Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen is a life-changing book. Leverage really makes you think how bullying effects kids and if you have ever have bullied someone in your past how it had to make them feel. Leverage makes you reflect on your own life, that being said if you would like a book that takes you away from your problems do not open this. The novel really reflects the state of a teen’s life right now. In Leverage, every teen is separated into their own clique. Cliques are never friendly to each other and they often bully one another because they all are different. Throughout the novel every character faces their problems and feels as if they are alone. As I am a teenage right now, I often experience the same troubles and see the same thing in my life. I know that I am not alone but it is hard not to feel that way.

Joshua C. Cohen using great language in Leverage to get his point across. All the things in described in the book, you could see in your mind as if they were actually happening. When Joshua described the rape scene of the boy named Ronnie, I felt like I was actually in the locker witnessing it, but could not stop it. This caused me to put down the book for a few minutes; I had to recollect myself before I took up reading this book again after that part. The images are disturbing in the fact that these things could probably happen everyday and no one thinks anything about it.

Not only were the book’s language and images very clear and real but the words and the writing style was very easy to read. You could tell the Joshua wanted this book to be read by teens because the way he writes the book is the very way I talk and all my friends talk right now. This makes the book very easy to read because it feels as if I am speaking to the characters or I am actually one of them.
One thing I did not like about Leverage was the way Joshua switched every other chapter up from the perspective of the two main characters. Kurt would tell one chapter and Danny would tell the next chapter. It was very interesting how the author did this and at sometimes it was fun to read, but the author would skip days and even weeks from chapter to chapter with the characters and it would confuse you very much.
My two favorite things that this book did was it represented what I believed in very well and showed us an issue that we need to fix in todays society that is going on as we speak. The book showed that good morality and the strong friendship could overcome anything in life. Leverage represented the major problem in high school today, bullying. It showed that if we do not act now it could cause serious harm and affect kids for the rest of their lives.