A Deep Analysis of Bully by Penelope Douglass

I know from the first glance, Penelope Douglas? What were you even expecting, Salem? But that is exactly why I picked it out, reading problematic looking books and analyzing them is my guilty pleasure, and we sure as hell know Penelope Douglas has made a name for herself. So, does she live up to the talk?

TW— CSA, grooming, child abuse, sex crimes, manipulation, physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, mentions of sex trafficking and CSAM

Taking a look at just the cover and title, the intent of a toxic dark romance was obvious, albeit seemingly lighthearted. There’s a black and white still of a young looking couple, the young man’s face completely shadowed over to symbolize his mysterious and avoidant character. A contrast to the young woman’s face, whom while shadowed, is also highlighted and spotlighted by some kind of source of light, which the audience could assume is either the moon or sun, symbolizing her innocence, vulnerability, and exposure towards the shadows surrounding her. Between them is the title, colored from left to right transitioning blue to green.  Blue being cold, relaxed, and depressed to green which represents revival, growth, and stability. I’m already making this book seem much more artistic and deep than it really is. 

While reading this book, I still can’t figure out who this book is for or what the overall messaging really is. Going in, I had several theories for how this would go. It could go one of two ways, either another romanticizing and glamorizing abusive situations in a very grooming kind of way— very much like Pretty Little Liars. It really is the most common of this genre. OR— and this is my favorite, topic that is strictly dark and abusive, self aware, and ends in tragedy. 

The novel bully is specifically made to groom misogynistic messaging into young teens by appealing to that demographic, normalizing manipulation and sexual violence, and uses real abuse tactics in order to drive the romance forward. The book follows a high school teen girl, Tate Brandt, as she navigates her last year of high school while being bullied by a boy who used to be her childhood best friend. (Raise your hand if you can relate to that.) 

Here’s the thing though, apparently this book is ONLY for 18+ adults. This book is NOT YA, and is pornographic, but the subject follows teenagers getting sexually tormented. Sorry, but off the bat, that’s just objectively creepy. Why would your subject and marketing be revolving around teen culture, but that’s apparently not your target audience? Obviously, strike one.

The story begins with a prequel of a high school party. This is actually where we are introduced to all our main characters for the story. Our character should be around 14 or 15 since this is before she spends her junior year abroad, which means this should take place at the end of sophomore year. This is a 15 year old girl, and shes at a party with her best friend and her boyfriend, K.C. and Liam, respectfully. Or disrespectfully, K.C. is my least favorite character. While at the party, this is where we meet the subject of our story, our bullies, Jared and his best friend Madoc. Despite Jared being our main love interest, both the boys are important for sole reason to spread the propaganda that sexual violence is normal and forgivable, and that women, especially young girls, have no say or control over how they are treated. 

Our bullies throws Tate’s car keys in the pool in which she dives in to get, soaking her and all her clothes. (are you even allowed cars at this age?) Before her and her friends storm out of the party, Tate confronts her bullies who crudely dismiss her with Madoc’s added remark “Hey, everyone, look! Her nipples are hard! You must be turning her on, Jared.” (pg 10, Douglas)

So, let me get this straight, 10 pages in and our first example of bullying is just sheer sexual violence and harassment? Regardless, Tate breaks his nose. As she should, this point is used against her. In fact, any instances where she gains the confidence to stand up for herself is thrown back at her as if she was violent and tainted. This is a reoccurring theme that she feels guilty for and is treated as if her bullies tainted her, but let’s also get this clear, standing up for yourself doesn’t make you a bully. 

Let me repeat that. 

Fighting back doesn’t make you a bully. 

Protecting yourself does NOT make you a bad person. 

Self Defense is NOT assault. You didn’t do anything wrong. You did the right thing. 

This is a repeating theme in the book that never gets corrected and I MUST correct it here, there is not reactive abuse. Self defense does not make you bully, you were never a bad person. I’m so glad this is fiction because it’s the one thing I wish I could tell our character. But it did make me realize something interesting about each of these grooming novels. Despite how much the abuse is romanticized, it’s not lost on anyone how taboo it is, and there is always the same revolving circumstances in order for an abusive relationship like this to thrive. 

1) The enablers. The characters that our subject loves, trusts, and cares for the most are somehow always the ones to normalize and minimize the abuse our subject is experiencing and taking the side of the abuser while also criticizing our subject’s reaction to abuse, forcing our subject to doubt themselves.

2) There are never parents or responsible adults involved. If there are, they are in category #1. 

3) When the romance begins, the abuse abruptly stops and character’s personality drastically switches, as if we’ve uncovered the abusive characters “real” personality that we’ve “eventually earned” — my least favorite of these rules. I’m sure this can go without being said, but this is obviously unrealistic and is considered love bombing. The abuse didn’t stop, it’s a different tactic, and its so fucking important you know this.

