Aside from being afraid, of course, it’s just part of the reality he’s accepted and it feels like something he thinks he deserves, given everything else in his life. There’s not a suggestion bullying is good for him because it’s not, but as readers, it’s easy to see why he doesn’t fight back. Victor’s lonely and frustrated and while he never wants to be the victim of bullying, it offers him a kind of attention he’s not getting anywhere else. Of course, that’s all superficial his parents are never home and his parents aren’t happy he exists at all. Both of his parents work hard and he lives in a big house and has everything he could possibly want at his fingertips. Victor comes from a home where there is money. Victor is almost the complete opposite of Bull - or at least, that’s what we’re lead to believe about him. Because of this, Bull continues being a bully because, well, it helps him feel like he has some sort of power and control in his life. Everything that Bull has pent up from home he lets loose on Victor who, rather than fight back, takes it. From very early on in his life, Victor was an easy target. All of this, along with his award-winning parents who regularly remind him that he was an unwanted child, cause him to seek out a way to feel better about himself. I don’t know if I’d characterize him as living in poverty, but his home is infested with insects, there is hardly any food at home for him, and he really has nothing. Unlike many books that try to portray poor characters through simply calling them poor (something which bothers me to no end), Walton actually depicts a boy who is growing up in a lower income bracket.

That both Bull and Victor are the bully and the bullied in their own ways.īull comes from a poor family, with parents who are angry and abusive toward him.

Although KM Walton’s debut Cracked sounds like a standard story of bullying, readers learn there is a lot more going on beneath the surfaces of both boys.

It’s been this way since elementary school: Bull lets out his aggression and Victor lets him. As his name might suggest, Bull is the bully here and Victor is his target.

Cracked by km walton