Anti-bullying week: Maryom's choices

All of my choices are not books about bullying as such but still ones in which it plays an important part. I had wanted to include The Killer's Daughter by Vivian Oldaker but The Mole picked that first!
Be warned there are probably plot spoilers in this post - though not in the individual reviews.

A Million Angels by Kate Maryon - Mima is depressed and lonely since her father has been posted to Afghanistan. First her best friend Jess starts to torment her with ghastly accounts of what may be happening to her dad, then school bully Tory begins to pick on her as well. The mild teasing turns nasty when their parents mistakenly encourage the girls to spend more time together. The story shows how parents too easily pick up the wrong idea and make matters worse, even though they feel they are helping.

Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman behind the main plot of teenage parenthood is a tale of gay teenager Adam coming to terms with being 'different' but bullied for it. He attempts to hide this from his, mainly accepting, family but the reader is aware that things are growing unpleasant for him. The ugliest aspect is that someone is joining in with the bullying in an attempt to hide their own feelings and sexuality.

Torn by Cat Clarke - how NOT to tackle bullying! Tara is the popular, bitchy queen of school, out to belittle and humiliate anyone not in her clique. She wasn't always like this though, so how did she change from nice girl to bully? Also, if you feel you're being bullied, don't go down the route picked by these girls!

The Killer's Daughter by Vivian Oldaker

Bullied into the truth
Review by TheMole(Gerry)


This book is very easy reading and would make an excellent holiday book for young girls.

Emma is the grand daughter of a famous movie star who died on the Greek island of Kalos. The trouble is that her father was tried for her grandmother's murder and although found not guilty people don't believe the verdict. Where ever they go they seem to get hounded and ostracised. They have moved to Wessex where Emma starts a new school and it starts all over again.

Emma is year 11 but having to repeat year 10 because of the court case so 16 going on 17 but I found myself comparing her actions and maturity with my 13 year old daughter. I am not sure why I should find that though. Is it that my daughter is mature or is Emma written as less mature? The effect of this is that I can see this book being read and and enjoyed by young teenagers through to the older ones.

It is fast moving and ends up as a whodunnit that develops quite late on. One of it's main early themes is bullying, which seems to be a quite popular theme today. The bullying is portrayed well and I found myself thinking that yes, the teaching staff would do it that way - but are they right?

I did enjoy the book, although at times I wanted to give some (if not most) of the characters a telling off.

Publisher - Andersen Press

Genre - Teenage Girls General Fiction

The Killer's Daughter by Vivian Oldaker

A Murder Mystery and Bullying - two tales in one.
review by Maryom

The Mole has already reviewed The Killer's Daughter but as we're currently running a competition for you to win a personalised copy of it, I though I would read it too. I'm extremely glad I did.


Emma Xenos doesn't quite fit in - she's just moved to a new school and is having to re-take Year 10, she plays the saxophone and likes jazz instead of pop music, reads 'classics' for fun, has a crush on John Travolta rather than Orlando or Zac and, as if all that wasn't enough to single her out, her father was the prime suspect when his ex-film star mother-in-law was found dead at the bottom of a cliff, even though the court cleared him it doesn't make him innocent in the eyes of gossiping neighbours.
Needless to say Emma finds it difficult to settle in her new school - new friends are warned off by their parents, one of her class-mates targets her for bullying - her father and step-mother are wrapped in their own plans of making a fresh start in France where hopefully no one will have heard of them and Emma becomes convinced that the only thing to do to stop her own niggling doubts about her father's innocence is investigate her Grandmother's death herself.

The Killer's Daughter is a book with two threads - Emma settling into her new home and school, making friends - and maybe a boyfriend - standing up to bullies - and the mystery surrounding her grandmother's death.
I think this must be one of the best books I've read dealing with bullying. The reader sees how Emma is deliberately, maliciously picked on by Megan Marsh and her gang, but also enables us to see the teachers viewpoint - where both girls are equally at fault so both bully and victim are treated alike. Also, with the growing friendship between Emma and Bruce from the corner shop, come issues of teenage relationships and sex.
The mystery surrounding her grandmother's fall felt a little lacking and too easily solved, which is why I've given 4 1/2 stars - but maybe this is only in the eyes of a mature who-dunnit reader used to more complicated, convoluted plot twists.




We did an interview with Vivian after TheMole had reviewed it and currently we are proud to be hosting a competition to win a personalised copy!

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Andersen Press

Genre - Teenage Girls General Fiction

Author Interview - Vivian Oldaker

We read and reviewed Vivian's book "The Killer's Daughter" a short while ago and have had the opportunity to do an author interview. As with most author's she enjoys a colourful life and has had the bridge to cross of getting her first book published.

You say you like big dogs. Do you have any and can you tell us more?
We had a Bernese Mountain Dog a few years ago. He was the most stubborn, wilful, destructive and beautiful dog I’ve ever had. We don’t have any at the moment but maybe one day, when I get that house by the sea….a couple of Leonbergers by the fire would be nice.!

