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"She'd climbed this bloody rope, she'd beaten Caz, and now she was going to enjoy being here. But Caz began to slide downwards, unfurling her legs, going hand over hand. Jules stayed where she was, watching the top of Caz's head as it slipped southwards. She took one hand off and waved it out behind her, twirling the rope round and round like a circus gymnast. This was the best feeling she'd had in bloody ages" (Bathurst, 122).
I chose this passage in the book to comment on simply because I think it reveals a lot about Jules and her character. Caz is seen as the leader of the group throughout this entire book, and she is the envy of Jules no doubt. Everything Jules does, Caz seems to always do better. This gets so frusterating to Jules that basically her entire exsistance becomes dedicated to beating Caz at something, anything. Jules's frusteration builds so much that she wants to beat Caz at anything, even if it's just rope climbing during gym session. She tries her hardest and finally beats Caz - she's finally won! Or has she? After that, she is so excited and happy that something happens that makes her question her sexuality. Should winning over Caz and looking at Caz cause her to feel this way and get this sexually excited? After this win, Jules becomes insecure about her sexuality and what was at first considered a victory turns to shame and defeat. This passage just shows how excited Jules was to finally win at something, and it shows how competetive she is and how envious of Caz she is to care so much about something so small.
This competition with Caz does not end her, in fact, this loss or embarrassment seems to highten Jules drive to win at something. This extreme want to win takes a turn down an extremely ugly road for Jules though. When the girls all sneak out to meet boys (of course Caz's idea), Jules is determined to make the boys notice her the way they notice Caz. This leads to an extremely horrifying and regrettable situation for her. Jules ends up drinkiing too much and basically gets raped by a guy far older than her. Once again, Jules has lost. Sure, she has done something that Caz would deem cool (had sex), but Jules feels that she has done it the wrong way, or the way that Caz would not have done it.
Jules cannot win over Caz, but that is basically Jules's fault. Life is not a competition, but to Jules it is, and to Jules all attempts are a failure. Jules is obsessed with winning and obsessed with being like, or being better than Caz. Events throughout this entire novel show how that aspect of Jules's personality gets her in trouble in some major ways.

In my search for discovering a little bit more about the author of Special, Bella Bathurst, I found a press release site with a conversation with Bathurst that I found particularly interesting. I think the reason I found it so interesting because when I started reading it I noticed that it addressed and answered one of the questions I had while reading the book: is Bathurst attacking women and really, does she hate them?
The way in which the young girls are portrayed in Special can, in my opinion, leave the reader with an air of bitterness, dislike, and disappointment in and for females. As I read about the appalling things that the young girls in this novel did, I wondered exactly why Bathurst wrote this way about her own sex unless she was extremely disappointed in them or disliked them intensley. Reading this 'conversation' with her, however, shed light on why she wrote the book the way she did. During a conversation with a male friend of hers one night, she heard her friend say something that she completely disagreed with: women are better than men. Her friend argued that women are "kinder, softer, more emotionally generious, [and] less competetive"(Bathurst) then men. While this can be true in some instances, Bathurst argues quite correctly that it is an extreme generalization. Bathurst does not think that one sex is better than the other - each sex has "their faults and virtues" (Bathurst). Bathurst is absolutely correct. Women are usually always portrayed as either victims of oppression or all "sugar and spice" (Bathurst), when really, that is not a true depiction at all. While most people prefer the sugar coated, nice depiction, I guess I would have to prefer the truth. I am extremely proud of being a woman, but I am proud of it for the right reasons, not for superficial, generalized reasons that sometimes accompany the word female.
After reading her catalyst for why she depicted women this way, I appreciated and understood the book and the author a lot more, but I still think she went overboard. It seems that Bathurst values a happy medium in the depiction of women from what she states in the 'conversation' with her, but in her book it seems that we don't get that happy medium, we mostly just get the negative. The only two characters in the novel who really reach redemption are two characters who are not really the main focus of the book, and one of them basically is forced to redemption because though she badly wants in the popular crowd, she is rejected.
I love that I found this 'conversation' with Bathurst because it definitely made me see that she did not simply dislike or hate women, just that she wanted to show them in a light that is more real and true than the overgeneralizations that sometimes come with women sometimes. I still maintain that depiction is still a little harsh, but I understand more why she did it now and I am able to get past her feelings and simply read the book for what it is now.

I thought that dedicating a blog entry to some of the really tough issues presented in this book would be a good idea because each of the young characters seems to have there very own serious problem to deal with throughout the book. There are three girls in particular throughout this book (Hen, Jules, and Caz) who face some extremely difficult problems and situations for someone of any age, let alone someone who is only thirteen years old like these girls. The issues these girls deal with throughout their two week stay in the country on holiday aren’t only normal teenage issues such as peer pressure, self consciousness, and identity confusion, but they also face much more serious issues ranging from family problems such as dysfuntionality and divorce to personal problems such as rape, sex, and self mutilation. In my opinion, these girls are cyring for help in extreme ways, and if they are not crying for the help, the really need it. The links included here are mostly informational sites about the problems these girls face. Many of the sites also offer helpful advice for someone dealing with these sorts of problems.
Hen, who used to be an outgoing and happy girl, suddenly became extremely introverted and quiet when her parents divorced and her mother began to face problems with alcohol. With an alcoholic mother(link to a site for children of alcoholics) to worry and think about and barely any friends, Hen turns to the seemingly inviting friendship of Jules and Caz, girls who both have problems of their own. Throughout this book, it is easy to see that these friendships are more self-destructive than helpful and fulfilling. This becomes apparent when Hen feels that the only way she can deal with her complicated home life and her competitive and self-destructive friendships is by becoming a cutter(link to an infromation/educational/helpful site on selfinjury and mutiliation). Being a cutter is a form of self-mutilation, and Hen does this because she believes that though it hurts, it is the one painful thing in her life that she is able to control.
Jules is probably the most complicated character in this book. She is one of those people who seems to have a great home life, but wishes for something more than just average or normal. She wishes that there was something wrong in her family, anything, so that she wouldn’t feel so normal, boring, and dull. This want for some sort of abnormality in her life leads to extreme jealously of her friend Caz because Caz is beautiful while Jules believes she is simply normal and boring looking, and it leads to something far worse: rape(informational/support site for victims of rape. In Jules quest to be more like Caz, she encounters an older boy, whom she meets in town when sneaking away from the manor where they are staying, who leads her outside alone and rapes her. This rape, as anyone can imagine, has an extreme impact on Jules attitude and life. Jules allows this rape to take place because 1)she has been drinking, 2)she is trying to compete with Caz, 3)she is trying to be more like Caz, and 4)she is trying to convince herself that she is not a lesbian(helpful teen site for teens with questions about feelings and growing up), a thought she entertained just shortly before in the novel. All of these things have a profound impact on Jules’s life.
Caz, the most popular girl of the three, seems to have everything and have it all together when really she is simply masking the scared, self-conscious girl inside. Living up to her cool and experience title, Caz has a regrettable sexual encounter with a boy she hardly knows. Caz’s insecurities also lead her to being a horrible friend. To make herself feel better, she is constantly making remarks about her other friends looks and feelings, and she even leaves Jules lying in a sandbox after being raped. While she seems to be the girl with it all together, she just may the girl with the most problems of them all, mostly self-consciousness.
These girls, through their issues, are siltently crying for help and they need help. As it is easily seen, these three girls face extremely difficult problems for any thirteen year old. For this reason, and for the graphic nature in which these problems are presented by Bathurst, I would actually prefer that my students and any really young adult, not read this novel until they were a little older and able to better understand these issues.