When Tate returns to her town she is more determined than ever to not let her bullies win. I’m not going to lie, the first half of this book was gratingly difficult to get through. I spent that whole time SOBBING, completely triggered. Which begins in Chapter 3 when K.C. describes Jared’s actions towards Tate as “foreplay”. This was really was the breeding ground for the grooming by sexualizing the violence she’s subjected to immediately. From the way Tate was harassed about her body after being forced to get wet to the violence being defined as “flirty” as something Tate should welcome. Quite literally trying to train Tate to interpret her arousal state as sexual when she is being violated. Tate is obviously not convinced at first, as I’m sure we all experienced. You can start to see why I hate K.C. 

Her first night back, Jared, conveniently her next door neighbor, is throwing a huge rager at his house. Tate goes over to his house to try to turn down the music. I don’t know why she didn’t call the police, that would’ve been quieter and safer and way more annoying, but Im not 17 nor getting bullied so what do I know. When Tate confronted Jared, he said “Take this off and give me a lap dance.” In exchange for the party. I’m not sure if that could be considered threat of sex trafficking, since Tate wouldn’t be getting paid with money, but that sounds like sex trafficking at that point. Tate gets out of this by causing a ruckus by convincing people she called the police, which she should’ve done anyway.

And let’s all just be clear, this is only our second instance of “bullying”. The author downplays the events that takes place against Tate, but Jared’s actions are considered sexual harassment. A severe form of it. Sometimes the book is self aware, not straying away from the contents of certain actions, but she does ignore the severity of Jared’s sexual harassment. Here and our next instance of his bullying.

Again, I dont know why our setting takes place in high school. Shit like this didn’t even happen to me until I was in college, so why are we glamorizing the sexual violence against a 17 year old when that’s literally not even supposed to be the target audience. Again, that’s just objectively creepy.

Moving forward, Tate doesn’t have the greatest start to her senior year. Straight after being sexually harassed in front of a crowd at a party just the night before, during lunch on her FIRST day, Madoc approaches our main character Tate despite her several attempts at ignoring him. which he addresses with saying, “Tate, I know you can hear me. In fact, I know your body is very aware of me right now” (40, Douglas). Which he adds by stroking her arm and then again groping her. This time, in SCHOOL. Not just in public, but one place that is meant to be safe for kids. Which Tate is quickly learning she doesn’t even have that anymore, these boys can violate and do to her whatever they want without consequence. It’s normal, even. Either nowhere was safe or she wasn’t a kid anymore which meant she wasn't entitled safety. 

Tate reacts to Madoc by kicking him in the balls. Which Tate learns later from another student that both Madoc and Jared lied to staff about what happened to Madoc. Tate takes this as her bullies covering for her in order for her to owe something to them. When in reality, she probably should have reached out to an adult that she was being sexually assaulted. Not just that, but completely targeted for sexual violence and repeated offenses. But she thinks that she’s going to get in trouble for protecting herself. Because she’s a kid. 

And the sexual violence doesn’t end there, in the next chapter while Tate is in the dressing rooms after taking shower when Jared bombards and isolates her. Again, not a single person surrounding Tate is serving to protect her in anyway. The second this boy walks into the locker room, every single one of her peers leave her alone with him naked where he proceeds to pin her, only in her towel, as an intimidation tactic. In this scene our character firmly states not to touch her, to which Jared responds, “If I ever lay hands on you, you’ll want it.” ( 48, Douglas)

I think this again reinforces the grooming of our main characters to sexualize her arousal state. You’re not mad, you’re horny. You’re not offended, your body wouldn’t be reacting this way. You don’t hate me, you wouldn’t be feeling this way. 

When our characters finally get caught by the coach, Tate gets yelled at by the coach for “inviting” a boy into the locker room. At this point, she does have a friend stick up for her after Jared leaves so Tate didn’t actually get in trouble, but we never actually see or hear from that character ever again so my theory is that Jared murders her. RIP Jess you were doing God’s work, you were the only character that did anything good. You will be missed.

So, we are 4 instances of sex crimes, in case you weren’t following along, as we lead into our 5th. Since right after that exchange, some undisclosed person took a picture of when Jared harassed Tate naked in the dressing room and spread it all over school that they had sex in the locker room. That’s it. That’s the bullying— just sheer sexual violence. Honestly, if this was me, I would have killed myself just out of frustration alone.

The next few chapters are filled with irrelevant characters and sexual violence— separate from the Tate’s usual bullies. We are introduced to two other boys, Ben and Nate, whom are mostly used for filler or cop outs. They’re horrible but not important to our plot. 

When K.C. goes to hang out with Tate at her house, they can see Jared out of her window, and K.C. is sure to make provocative remarks about him, much to Tate’s dismay. K.C. excuses her behavior with saying, “It’s just that I got to see him with different eyes. Before it was always about how he treated you— which was horrible, but after you left, he seemed different. More human.” (Pg 64, Douglas) 

I cannot put into words how much I hate K.C. as a character. Her character is used for nothing more than to groom our main character, and then after that we don't hear from her anymore. Off bat, we’re humanizing abuse. K.C. alludes to Tate that she just can’t see Jared from her perspective, out of immaturity or stubbornness while simultaneously blaming her very presence for instigating the violence. Then also uses subtle language to make it seem like Tate is overreacting, over talking, or being dramatic about what she is experiencing. “Always about you,” is not language lost on me, and is definitely not used by a friend who loves and is protecting you. Then also gives us the image that if Tate wasn’t in the picture that would somehow make Jared more human. It’s clear that K.C. views the sexual violence towards Tate as competition.

