This book made me feel completely uncomfortable, because for many it will hit too close to home, whether you were part of the problem, the bystander or the victim. And what makes this novel even worse, is the fact that the victim here is a popular, beautiful girl who made enemies with the wrong people in high school. It is an incredible and beautiful novel on a horrible subject: bullying. It is written completely in the first person plural, making it an unusual, yet completely invoking novel. The melancholic and nostalgic feeling of the book makes it feel like you were part of the story, and even part of the problem. And it makes the message that much clearer: if you're just standing by, are you guilty as well? At it's core, it is a Young Adult novel, dealing with teen issues and teen feelings. The whole story revolves around the new girl and her instant popularity. It is a story about teen cliques and hierarchy and how the popular teens are both loved and hated. But this story can so easily be used in adult society as well. How we worship celebrities and how we love to see them rise and fall. I loved this book and could not put it down, but the message will definitely haunt me for a while.

This is a book about you. You, who grew up in a small town, you who know what happens in high schools, you who watched. This book is aimed at the reader, drawing them in, with the narrator using 'we' to make them just as culpable for what happened. Completely unflinching, especially about the brutalities that occur in school when everyone pretends they didn't see anything at all. This book will blow you away with it's sharp honesty and brilliant plot.

At first I wasn't sure I was going to like this book, but I stuck with it due to the brilliant reviews I'd read - and goodness am I glad I stuck with it! This is a scary and very topical look at bullying. Bullying isn't something new, but the forms it takes have become vastly different and more subtle than ever before. Especially with the introduction of social media. Sarah Bannan doesn't cover new ground with the subject matter, however the way this book is written is unique and really turns this story into something special. The narrator is completely anonymous. We never learn their name or their story, we just hear their first-person account of what happens during a single school year at this small American town school. I couldn't put it down and it will stay with me for a long time.

Never have I read a book that has provoked such visceral, frustrated and angry emotions, Weightless broke my heart into a million pieces. It follows the story of Carolyn, who can only be described as the main protagonist because the events connected to her drive the narrative to it's tragic conclusion, we, the reader, never truly capture her personality and depth, and that is the point of this spectacular, bold piece of writing. This is American High School, this is teenagers and this is bullying at its most extreme. The narrator, who remains unidentified even as the novel closes, tells the story of Carolyn from first and second hand information. She reveals the spiteful, hateful creatures that initiate sadistic incidents of bullying and those that are complicit in these actions through their lack of empathy and their silence. The narrator and her peers idolise Carolyn's beauty, wealth and otherness, yet never make any real effort to know the character, she is there merely to be dissected and judged whilst those around Carolyn watch her flounder and drown due to a harrowing lack of unity and and humanity. Bannan bores right into the very heart of what can go wrong within a close knit society and the awful repercussions of living in indifference. There is an obvious preoccupation with body image and material gain running as a theme throughout, and quite often these ideas are used to label characters within the novel. This is an unsettling book to read, because although drastic, it is sometimes all too easy to recognise the judgemental intolerance that is common place in today's wider society. Bannan uses a number of ingenious ways to tell her tale, exposing social media and texting as vicious and private means to incite bullying, alongside essays written by Carolyn and notes from counselling sessions in the school to give brief snapshots into her thoughts. In spite of this, we the reader struggle just as much as the dissociative narrator to truly understand who she is. Although a tough read to stomach, it is brilliant, its deeply provocative wording made me feel disgust, anger and relentless sorrow without even appearing to try. Weightless is an important book as it brings that which is hidden, and seldom addressed into the spotlight and forces us all to see that those that linger at the fringes of an event are often those the inflict the most damage. This is a harrowing and uncomfortable novel that will linger and haunt me for a long time to come and its one that everyone must read.

This book gripped me from the first page! It's a helicopter view into what teen life is all about nowadays - the cyber life, the disregard for others feelings, the nihilism of using social networks and not fully understanding the potential impact. The bullying that is accepted and covered up. It's sad and revealing and a joy to read