Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Bloomsbury YA. To be published April 30, 2024. (Includes “Author’s note.”)
For years Jo-Lynn and Maddie were BFF’s until Maddie’s boyfriend sent nude photos of Jo-Lynn to everyone on his contact list. Jo-Lynn had taken those photos for herself at home, to feel pretty, but no one was interested in the truth. Everyone, including Maddie, thought she was a skank. It was her senior year, a year that was supposed to be full of fun but, with everyone shutting her out, Jo-Lynn’s year was done.
One day Jo-Lynn was shocked when Maddie, crying and distraught, told her she was in trouble, and Jo-Lynn was the only one she trusted. Given the circumstances of their ex-friendship Jo-Lynn wasn’t keen on listening but couldn’t leave her so upset. They agreed to meet later that afternoon, but Maddie didn’t show and was soon reported missing.
Because of that encounter Jo-Lynn didn’t think Maddie had run away but was certain something had happened to her. Hudson, a friend from her former crowd, felt the same so they decided to pretend to be boyfriend/girlfriend to spy out the truth from Maddie’s friends. Once again Jo-Lynn becomes part of the crowd that shut her out, laughed and spread her nudes across the internet, and called her names.
As events clash with memories from the past Jo-Lynn wants to bolt. Hudson’s strength and belief in her, as well as the friendship she once had with Maddie, drive her forward. Neither of them knew the enemy they sought was much closer than they’d realized, as Jo-Lynn finally comes to grips with what happened to her the summer she and Maddie stopped being friends.
This book will keep readers on the edges of their seats, wondering what happened to Maddie. The ending is a shocker, reminding me of Laurie’s Halse Anderson’s “Shout.”
Recommended for ages 16 and older.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Johanna is sixteen-years-old, has two best friends, lives with her strict, old-fashioned grandparents and is drooling over the very handsome new guy at her fancy private school. Though her mother died in a car crash when she was little, she barely remembers her or the father who abandoned her when she was little. She’s always been with her grandparents, and everything was fine until suddenly nothing was fine.
After the death of her father, in the middle of the school year, Anna and her mom moved to a 400 year-old house in Scotland to start a new life, where she fervently hopes her old life will recede into the past. After spending time blending in at school she meets new friends, and gets involved in researching a history project about Maggie, a local girl accused of witchcraft in the 1600’s. She finds a silver necklace in her attic and starts to dream Maggie’s memories, learning things about her that aren’t in research books. At first she’s frightened because of the realistic scenes, but soon realizes Maggie’s story has to be told.
Sammy’s junior year is ruined when protestors at her father’s bank hack its server. Along with personal texts and emails, her online journal (where she’d written her deepest thoughts and crushes) is revealed to her entire high school world. Besides having to deal with the fallout of having her personal thoughts shared on social media, she’s lost her best friends, and has to deal with the stress of upcoming AP exams, as well as the loss of her crush. She is officially persona non grata, and it looks like there will never be any relief. Just when she thinks life can’t get any worse, it does.
Using a poetic style of writing, along with text messages, St. Vil tells the story of Shay, a lonely, overweight 15-year-old girl. Shay has learned to constantly eat to cope with the pain of bullying and missing her dead father, as it helps her forget she’s fat and alone with her evil stepmother. Her gay best friend Dash, and her dying-of-cancer friend Boots assure her she is beautiful and funny, but even they can’t give her the help and support she finds from eating.
Detective Inspector Lorraine Fisher planned to have a nice vacation with her sister Jo and nephew Freddie in her childhood country home. Though surprised to find Freddie moody and uncommunicative, she brushes off Jo’s concern he might be suicidal because their neighbor Simon and 5 others killed themselves 18 months earlier. Jo is certain the recent suicide of Dean, a homeless teen motorcyclist, would lead to more suicides.
Fifteen-year-old Hope can’t express herself except through poems she scrawls on her body, the wall, scraps of paper or any handy surface.
You Decide: Should I Read it or Not? 