That night, Tate shuts down another one of Jared’s party by calling the police and cutting the electricity to the house. She does this by breaking in with bolt cutters “up her thin sleeve.” (How big does she think bolt cutters are?) She does this before the police get there, and this leads to Jared breaking into Tate’s house to intimidate her some more. He states that her father gave him a key. “Your dad trusts me. He shouldn’t have” (71, Douglas). Tate finally takes this opportunity to ask why she’s being treated this way and his answer? “I don’t know why you ever thought you did something” (73, Douglas). When Tate screams at him, he then proceeds to hit the wall beside her head, again to intimidate her, before the police show up.

This instance of abuse I actually like. He quite literally confesses to abusing her for no reason, and that is exactly how abusers are. Abuse in and of itself is irrational and nobody ever has a good excuse to resorting to abuse. This author doesn’t even try. There is no reason. Not a good one. There never is. That might be the only real thing in this book. Also, it’s never stated that people punching walls beside you is physical abuse, but it is. Jared does physically abuse Tate by hitting the wall next to her head to scare her, even if she never acknowledges this. 

We find out Liam is cheating on K.C., (Serves her right), after her shift at work she ran into Jared who invited her to one of his races where she then found her boyfriend having an affair. Tate brings up her suspicions that Jared set her up, especially the way the rest the rest of the story unravels, but K.C. dismisses her concerns and insists he’s being kind to her. It’s clear she does not care about the treatment of her best friend. The chapter then transfers over to give more context and backstory into the history of our two characters, hinting towards abuse Jared endures by revealing brutal scars along his back, since abusers always have to have a tragic backstory. 

The next chapter Tate takes an opportunity to hang out with Jared’s mother, for more context and history. We learn that his mother is an absent alcoholic while his father is completely out of the picture. K.C comes back at the end of the chapter to update Tate on her fraternization with Jared, still insisting that he’s caring to her, and Tate’s got him pegged all wrong. K.C. continues to her gaslighting campaign, calling out Tate for shutting down his parties, and painting her as the aggressor and tells her she looks like the bully. “All I’m saying is that Jared has talked to you. That’s it. You look like the bully now. You’ve broken up two of his parties, broken his friend’s nose, and kneed that same friend in the balls” (87, Douglas). Tate tries to argue and defend herself, mentioning how Jared attacked her in the dressing rooms while she was naked. Only for K.C. to dismiss her again by saying he didn’t physically assault her. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person that usually extends over a period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perceptions of reality, or memories and usually leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self esteem, uncertainty over ones emotional and mental stability, and dependency on the perpetrator (Merriam-Webster, 2025).

Let me remind you, we are up to our 5th sex crime against our main character. This girl is not Tate’s friend because what she is actually saying is that sex crimes are not violent, Tate deserves that violence due to her own reactions to said violence, and insinuates Jared is kind to her because she deserves it more. Despite Tate being put off by her, we also learn she doesn’t want to leave because K.C. is her only friend. Tate is learning to sacrifice her self preservation and respect for companionship, which quickly transitions into her sacrificing her body for companionship as well.

This leads into our main character being asked out by the character we briefly spoke about earlier, Ben. Ben is meant to be our “good guy” contrast from Jared. Where Ben looks kinder and more put together on the surface while still holding status and power by being the star football player and using grand gestures on Tate, despite Tate’s initial reaction of finding him boring and being unable to connect with him. Still she tries, though her attempt is futile. The role this is playing is trying to convince the audience that Tate isn’t meant for normal, healthy relationship that is unrelated to attachment issues and nobody is as they first seem. She just can’t relate to kind guys. It’s not arousing if they don’t reject you just a little bit. 

After Tate’s date with Ben, she tries to get in contact with K.C. who she sees in real time blow her off to go drive off with the boy who has been sexually abusing her for 4 years. The betrayal is not lost on Tate, but still she avoids the main issue with K.C.’s behavior because if she confronts it, she loses the only companion she has despite ignoring the fact she already lost it, or more likely, never had it to begin with. This is the height of Tate’s isolation where she’s realizing she has nobody in her corner. This isolation and desperation for companionship puts her in a position where she begins to view her own self preservation and boundaries as violent and destructive and morally wrong. 

Tate stays up that night waiting for Jared to come home which takes three hours when he arrives at midnight. He’s not alone, but also with Madoc and they both get into a violent altercation with a third party. Tate breaks up the fight when she comes out pointing a gun that is never mentioned again in the book and honestly should’ve been used on everyone in this book, I don’t know. Personally, I probably would’ve put use to it after the locker room situation, but that’s clearly just me. 

