Bystander

Bystander (2011) is a teen/young adult novel by James Preller that explores middle school bullying and the factors that enable it. Griffin Connelly, a two-faced bully, uses his charisma and good looks to keep members of his school clique in line as he perpetrates acts of cruelty against weaker classmates. No one stands up to Griffin until Eric Hayes, a newcomer, disrupts the status quo—questioning Griffin’s bullying and the silent complicity of the other students.

The novel was named a Junior Library Guild Selection in 2009 and inspired a stage adaptation titled The Bystander Project.

Plot Summary

13-year-old Eric Hayes has just moved to Bellport, Long Island with his mother and brother after his father, who has schizophrenia, abandoned the family. Eric is playing basketball behind Belmont Central Middle School when a boy covered in a red substance runs past him. At first, Eric thinks the red substance is blood but soon realizes it is ketchup after talking to the boy.

After the boy leaves, a group of three boys and a girl show up on bicycles. A boy with wavy hair, whom Eric describes as “pretty,” asks him if he saw anyone run past him. Eric realizes they are looking for the ketchup boy and denies seeing him.