This series is marketed as Teens but definitely should be read also by adults who are fans of Kenyon's hugely popular Dark Hunter series. The Chronicles of Nick are sort of prequels to DH but they also take place simultaneously with events in the DH series. It makes your head hurt but in a good way.
Nick continues his triple life as a high school student, and assistant to a dark hunter, and as a fledgling demon if he gives in to his darker emotions. Grim (aka Death) is manipulating events in Nick's life to bring him over to the "dark side" to fulfill his destiny.
This is another excellent installment that continues to flesh out the characters and details of the Dark Hunter universe. Kenyon rose past horrible circumstances in real life and that voice of truth holds through in all her writings. I found the anti-bullying message in the book to be particularly relevant to today and the letter to a bully highlighted in the book is worth having everyone read:
BRYNNA'S LETTER TO A BULLY
Dear Tormentor,
Today, you made me cry. You made me feel like the lowest piece of dirt that has ever
walked this earth. You stole a piece of my heart and soul, and my self-esteem. Just
when I had finally managed to convince myself that I wasn’t quite the ugliest or dumbest
person alive, you came in and reaffirmed that never ending playback in my head that
insults me even when you’re not around. The same playback that tells me, over and
over, life sucks, and it’s never going to get any better no matter what I do, because I
don’t deserve anything better. I am nothing and nothing is all I’ll ever be. Even when I
try my very best, like I did today, it’s not good enough to make me human or worth
something in the world’s eyes. I don’t need you or anyone else to reaffirm something I
already know about myself.
My hurt didn’t show on the outside because I learned a long time ago to make sure that
you couldn’t take that pleasure, too; that you and the others who think you’re funny or
witty or cute, or are too afraid of you to do anything more than follow along, couldn’t see
how much pain you’ve caused me. The times in the past when I made the mistake of
letting you see my tears, all of you laughed at me over them, and you made it worse.
You made me choke on my dignity, and hate that which had been a source of pride
until you mocked it.
You have kicked me in my heart, and ravaged what little self-worth I had managed to
scrape together.
But that’s okay, because that is what makes me stronger than you and your followers. I
don’t have to point out someone else’s flaws. I don’t need to put someone else down or
mock someone in order to feel better about myself, or to prove my worth, authority,
power or intelligence. The mere fact that you do proves that we who refrain from such
cruelty are a superior species. We are the ones who have evolved beyond simple
animal behavior that makes a base creature attack something it doesn’t understand;
something that is different or not as strong.
It doesn’t take superior intelligence to tear down someone and/or their hard work. To
mock their best effort or a physical trait that can’t be helped. It doesn’t prove that you’re
more intelligent or better in any way. A stick of dynamite can level a building, but it can’t
build one.You have made me afraid to go to school. You’ve made me sick to my stomach
whenever I think about going to work. You’ve made me afraid in my own home. You
have needlessly insulted me in stores, on the phone, or wherever I accidentally
stumbled upon you. You have ruined my past, my present, my day, and stolen a part of
my soul.
Like the rest of us, you come from all kinds of backgrounds. Some not very happy, and
cruelty is all you’ve ever known, so you lash out in an effort to ease your own pain.
Others like you have no excuse whatsoever. Your background is above reproach.
Rather, it's a vicious need inside you that we don't understand, and it's why it's so hard
to identify you at times. You’ve been my teachers, clergy, my fellow students,
coworkers, bosses, principals, sometimes you were a former friend or even family I
once trusted.
You’ve taken things I told you in utter confidence, and twisted them into lies to be used
against me. Without cause, you have told lies about me. You have refused to see me
as a human being. You have kicked me when I was up, and you have kicked me when I
was down.
But today, you will kick me no more. I will no longer be your verbal or physical punching
bag. Today, I discovered the secret that will never allow you or your friends who will one
day turn on you too, to hurt me again.
Today as I lay broken and bleeding in that dark place I crawl into when I think I can’t
take it anymore, I found something extraordinary.