The next morning we learn that Tate’s grandmother is coming to watch her so she won’t be alone. Tate then shows up to school to find K.C. and Jared canoodling in the hallways before class, and Tate stares at them the whole time until K.C. leaves. I don’t understand how Tate goes undetected, but when K.C. leaves Madoc shows up and the information is revealed that Jared is only pursuing K.C. to hurt Tate. Tate wonders why it hurts more that K.C. is pursuing it than she is hurt about Jared, but the betrayal of someone you trust caring so little about your sexual abuse that she takes it as competition is way more isolating than losing a boy to misogyny years ago. Misogynistic women who are desperate for male approval are extremely dangerous.

When Tate meets up with K.C. for lunch she cuts right to the chase and confronts her. K.C. immediately gaslights her with “This is why I didn’t tell you” (pg 105, Douglass). Tate isn’t taking the bait and expresses herself very clearly, respectfully, and states her boundary about how she feels about her best friend who lied to her about a boy who likes to hurt her. We can see her inner monologue and how the manipulation is starting to affect her. She denies to herself that K.C. is intentionally hurting her and ends it with, “This is how bullies are made” (106, Douglass). This is in reference to how she views herself constantly begging for respect and safety when up until this point she’s done nothing malicious or violent. When K.C. dismisses and ignores all of her concerns, Tate concedes, completely broken down and unable to break the connection out of fear of complete loneliness. This also is what is referred to as a trauma bond. (What happened to our friend Jess?)

Completely exhausted and broken down at this point, Tate is then sexually harassed by Nate, and Jared comes to her defense. Tate isn’t flattered by his actions though and says to him, “You’re a miserable piece of shit, Jared. But then, I guess I’d be miserable, too, if my parents hated me. Your dad left you, and your mom avoids you. But who can blame them, right?” (110, Douglas). Tate gets no satisfaction from that either, and then again repeats the phrase to herself, “This is how bullies are made” (110, Douglas). This time referencing her self image and guilt putting too much emphasis on her intent towards a boy who had been nothing but sexually violent to her up until this point, feeling completely confident in her lack of self esteem due to intentionally trying to hurt someone instead of strictly only being left to defend for herself, which is also turned around to make her seem violent anyway. A classic case of D. A. R. V. O. 

D- Deny

A- Attack

R- Reverse 

V- Victim

O- Offender 

“DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender— a tactic used to avoid accountability” (Flemming, 2025). The relationship between Jared and Tate could not have flourished without this abuse tactic that we see used against her by both Jared and K.C. We see her best friend consistently deny the violence targeting Tate, even when it’s overtly stated or being witnessed, giving the implication that Tate isn’t worthy of care or dignity. We also then see K.C. attack Tate and reverse the roles of victim and offender, which we see Tate immediately internalize. This is K.C.’s entire role and the sole reason she’s in the book, and is the breeding ground for the grooming of Tate into this abusive relationship. “Narcissists using DARVO can make victims feel responsible for the abuse leading to self doubt and mental health issues” (Flemming, 2025).

Tate’s grandmother is home when Tate is off of school, and immediately she starts inquiring about her life and reflecting on memories. This leads to conversation coming up about Jared and their friendship, which leads Tate to describe her feelings. “Really, I couldn’t care less. And even if it did hurt, I certainly wouldn’t let him see it. He’s done horrible things to me, and if my tears are what he needs to get off then he can suffer. He doesn’t deserve my attention” (119, Douglas). 

Tate’s grandmother immediately shuts her down and insults her with the reply, “That’s your mother talking” (119, Douglas). She the goes on to encourage Tate to draw Jared out and be vulnerable with him despite his clear malicious intent. I don’t really understand the women in this novel or why they either hate Tate or for some reason really like Jared because I don’t understand the loyalty. Listen to people when they tell you about themselves, and take people’s behaviors as an answer. If someone is treating you like they don’t like you, they probably dont like you. You don’t need to know why, and you dont need their approval to be deserving or desirable either. 

Tate tries to defend herself with, “Now, wait a minute. I’m getting pretty tired of everyone being on his side. He walked away from me” (120, Douglas). To which her grandmother tells her that she let him. She let him do that to her. She let him this whole time, she’s part to blame. And can I just break up of professional persona to say, GIRL I AM ALSO TIRED. Like i said, this first half of the book is completely excruciating. I was crying the entire time, triggered out of my mind.

That night Tate sees K.C. leaving Jared’s house around midnight. Jared then sees Tate out the window and tell her that he wouldn’t care if she lived or died before stranding her again outside. Despite the constant assaults, Tate internalizes the gaslighting around her and blames herself for not feeling free and continuing to get hurt, as if she’s just not doing the right thing to get the abuse to stop. 

Ben tries to ask Tate out again at school while she’s eating lunch with K.C. who is again critiquing her for isolating herself for Jared’s sake. Tate gets rightfully triggered, expressing that she doesn’t have to be around someone like that if she doesn’t want to. K.C. confronts Tate with the one question Tate herself has been avoiding. “So if Jared’s a dickhead then what am I for seeing him?” (128, Douglas). 

