Task: to write and essay on the novel 'Destroying Avalon' outlining four issues that effect teenagers and how they are portrayed through the novel

Kate McCaffrey's novel, Destroying Avalon is the terrible and touching tale of a teenage girl, pushed from her comfortable life in the country, into the malicious circle of bullying, stereotyping and hidden secrets that make up her new school in the city. McCaffrey portrays a series of issues through the eyes of Avalon her main character, these include cyber bullying, stereotyping, the effect of dysfunctional families on children and sexuality. All these issues are very relevant in this day and age, some, such as cyber bullying, are new issues that we still have a lot to learn about. Destroying Avalon portrays all these issues in a very convincing and reliable way.

The main issue of Destroying Avalon is cyber bullying. Although there is a lot of physical and verbal bullying throughout the book, Avalon suffers most from the relentless and cruel cyber bullying she is subject too. From day one every chat line or blog page was filled with words of hate for Avalon. Whilst hiding behind their computer screens the bullies cowardly call Avalon a whore, slag, skank, slut or any awful name they like. "I sat in front of my computer screen horrified. I felt assaulted. My eye's burned. Why were they doing this to me?" Avalon was shocked she could hardly take it. McCaffrey put across the emotions a teenage girl would go through after this shock very well, the sick feeling in the pit of Avalon's stomach, her need to read more and her desperation to keep it all secret from her parents. Cyber bullying is a very new issue that everyone has still to learn a lot about, but Destroying Avalon ventures deep into this issue and effectively shows cyber bullying as the serious issue it has become for teenagers today.

Stereotyping is another very important issue addressed in the novel. In a school that is such a vicious social hierarchy it is inevitable for any one person not to be stereotyped, and grouped accordingly. Anyone who try's defy this system is simply labelled a weirdo and left