SuitabookThe Insiders
Cath Howe
- Reading
- If bullying or social exclusion is personally sensitive, read alongside the child and pause after difficult incidents. Otherwise, let the thriller structure unfold, then revisit how each narrator interpreted the others.
- Themes
- Friendship, loyalty and secrecy: Characters face changing friendships and choices about whether to keep something from family to protect a friend. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Bullying and group power: The story includes a practical joke, teasing, humiliation, cruelty, group influence and revenge, alongside kindness and friendship. The book presents competing or mixed signals about this.
- Seeing beyond first impressions: Three children narrate the novel, revealing that people may have much happening beneath the surface and may draw wrong conclusions about one another. The multiple viewpoints clearly support looking beyond first impressions and understanding how circumstances can affect behaviour.
- Worth knowing
- Consider whether the reader would welcome suspense involving a deserted school and a character’s fate being left uncertain for a time. Bullying, humiliation, loneliness and family disruption are also clearly present.