My humanity.
As my soul screamed in bleeding agony and I wanted to die rather than live one more
day in a world where you exist, I realized that my tears and ability to feel pain without
lashing out to return that hurt to someone else makes me human.
I find my pleasure when someone smiles over something I've said or done. When I
make them feel better about themselves and their lives. When I look at an okay drawing
and tell the artist that it is a work of art, worthy of hanging in a museum. The smile on
their face, the pride that glows in their eyes, the happiness I see inside them makes my
heart swell. It gives me a joy you can never understand.
Kindness costs nothing to give, but to the person who receives it, it could be the one
thing that saves their life. The one thing that gives them hope in their darkest hour. No
act of charity or kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
In the immortal words of Maya Angelou: ...people will forget what you said, people will
forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Whenever they think of me, I want them to smile... And I will never allow you to take that from me.
No matter how you taunt or beat me, I will not become you, and pay your cruelty
forward. In time, you will be gone from my life, and I will move forward to become even
stronger and smarter than I am today. Because I can celebrate with others and applaud
their efforts with an open heart capable of love and acceptance, I will evolve to an even
greater level of happiness while you lay mired in your hatred and bitterness.
More than that, I discovered the best secret of all. I don’t care what you think because I
don’t think enough of you to listen. You're not worth the energy it would cost me to hate
you. There is nothing about you that I want to be. I don’t want your clothes. I don’t want
your friends. Your job. I don’t want your life, and I definitely don’t want to live an
existence where I have to hurt someone else in order to feel good about myself.
I will not let you steal my humanity. You will not teach me your hatred or intolerance.
Not today. Not ever.
In spite of what you think, you’re not anonymous. You’re ubiquitous. No matter where
you come from, or the clothes you wear, or the computer screen you hide behind, you
are just like all thieves. Rather than work and create something yourself, you prefer to
steal from someone else. Even your emotions are stolen.
And while I might not be able to see the future today, I know it will come through this
darkness and free me from this ugliness. If I hang on with both hands, my strength will
save me. My life is a gift and I will not let you take that from me, too. You’re definitely
not worth it.
I am here and I am important. Maybe not to you. But to those I make smile, to the ones
who see the beauty inside me, the ones who seek me out because of who I am and
because of the positive emotions I give to them, I am irreplaceable.
You are not. Should you die tomorrow, no one would weep. I’ve been to your funeral
and I’ve seen that truth, too. When you die, there will be another bully, just like you,
spewing the same cruel lies and lines that never change, to take your place. As I said,
you never change. You’re all alike.
But we are not. We are individuals. We do matter, and to those closest to us, we are
the entire world. Our loss would cut them to the core of their hearts and they would
weep forever. Our death would leave a hole inside them that never closes. We are the
fragile flowers that spill our fragrance into the world, and bring beauty and smiles
whenever we’re spotted by those capable of seeing us in all our glory.
And so I finish my letter with this. Go ahead and laugh at me. Mock me. Insult me. Tear
me down. Do your worst. Because through it all, I will do my best in spite of you and
your cruelty. From this day forward, I will never hear your ugly words again. I will live my
life for me and those few who love me, the ones who cannot imagine a world without me in it.
From now on, I will laugh at you when you start in on me because I now know
the simple truth.
Animals attack what they fear. And you, in spite of all your bluster and bragging, fear
little old me. If I truly were insignificant and worthless, you wouldn’t bother tormenting
me. So I will continue living my life for me with the happy knowledge that I threaten you.
Meanwhile me and the rest of my real friends won’t bother talking about you. You don’t
matter enough to us to take up time better spent on preparing for a future where you
don’t exist. Time changes everything and everyone. Today you’re the bully. Tomorrow
someone will bully you. And when that happens, unlike you, we will reach out to you in
sympathy and love, and try to make you feel better. Because that is who and what we
are:
Intelligent and beautiful human beings.
Forever yours,
The Anti-Bully Brigade
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