Review - Shut Up by Anne Tibbets

Shut Up by Anne Tibbets
Released: February 28, 2012
Publisher: Premier Digital Publishing
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 118 pages
Format: Paperback
Source: Author
Rating: 5/5
Author Site: Anne Tibbets

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.

Shut Up made me sad and angry all at once. Mary is but still a child who still plays with Barbie Dolls for Pete's sakes and her older sister is no more than a bully! I can't understand why the parents bowed down and let Gwen run amok and carry on in their home like she did. It was appaling and sickening.

I know to a certain degree they just wanted to pacify Gwen because the more you'd argue with her the longer and louder she'd get. But the way I look at it is Gwen made her own bed and even once they tried to overlook that she had gotten pregnant and wanted to marry the creep father of the child, and extend an olive branch of help she was the most ungratefullest person in the world! You can only help somebody so much. They have got to do something for themself and let me tell you what...my folks would never have tolerated this behavior from me or my sibs. Pregnant or not had I hollered at them either I'd be picking my teeth up off the ground or sitting in the front yard with my suitcases!

Gwen was just a very negative person and she wanted everybody around her to be just as miserable as she was. I wanted to reach out to Mary and hug her and let her know I was there and that she wasn't alone even though I knew she was just a character in a book she felt so freaking real to me!

The title of the book is Shut Up only it seems weird because Mary never really "said" anything! Bless her heart she just kept taking the abuse, and yes that is what it was, time and time again. The words of truth and pain were right there on the tip of her tongue so many times but she could never confide in anybody and after a while she began to blame herself and wonder why she could never do anything right.

This is the song ( Simon by Lifehouse) that Anne says is the musical inspiration for Shut Up.