I understand you have a passion for Greece. When and why did that come about?
I suppose you could say it was chance, or fate. In the early 1980s, my father was looking for a very-last-minute holiday somewhere, anywhere. He ended up going to Corfu and, within, a few months he had emigrated there. (He was a somewhat impulsive man!) I went to see what all the fuss was about and fell in love with the island, the landscape, the people and of course the weather. Since then I’ve been to other Greek islands and loved them too. I’m a definite Hellenophile!

You would like to live by the sea. Presumably in Greece but anywhere in particular
Corfu would probably still be favourite; the NW corner. Though I also like Cornwall and am fond of Mallorca and The Vendee region of France too!

Most authors have had to do other occupations to keep the wolf from the door until they manage to get published. Is this true in your case and if so what occupations were they?
In my long and glorious career(!) I’ve had a number of jobs These include working in a factory; a betting shop; in local government; a children’s hospital; the Civil Service; in a chemist shop; as a hotel receptionist; an office worker for a PR company; a Learning Support Assistant; and, my favourite job, as Deputy Manager of an independent bookshop.

Where did you get the idea for "Killer's Daughter"?
That’s quite difficult to say. I suppose I’ve always been interested in the idea of individuals, particularly young people, battling with difficult circumstances. Emma finds herself in a situation not of her own making and beyond her control; that is, until she decides to try to change this. Where ideas come from is always a bit of a mystery – to me anyway!

How long did it take to finish a manuscript you were happy to send to publishers?
About a year.

Rejections are a fact of life for starting out authors. Did you find this hard to take at all?
It’s always disappointing, but only to be expected. It’s really valuable if the publisher/agent can tell you why they didn’t like your manuscript, and few have the time or resources for that. Of course it isn’t enough just to write a “good book,” or one that your friends and family tell you they like. An author must write a “sellable book” if s/he wants publication. I’d always advise any aspiring author to read carefully any comments made by publishers/agents. They aren’t always right – one famously told J K Rowling that Harry Potter was too long, I seem to recall. But, generally speaking, they know the business.

Did the manuscript change at all, and if so how much, between acceptance by a publisher and actual publication?
Yes, several alterations to the manuscript were made; by me and my editor at Andersen Press. I actually found the editing process very interesting and useful. Publishers (generally!) know what they’re doing and, while I was sorry to see some cherished scenes go, I have to say I think “The Killer’s Daughter” is a better book because of the changes we made.

Emma becomes the victim, of what would be considered today as bullying because of the rumours about her father. Would you see this as bullying, because I find everyone sees a different definition of this hugely topical issue?
Yes, I certainly would see it as bullying. Emma is victimised because of the rumours about her father. She is bullied verbally and physically and psychologically. The bullies use mobile phones to intimidate her too. Emma has little internet access, but if she had she might well have found that there were social network sites where the persecution continued.

The reasons why people are bullied can often be complex. The rumours about her father certainly spark the bullying, but Emma’s academic ability and “outsider” persona make her an ideal target too.

“The Killer’s Daughter” has just been featured in a book review blog as part of Anti-Bullying week.

Emma kicks back at the bullies and so might be seen by some as a bully herself. How do you view her?
I don’t see her as a bully at all. She tries her best to stand up for herself as, like most people, she doesn’t wish to be a victim.

Many authors write about children who stray from the route their parents would have them follow. Some have the child 'duped' into it, some just blindly wander in to it and some, as in the case of Emma, walk into it with their eyes wide open. I found this approach to be hugely open and honest but wonder how you, as parent would have coped had one of your children done it?I would have been terrified and dismayed, probably! While Emma’s father loves her dearly, he doesn’t realise the extent of what she’s going through; this is partly because of his own pain and also, it has to be said, because his artistic temperament makes him somewhat self-centred.

I found Emma's approach to relationships extremely mature for one so young. Is this how you have seen young ones behave or is it how you would like to see them?
Both. Young people are often more level-headed when it comes to relationships than they are given credit for.

I understand you are writing a sequel to The Killer's Daughter. Is there a publication date yet and can you tell us a little about it?
The sequel is called “All Shook Up.” It takes up where “The Killer’s Daughter” left off. Emma is at more-or-less happy at her school in Kalos, but she’s haunted by bad dreams of what happened. To her dismay, George comes back into her life in a surprising way. Many of the characters from KD re-appear. Hamish, Dino, of course Bruce.

Unfortunately, it won’t be published until sales of “The Killer’s Daughter” have reached a certain level, yet to be achieved, and the publishers can be sure of demand. For those reasons, writing a sequel can often be a difficult undertaking. (For anyone who hasn’t read it, “The Killer’s Daughter” is the ideal Christmas present?!) I really hope the sequel will be published one day.

I’m currently working on a book set in the future, where to be different from the perceived physical ideal is to know true isolation and danger.

Many thanks to Vivian for her time in talking to us and her kind offer of a competition we will be running shortly for a signed personalised copy of The Killer's Daughter.