Review of “Inventing Elliot,” by Graham Gardner

“Inventing Elliot,” by Graham Gardner is a chilling story about a boy who ends up trapped in his school’s sickening cycle of bullying.

Elliot thought that the move to Holminster High would allow him to start all over. At Holminster he would be careful to avoid looking like a wimp. Maybe then he wouldn’t get targeted by bullies. At his old school Elliot was always scared, and the bullies knew it. Now Elliot has a chance to design a new image, a tough and impenetrable personality that will prevent him from being a target of bullying.

When Elliot reaches Holminster High he finds a school much like his old one. There are always bullies, and there are always victims. But Elliot quickly realizes that at Holminster High the taunts and the locker room violence are being organized.

Bullying in Holminster High is not a random event, it is a carefully planned attack by some higher force. An elusive group of upperclassmen called the Guardians leave notes and instructions for their thugs. And those deadly notes explain who to target and how.

Elliot is disgusted and frightened by this cruel system, but he maintains a tough exterior to avoid becoming one of the victims himself. When Elliot is found at the scene of a locker room bullying incident, a teacher questions him on what happened. At that point Elliot finds himself facing a decision that will determine his future at Holminster High. If he snitches on the bully then Elliot’s name will quickly be added to the Guardian’s hit list. Instead Elliot lies about the bullying. He protects the the bully by saying that he was just joking around with the victim.

Elliot’s decision protects him in the short term, but what he doesn’t realize is that his lie will soon have terrible results. The Guardians take notice of Elliot, and to his horror they summon him.

Elliot has no idea what they might want, and why they are calling him to meet them. To the rest of the school the Guardians are faceless, almost mythical figures. No one can ever be sure who the Guardians are. But Elliot will now meet them face to face and know their true identities.

What Elliot finds are a group of boys obsessed with power. They read George Orwell’s book 1984 like a Bible, and they twist its message into a creed that says that they should and must enforce school tradition and weed out wimps through bullying. To Elliot’s horror they ask him to become one of them. Several of the Guardians will graduate next year, and they need someone to fill their place.

Once again Elliot faces a decision, but in truth it is no choice at all. Elliot can either join the Guardians or find himself on their hit list. Soon Elliot finds himself walking a thin line. On the one hand he finds himself in a strange friendship with Ben, a boy who is on the Guardian’s hit list. If Elliot is seen talking to Ben he will earn himself a place on the list as well. At the same time Elliot must put on a tough personality for the Guardians as they train him to become part of their cruel regime.

But then the Guardians present Elliot with the ultimate challenge. To finalize his place as a Guardian he must organize a “punishment.” Elliot must choose a victim and have him “punished” for the crime of being too smart, too weak, or too poor. In his effort to avoid becoming a victim of bullying, Elliot finds himself in the position of becoming a bully himself.

“Inventing Elliot” is a first rate novel. Graham Gardner vividly portrays the social dynamics of Holminster High in all their chilling cruelty. I feel that Gardner is trying to teach an important lesson about the way we treat each other, and the lengths that we go to in an attempt to fit in and be approved by others.

The decisions that Elliot must make are heartrending, and throughout the story readers feel Elliot’s simultaneous fear of being bullied, and disgust at himself for not standing up against the bullies, but rather becoming part of them.

I feel that “Inventing Elliot” is a book that all middle grade readers should experience.

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