Bro

Bro
Written by Helen Chebatte
Contemporary, Australian
Published February 1st 2016
240 Pages
Thanks to Hardie Grant Egmont
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★★★★☆
What happens when you mix teenage boys, a fight club and ethnic rivalries? You get war.

Romeo Makhlouf knows the rules. Stick with your own kind. Don't dob on your mates or even on your enemies. Respect the family. 

But even unwritten rules are made for breaking. 

Fight clubs, first loves and family ties are pushed to the limit in Helen Chebatte's explosive first novel.
At Christian Boys College, the rules are simple. You never stray from your own group, you never make a move on a girl someone else is already interested in and you never tell. Take the fall yourself if need be. Sixteen year old Romeo Makhlouf knows how the system works. He attends school, does enough homework to get by and he and best friend Diz relish lunchtime, where they can escape the Lebanese dishes of home for half an hour. They know their place within the school hierarchy. Lebanese boys are tough, honourable and never back down from a challenge.

Australian, Asian, Maori or Lebanese, the boys stay within their social groups until a shared kiss at a party has Romeo being challenged by Luke Palmer, an Aussie who sees Romeo as a threat and makes former girlfriend Stefanie the heated whispers of conversations. Defending his honour, Romeo ends up a YouTube hero, taking Palmer down and embarrassing the young Australian. But that's not where this story ends.

It ends in heartache. It ends with wanting to unite and end the social segregation. It ends with a threat of expulsion, an illegal fight club and changing attitudes of a group of young men that will come to understand that violence is never the answer.

Kelly's Thoughts

I apologise now for the rant.

I grew up in the nineties when I was a teen. The Northern suburbs of Melbourne were a diverse and cultural blend, where your street may have resembled members of the United Nations. I attended a same sex school, much as the same as the connecting school of Saint Adele College and Christian Boys where the storyline takes place. Bro could have been my teen experience. It could have been the same stereotypical cultural groups that continued the trend of segregation. If you were an Aussie meaning Caucasian Anglo Saxon, you were friends with other Caucasian Anglo Saxon teens, the same if you were Maori, Asian and Lebanese as seen in Bro. My high school had a large Lebanese community and we experienced the same segregation and even being a girls college, there were physical fights and weapons used. Back then, we didn't question why, that's how it worked. You stayed within your own group and it took a strong individual to stray from their own group and befriend others. It didn't happen often.

Anyone reading Bro that sees the issue of the us verses them mentality as being unrealistic, has never lived in working class and diverse suburbs. It even happens as adults. We may not involve ourselves in physical conflict, but even our close social circles tend to be formed from the same basis. Like attracts like and I find that incredibly sad that as Australians, we still find ourselves drawn to the same friendships with those who share our cultural beliefs and backgrounds, rather than expanding our circles. In Bro, Romeo finds himself torn. He was born in Australia to a Lebanese father, an Caucasian Anglo Saxon Australian mother, but lives what he sees as the Lebanese culture. Even as he identifies as being Australian, society still sees him as being Lebanese due to his heritage and the colour of his skin.

Apart from the islander teens or Fresh Off the Boat as they're known, the basis of Bro is Australian teen boys and those with a Lebanese background facing off in bouts of physical violence. A Fight Club is established where boys are pitted against one another for sport or entertainment. It's barbaric, but realistic. Less than a week ago in Melbourne, this happened. Teen violence is alive and thriving and the police aren't listening, nor are these mostly young men heeding the warning from authorities. Bro drives home the message of how we can't all grow up being raised in ivory towers. We share different cultural beliefs, socioeconomic backgrounds, skin colour, language, sex, race, ability and the cycle never ends.

But through tragedy, Bro breaks the cycle of violence and rivalry and although the solution to violence in our communities isn't that simple, it does highlight the need for change in our attitudes and mentality.

The final Verdict

Bro is such an important read not only for teens, but for Australians to understand the issue of teen violence within society and to discuss at a national level. Bro should be part of our schools curriculum, in every school library and addressed within youth groups nationwide. As Australians we need to openly discuss not only violence but diversity, our religious and cultural differences, grief, gender roles and the role they play in our history. But more importantly, how we can change and educate ourselves and Bro is a brilliantly written insight into diverse teen life of our suburbs.

20 comments

  1. I really love the sound of this book! It seems like it touches on SO MANY tough topics! I went to that link you put in your post. It was pretty scary to read but these are the types of things that happen in the world everyday. It's shocking how much of it does go buried though ! I'm interested to see how the author incorporated something like this in the story. <3

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    1. I think that violence will always play a big part in our society until attitudes change sadly. Even though groups are segregated in Bro, I still don't believe that was the cause of the violence, but rather this expectation of masculinity that they believe they need to uphold. It's a wonderfully heartfelt storyline though that really surprised me.

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  2. Wow, wonderful review! This sounds like a great book one, and definitely an important one that should be talked about. Thanks for sharing!

    -Lauren

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    1. Thanks Lauren. It really was amazing and one of those reads that you take with you long after the final page.