Tate avoids the question with the reply, “You tell me. He's a prick. You know it, and I know it. But what you don’t realize is that he’s using you. He’s using you to get under my skin. He cares about you as much as Liam did when he cheated” (128, Douglas). K.C. storms off with the last words that she was trying to pick Tate, but now she’s realizing she should’ve picked Jared over her. Despite the fact she already HAS. But again, Tate internalizes her anger on herself, placing herself in the role of the bully, and this is where she admits to herself that she doesn’t like herself anymore. It breaks the satisfaction of these characters being rightfully told off when our main character is now isolated and filled with self hatred and guilt and no longer able to trust her own instincts. 

This is really the turning point in the novel, and I will bring you relief to tell you that this is where the agony ends. You can unclench, I promise, because the rest of the book breaks off and starts flowing in a much more fantasyland direction. This is the point where the abuse abruptly stops, as they seem to always do in these glamorizing abuse grooming books. As we end up in Tate’s next class and what entails is what I think may be the cringiest monologue I’ve ever seen in my life. 

This is when Tate decides that it’s time to be vulnerable and finally “let Jared go,” even though she would’ve had no control over Jared abandoning her and then sexually and verbally abusing her for 4 years. But she does this by using class monologues to confront Jared. She monologues to Jared. In front of the entire class. I’m really not going to go through it here because it really is just too much to copy but watch my tiktok, and know that Jared cried. And whole class clapped. And nobody questioned why it wasn’t a real monologue. (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrQ5XndN/) 

This is what I mean by the story breaks off from the realism of abuse and flows into this fantasy redemption arc scenario because I’m sorry, but if that monologue was real I just can’t imagine a man, an actual sexually violent bully, genuinely giving a fuck about that monologue. And the whole class clapping? No they didn’t, that was embarrassing as fuck. It completely broke me out of my triggered trance, and it never went back. It almost convinced me Tate deserved it all, I really dont know. Watch the video. Listen to the monologue. It was too much for me. If you want to read for yourself it is the pages 131-132. In fact the rest of that chapter pissed me off as she wrote all her peers groveling over that monologue like Shakespeare himself possessed her.

Clench back up because after school, Tate comes home to a phone call from K.C. where Tate apologizes to her, practically begging to continue to be friends which K.C. accepts almost immediately but not before putting her down, and making sure Tate knows she’s being put down, and deserves it. Not because K.C. is actually mad at her for being wrong, but to ensure that Tate’s self esteem is low enough to disregard K.C.’s lack of respect for Tate’s safety or friendship over fear of being alone. Then while Tate has dinner with her grandmother, it’s brought up that Tate wants to buy a car which her grandmother discourages without her father’s explicit permission. It’s subtle building block setting the stage for Tate’s view of relationships and herself, pinning her in a position where she believes she should be lucky to have anybody because she’s naturally undeserving while also instilling that she has no autonomy outside of a man’s approval despite their lack of presence in her life. The essential piece for how this flourishes is the instilling that the violence she’s experiencing is normal and her role as a woman is to tolerate and accept it with open arms. Tate is meant to be helpless with low self esteem. This is a real tactic of abuse too, in which a man will put a woman down to manipulate her into craving his approval by instilling low self esteem and the need for validation before making and decision. 

Those scenes are brief before it leads right back into the fantasy redemption arc because after dinner Tate is lured outside to Jared’s house while it’s storming. This is our first instance in four years, and in this book, of intimacy to highlight just how much Tate’s vulnerability and monologue had gotten to him. Tate finds Jared drunk and crying in the rain as he taunts and guilt trips her over the things Tate said after years of abuse and harassment. Tate takes this moment to apologize, insisting she can own up to when she’s wrong, further instilling that concept that self defense is inherently immoral. Tate then wrestles alcohol out of Jared’s hands before slapping him. He then picks up Tate and pins her to a counter. Despite Tate’s protest, Jared then forced her into a kiss in which she enjoys before forcing him to stop because of all the surrounding events making it feel wrong. Even in that moment she’s thinking about K.C. 

It is very important that I inform you that this is textbook sexual assault. In fact, probably the most common form of sexual assault. Tate should not have gone over to his house and she shouldn’t have hit him, but everyone’s part in this story had been luring her into going against her natural instincts and confuse it for her needing to do more to be loved by him. This scene is perceived by our main character as a positive experience and progression, but this is classic sexual assault and abuse. He did not ask to kiss her; he had been verbally, mentally, and sexually abusive towards her for years; including this instance. But Tate can no longer tell because she is being trained to crave any amount of affection regardless from her abusers regardless of anything they do to her. 

This immediately transitions to Tate’s next date with Ben at the same race master events that everyone in this town apparently goes too. Her and K.C. are enthusiastically reconciled despite everything, apparently viewing the kiss betrayal as evening out the feelings. However, Tate admits to herself that she feels different and they were distanced. “Maybe I looked at her differently, or maybe our conversation wasn’t as easy, but I knew something had changed” (153, Douglas). K.C leads Tate and Ben to Jared, rubbing it in her face by kissing him and then introducing Jared to Tate, just to hurt her. Tate brushes this off though because she’s too busy thinking about her kiss and staring at him, but K.C continues to canoodle and rub it into her face.

