haven. At first, I did wonder what Mr J would ever possibly see in Lara. Not because of anything except that she was a very young fifteen/sixteen. Her diary entries were so much fun to read and she was so snarky and amusing, but they made her seem so much younger than she was. But, actually, it was so easy to see what Mr J saw in Lara and so hard to remember that it was wrong and not allowed and there's a reason there are rules against stuff like that. But did I want a happy ending anyway? You bloody bet I did, and I can't explain why. It wasn't just because I love happy endings, it was more than that. This novel is certainly going to have people talking, and that's the best kind of book. It left me with a lot to think about, and I really, really want Mr J's side of the story. Pretty please?{Leah Loves} http://leah-loves.com http://leah-loves.com/books-mr-j-rachel-mcintyre/