Hi there,
The Weight of Souls is all about bullying (and Egyptian gods and an ancient curse). I've written a number of blog posts on the subject - http://dearteenme.com/?p=3184 and
http://leocristea.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/guest-post-identity-in-sff-learning-to-find-your-puzzle-pieces/ are two examples.
In the words of one reviewer (Leo Cristea):
The Weight of Souls explores bullying subtly and therefore gets to the heart of the issue succinctly. Taylor’s race is refreshing in YA fantasy—especially urban fantasy (never mind the fact that there is a Chinese model on the cover and the protagonist is half-Chinese, instead of the wrong ethnicity or a total lack of model whatsoever, electing instead for graphics). I’ve read so few books with protagonists of a different ethnicity and it’s a pity! In relation to Taylor’s race, I feel that Pearce demonstrates that with bullying, it’s not always about race or weight or anything else that could mark a person as “different” (though of course, sometimes it is precisely that, but with the characters of the bullies and the surrounding story, this doesn’t feel as though it’s the case), but rather the fact that these things become ammunition for the bullying. Sometimes people are bullied simply because the bully chose them. Taylor is bullied because she is Taylor.
In The Weight of Souls, this is precisely the kind of bullying that’s explored (in my opinion: I wouldn’t like to assume). The topic of bullying is difficult to explore properly, especially as in a great many YA novels, whether it is the central topic or not, there is some bullying directed towards the protagonist (usually someone with low self-esteem, or something similar—in this vein, I’d love to see a guy with low self-esteem in YA urban fantasy, as in really love) yet this is simply a passing subplot; like a shower in the middle of the day that passes with the clouds. So to see realistic and directed bullying was different and informative.
My school visits also deal with bullying and how I overcame it.
Another good book is called Hate List, which deals with the aftermath of a school shooting in the US.