However whatever tension is built up here is immediately relieved for when Jared finishes his race, Tate and K.C. go to meet him only to find him tongue kissing a girl from one of the previous parties. And whatever concern for K.C. you could even tolerate is immediately obliterated when Tate sees she doesnt even seem to care that much. Tate admits to herself that she doesn’t really care. 

And at this point in my blog you might be wondering why I said the abuse stops right before immediately following with a scene with sexual assault, and you’ll understand in a second because the book breaks off once again away from the realism of abuse tactics and transitions into its fantasy redemption arc. Since the race Jared participated in ended in a tie, a rule was made where the racer’s girlfriend’s have to race instead, and Jared insists he only trusts Tate to race. When she does, she is very impressive and wins the race and this boosts her popularity up in a way she’s never experienced. Jared also refers to our main character by her name for the first time, as if granting her identity and attention. This heavily influences her self esteem. 

However, as we know, this is a date with Ben, but that doesn’t stop Jared from coming off more friendly and flirty. We also discover that Ben turns into a negligent drunkard when he refuses to take Tate home and coerces her to stay after having too many drinks. This leads to Tate almost getting raped by Nate when she tries to walk home and Jared jumps out to defend Tate’s honor and beats Nate in front of her. This gives the impression that on the surface level the sweet, kind, boring boy is deep down a neglectful drunkard, and that the boy who is mean, demeaning, and sexually violent is deep down the man who is going to respect and protect you. I don’t think I need to elaborate the problematic messaging of this “Not everything is as it seems” lessons. 

Jared then insists on driving Tate home as an act of concern for her safety. However, the second she gets alone in the car with him, he drives recklessly as she screams and cries in protest and fear, and despite her struggle to safely get out of the car this is not regarded as abuse or is processed by our character at all. When she gets out of the car she takes this moment to confront Jared on why he hates her to which he confesses he doesn’t. He then explains some instances of bullying where he spread mean rumors about Tate in order to sabotage other boys from asking her out. “I wasn’t protecting you, I was jealous” (189, Douglas). However this isnt off putting the way it should be as she’s being trained to view sexual violence as affection. He then explains that his bullying had less to do with hating her and forcing her to not forget him, and again she is flattered by this information. “I knew then that I’d really gotten to you, and instead of feeling any satisfaction, I was angry with myself. I wanted to hate you all these years, I wanted to hate someone. But I didn’t want to hurt you, and I didn’t realize that until the monologue” (191, Douglas). Let me remind everyone, it was 5 sex crimes in before he realized that not only were his actions hurtful, but actually his intent wasn’t to be hurtful at all! 

Tate, despite romanticizing what’s happening in her inner monologue, expresses that she hates him and doesn’t want to be near him. “You don’t hate me. If you did, you wouldn’t be this upset.” (192, Douglas). This again reinforces the concept of confusing Tate’s arousal state as sexual desire, and trading her body for companionship. He then picks her up and forces her on his car and forces his way between her legs. Even when she begs him not to kiss her, he kisses along her neck and body, and says that she’s going to ask for it. When Tate insinuates that he was assaulting her, he defends himself with insinuating that he’s not like the other boys because she actually likes it when he does it. And she agrees. I dont think I even need to emphasize the toxic brainwashing going on here as she now has completely confused sexual violence as affection, as long as she likes it. Still when Tate demands Jared to leave her alone, he tell her to leave him alone first, insinuating she’s played any actual part in consenting to this despite her obvious helplessness with control in these situations. Jared is giving her an illusion of choice so she internalized the immediate victim blaming. Because she wants it, right? 

Anyways, that night she has a wet dream about Jared and is convinced she’s in love with him now because she’s too horny to be mad or hurt or offended by anything. Have I mentioned she’s still 17? Anyways, we find out Tate’s grandmother is now leaving for some reason, that it’s October now despite the fact that all the series of events had been displayed back to back, the only distinction of time being explicitly stated as after the first the sexual assault where it states two days has passed. How would it be October? Does she think her audience is stupid? Is she stupid? How is time even supposed to be perceived in this book?

It is also revealed over text that K.C. and Liam were back together and that Jared was “all hers now” (202, Douglas). Again driving home the idea that all the sexual violence that Tate was experiencing was actually competition for Jared’s attention, giving the impression that Jared actually never really bullied her and his behavior is excusable. And if it isn’t excusable, then it’s understandable due to his past. Then the chapter ends with Madoc approaching Tate and apologizing to her before asking her out. This was after also sexually assaulting her twice before. 

Tate rejects him up front and tries to move on, but Madoc forces her to homecoming by again confronting her during lunch in front of an audience and tells her peers he got her pregnant in an attempt to humiliate her into saying yes. Which works, again highlighting the sheer sexual violence by directly disrespecting Tate’s decisions and boundaries until she breaks them down, again instilling the message that Tate doesn’t actually have any decision in this and it is her job to submit and go along with it to keep the peace. This is piled on when Jared interrupts Tate’s science class while the teacher is absent and forces her to be friendly with him despite making her boundary clear that they were not friends, again disrespecting her decisions and forcing her to rethink. 