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  3. It's those difficult books that typically resonate with us. I can sense your frustration with the society, Kelly. And while Canada doesn't have that type of segregation, more and more, we hear murmurs of Muslim attacks perpetrated by ignorant people. Every country has their own crosses to bear, I suppose.

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    1. That we do Joy, that we do. Attitudes are changing, but sadly ignorance will always stop some from moving forward, changing their attitude and promoting inclusion and acceptance.

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  4. This sounds like such an important book for young adults to read. I saw this at my school but the title and the blurb put me off - I thought that it would be a generic high school "contemporary" story following the journey of a boy and his coming of age. This and 543462 other books. I'm so glad that it's not that kind of story, and one with more depth. Thanks so much for your review, and I'm very glad you enjoyed it :D

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    1. It really surprised me too Paul. I assumed a coming of age, a bit of fisticuffs here and there but it was so much deeper than that. Seeing the segregation of groups only because that's how it had always been, the breakdown of stereotypes and the violence that plagues our communities really made for an emotional and heartbreaking read. I'd love to see what you think of it.

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  5. Yeah, it always bugs me when I see people say how certain things like this is unrealistic and stuff, then rate the book low. Even when it come to teens drinking and partying. Ha! I just have to wonder what it's like in their bubble. This is a wonderful review and the book sounds fantastic.

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    1. Thanks Christy. It's irritating isn't it. What's unrealistic for some usually isn't the case for others and I feel as though it's not that it's unrealistic but perhaps more so that they just couldn't connect. But we see enough news and read enough articles to know that it does happen, even if it doesn't directly effect us.

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  6. Wow - this sounds intense and I'm glad you found it to be an accurate portrayal. I definitely need to check this book out.

    Karen @For What It's Worth

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    1. It truly was Karen. Thee was something so raw and realistic that it reminded me of my own teen years and made for a much more emotional read having that connection.

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  7. Oh my goodness. This sounds like it tackles SUCH important issues and it's definitely important to point out that just because diversity exists doesn't mean that all other problems are erased. I'm not sure this is my usual type of read, but I might end up picking it up anyways just because I'm interested in how these issues are explored.

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    1. It normally wouldn't be mine either Alyssa, but have made it of importance to read not only ore diverse books this year, but to support all Aussie YA authors and spread our messages to the world.

      It was such an emotional read. I'd seen a few reviews beforehand mentioning that they felt it was unrealistic but I found the opposite. It really hit home with me and towards the end I found myself in tears and having to walk away for a few hours before composing myself and continuing. So powerful.

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  8. Oh this sounds like such an important book. Just hearing about the real and dangerous repercussions of keeping to "one's own" sends chills down my backs. It's imperative that we try and do something about the lack of diversity or even the lack of mixing with people who are different to you. It's incredibly important because by not doing so it's creating all this violence, and also it's stripping groups of people from the potential of a waaaayyy better future.
    This book sounds incredible.
    Oh, and also on the aspect of the main character identifying himself as subscribing to Lebanese culture despite having a Caucasian mother, Zadie Smith's On Beauty explores this choice really well and raises questions about what it means to be a person of colour, or even what it means to subscribe to one culture over another.

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    1. I'll have to track that one down Mawa, I found the concept really interesting and hadn't thought about it until reading Bro. I think we all need our own communities to relate to someone who's like us. Whether it be by cultural background or religion or even that we barrack for the same footy team. But when we keep only to those communities, we're really denying the greater community of who were are and using it as a means to promote inclusion. Showing others that we're beyond stereotypes could be one of the first steps to educate.

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  9. I grew up in Melbourne and I so am adding this to my list because it is relevant! I love the diversity in Melbourne, I LOVE going to visit my Nanna (her neighbourhood is such a vast mix of cultures) and visiting the ethnic food places that are around (Turkish is my fave!) but it is such an us/them mentality and it sucks :( I wish we could all just get along and learn about others cultures without judgement, you know?

    I guess the same thing happened years ago (60s/70s) with the Italian and Greek communities, although I suppose it manifested in a different way. You still have pockets of communities, but I think they're becoming more mixed now.

    Sadly however, if I saw a group of teenage boys (or men) heading in my direction on a Friday night, I'd be finding an alternate route :( the violence really is an issue the police seem to be doing a super job of ignoring. The same thing happens over here fairly often and you hear about it for ONE DAY and then it's swept away, forgotten until the next horrible thing happens.

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    1. I'm a few years older than you Wattle, but I had the same experience growing up with that narrow minded mentality. Back then, that's just how it was and if you questioned why, you were often made a target or found yourself on the outer.

      To be honest, I would too Wattle and I think most girls / females would as well.

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  10. I didn’t have the same experience growing up, so your review was educational for me. I definitely came across us/them mentality though, and it makes me sad that we still divide ourselves by color, heritage or other things. Very thought-provoking review, Kelly. This book sounds like something important.

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  11. This novel sounds like it really hit close to home Kelly in particularly with the cultural diversity in groups and everything. And there's a character here called Romeo? :D that's hilarious! I was one of the ones who didn't have that mentality when growing up, although I did have lots of Asian friends. But whenever I tried to mix groups it never worked out well.

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