Jared again apologizes for his treatment towards Tate as he holds her face in his hands. Tate says nothing but immediately forgives him as Jared once again forces himself on her and she accepts it gleefully because again she’s now too horny and desperate for love to be hurt or have any object permanence at all. This is another instance of sexual assault because she rejects him still multiple times, despite her thinking she likes it, because he still forces himself on her despite what she thinks or is feeling because in reality he doesn’t really care. Tate’s role is to be of Jared’s ownership, not a woman with autonomy. It is also strictly stated to be October 3rd. 

Despite herself, Tate again brings herself to confront him and Jared admits that he was hoping he could be intimate with Tate again without having to actually take any accountability. When confronted with the assault, Jared dismisses it with, “Kissing you? You kissed me back… both times. And now you’re off to the school dance with Madoc. You might say I’m the one with whiplash here.” Jared gaslights as he instills the wrong concept that if you “reciprocate” or “enjoy” the assault that it suddenly doesn’t make it sexual abuse, but it is sexual assault. However everyone is making her perceive her chronic fight or flight state as a crush. Then also throwing the forced date with the other boy sexually abusing her just to remind her that she gets no choice at all what happens to her. Jared then leaves with a girl that calls Tate a lesbian slur for no other reason than I think Penelope Douglas just really wanted to use that slur against lesbians. 

We then transition back to Tate hanging out with K.C where Tate elaborates what happened between boys, and Tate extracts information about K.C.’s relationship with Jared. It’s revealed they never had sex, but K.C. doesn’t elaborate whether they could’ve and I think she’s lying because of how she almost immediately redirects the conversation. It is never revealed the extent of Jared and K.C.’s relationship, but Tate is beyond processing. We are then brought back to the girl Jared partied with named Piper who then begins to specifically targeting her though Tate subconsciously takes this as competition for Jared’s affection the same way her relationship with K.C. turned into. 

Tate copes with this competition and need to be closer to Jared than this other girl by breaking into Jared’s house when she thinks he leaves in order to search his room for information. This obviously doesn’t play out as shr planned when Jared comes out of the shower to catch Tate in the act who dismisses any questioning by throwing herself onto Jared to distract him, and it works. She tells him that she wants to give herself to him and he accepts without question, and quickly becomes child sexual assault material, or CSAM. I would like to remind you that this is only two weeks after the classroom scene. That would technically make Tate still 17 years old and therefore this scene would be considered CSAM. Again, I ask, who is this for? It’s written and presented as YA, but the book is said to be targeted to adults, but what adult would realistically want to read this? I don’t particularly understand the point of this graphic, inappropriate scene other than highlight the drastic shift in their dynamic and to send the message that this type of sex is normal and okay to pursue.

Also during this scene, Tate expresses that this was supposed to be his birthday present which was stated to be October 2nd from earlier. Earlier when in class it was supposed to be October 3rd when Jared left with Piper, and in the scene when Tate assaults Jared it is said to be two weeks later since his birthday. So this is two weeks after the scene in the classroom. 

After the abusive scene, Jared invited Tate out with him back to the race track. There Tate stakes her claim on Jared where she runs into and confronts Piper head on, leaning into the competition for Jared’s affection and forgetting all the abuse he’s still inflicting on her. Again reinforcing the drastic shift in their dynamic by making it public and overt. However, whatever disgusting relief you get from this affection is shortlived as on the way home, Jared and Tate get into fight about where he goes on the weekends. Jared dismisses the interrogation by saying something provocative and insensitive. 

The next day is Tate’s 18th birthday which is just a sick subtle detail it feels to try and get away with getting off with creating and distributing CSAM while having a semblance of a benefit of the doubt since the previous sexual encounter was oral and not penetration, but the sneakiness of this detail is perverted and intentional. Again, there was no reason to write graphically about children. Jared was 18, Tate was not yet, and written intentionally the night before that scene would be legal should be overlooked as a decision.

Jared love bombs Tate by decorating the tree that separates their houses with lights and decorations as a grand gesture of love. He then manipulates her perception of him by finally coming clean about everything. Love bombing is described by NOCD as a form of emotional abuse using excessive displays of affection in order to gain control. “Love bombing can sometimes look similar to the initial phases of a blossoming healthy relationship, but is characterized by calculated deception and a desire to assert control (Webb, 2025). It’s revealed that Jared would see his dad during that summer before high school and all the scars on his body was from getting beat by him and that he had a little brother who was being trafficked by his father and his friends until he eventually ran away to become the boy that Tate now knew. I would like to preface that this is a particularly unrealistic description of child abuse in general. According to The Polaris Project, most trafficking victims aren’t aware they’re victims and have been groomed by the perpetrator that they themselves have chosen to partake in commercialized sex (Polaris, 2025).

It’s then revealed that Jared visits his dad every weekend from prison as punishment for assault and battery against his little brother’s abusive foster parents. Which just isnt something that happens in real life either. Lastly it’s revealed that Jared targeted her after all this time because when Jared returned while his mother was in rehab trying to sober up, with Tate and her father were taking her out and supporting her through sobriety.

“You became a target, Tate. I hated my parents, I was worried about my brother, and I sure as hell couldn’t rely on anyone but myself. When I hated you, it made me feel better. A lot better. Even after I realized nothing was your fault, I still couldn’t stop trying to hate you. It felt good, because I couldn’t hurt who I wanted to hurt” (258, Douglas). I’m not sure what about this isn’t sickening to Tate because it genuinely doesn’t make sense how there’s no explanation as to suddenly why he no longer gets sadistic gratification from Tate’s suffering and sudden wants to shower her with affection. I theorize that the concept of idolizing and obsessing over someone regardless of how terribly they treat you is a humiliation ritual in and of itself because it inherently involves ignoring and tolerating any and every kind of sexual and physical violence.

He then takes her virginity in a scene that I didn’t read because it felt weird. She just became legal and I only knew her as a kid, and all I’ve done is watch everyone take her pain and sexualize it. I didn’t care to read through these parts. However, to add to the disgust, after the coercive sex, Jared gushes how she “really was a virgin,” as if he would even be able to tell, and ended that with, “So you’re truly mine” (264, Douglas). This reinforces purity culture and gives Tate the impression that she was really chosen and that she’s good for choosing to wait and give it up for him despite his possessive sadism. 

The book then jumps straight to homecoming which now Jared and Madoc are both taking Tate, as Jared had given his permission. This again is emphasizing the role that Tate has been properly brainwashed to interpret her sexual violence as affection and to tolerate and forgive it in exchange for peace and companionship. It’s still supposed to represent Tate’s helplessness and inability to take control of her life and put men above her needs and boundaries.

After homecoming is another smut scene at an after party from Tate feeling adventurous in her sexuality now.  When Jared brings Tate home it is also revealed that Piper’s dad is the cop who arrested Jared, and he never cared for her. At this point Tate is completely satisfied with her relationships, which I dont understand since everything feels so unsatisfying. Tate’s easy forgiveness is unsatisfying, in fact her lack of agony or feeling at all is unsatisfying as it all was just sexualized instead. Jared’s change in character feels unsatisfying, his kind gestures dont feel like an apology for years of prior abuse. 

That monday while in class, Tate and everyone else in her class received a text from Jared which was picture of them at the Homecoming after party having sex with the caption, “she was a great fuck. Who wants her next?” (284, Douglas). I’m not going to lie, this part of the book briefly excited me. Not because I wanted Tate to be abused, but the idea of someone abusive that you gave the benefit of the doubt to only for that person to weaponize that for the sole reason to sadistically betray and humiliate you is real. That kind of experience is what is rampant and mutually shared among other victims of domestic and sexual abuse. That is usually what happens.

However it is immediately revealed that Jared’s phone was stolen, and the person who committed this sex crime actually wasn’t him. He put his sadism and need for humiliation aside because he would never do that and that is so unlike him. No, it was actually Nate and Piper who took the video and distributed it, and Tate and Jared live happily ever after, and still nobody took legal action against anything. 

To wrap everything up, Bully is a weak attempt to romanticize and gratify misogynistic and abusive relationship to groom teenagers into tolerating and normalizing abuse. Tate is completely isolated from any responsible adult, every character she trusts attacks her with D. A. R. V. O. techniques, and it paints sexual violence as something women are meant to tolerate and nor while also trying to get away with fantasizing CSAM. I will probably not take part in any other of her content, especially not her second book which is the exact same book but written in Jared’s point of view. As if anything actually interesting happened in the book that it needed a second perspective of the same exact events. Her writing is not just problematic, abusive, and juvenile, but it’s also boring and uninspiring. This is nothing but a misogynistic, old woman’s abuse fantasy of young girls. 

Anyways, I am so relieved to finally finish this. Thank you so much if you read this all the way through, I really appreciate it, and follow my blog to find more literary analysis. I like to specialize in books surrounding abuse and/or toxic relationships.

Citations: 

Douglas, Penelope. Bully. Berkley Romance, 2023. 

Fleming, LaKeisha. “How Narcissists Use Darvo to Avoid Accountability.” Verywell Mind, Verywell Mind, 16 Oct. 2025, www.verywellmind.com/protecting-yourself-from-darvo-abusive-behavior-7562730. 

“Gaslighting Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gaslighting. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025. 

“Recognizing Human Trafficking.” Polaris, Polaris, 29 Jan. 2024, polarisproject.org/sex-trafficking/. 

Webb, Jill. “What Is Love Bombing?” NOCD, NOCD, 5 Dec. 2025, www.treatmyocd.com/blog/love-bombing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=NOCD_PM_US&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=14264737132&gbraid=0AAAAADEWRhb3JI2XQIHx3rnuM-c-JAbqi&gclid=CjwKCAiA0eTJBhBaEiwA-Pa-herEtbIzreqO6ZgH8NRqu_DWA9n6BbVJ5nLrGOnO9h-OMgDXcoNrWhoCxmwQAvD_BwE.