Want to Go Private?

May 23, 2011
Littman (Life, After) pens a harrowing cautionary tale about the dangers that lurk online. Fourteen-year-old Abby feels insecure and unhappy as she starts high school, failing to fit in and drifting apart from her best friend Faith. Abby finds an outlet in ChezTeen.com ("kind of like Second Life, but for teens"), where she meets Luke, a sympathetic listener who flatters her. She becomes entirely dependent on him, letting her grades slip, withdrawing from the real world, and rationalizing away red flags that arise: he is twice her age, he tells her he loves her almost immediately, and he asks for (and receives) sexual favors. She decides to meet him. Structured in three parts with alternating narrators (before, during, and after Abby's disappearance) to create suspense, this message-driven story guarantees invested readers. While the novel's trajectory is predictable and no reader will think for a second that Luke aka BlueSkyBoi is a good guy, Abby's actions are entirely believable. To a degree, the novel relies on readers' feeling smarter than Abby, yet Littman demonstrates how easy it is to fall under the sway of a charming predator. Ages 14-up.

November 1, 2011

Gr 10 Up-Abby is ambivalent about her first day of high school. She has never been part of the cool crowd like her younger sister, Lily. Her best friend since second grade, Faith, encourages Abby to try new things and make new friends. But discouraged by her lack of popularity, a horrifying attempt to audition for the school play, and her parents' inattentiveness, Abby retreats to her online sanctuary, ChezTeen.com, where she meets Luke Redmond. Unlike her family and increasingly distant best friend, Luke completely understands Abby's concerns about high school and assures her that she is smart, funny, and attractive. Abby becomes enamored of Luke and begins to honor his requests for nude photographs and webcam stripteases. She agrees to meet him, resulting in a kidnapping scare that produces unintended but tragic consequences for all the players involved. The plot moves along at a compulsively readable pace. However, the characters' alternating voices are often impossible to distinguish and the message about Internet safety, while pertinent, is at times too heavy-handed and repetitive. Littman does not skimp on the descriptions of the sexual exploitation, creating a realistic portrayal of the sordid nature of predators. Despite the flaws, this book is a compelling, if not disturbing, read.-Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2011
Grades 7-10 When Abby meets Luke on Chezteen.com, she has a lot on her plate: she is a freshman in high school, her grades aren't good enough for her father, and worst of all, her best friend seems to be replacing her. But Luke listens to her and makes her feel sexy. He even gets jealous when she goes out on a date with her cute lab partner. So what if he is 27? He loves her and thinks they should meet. It is clear Littman (Life, After, 2010) has done her homework, as she hammers home the tactics of online predators, specifically the practice of groomingwherein a predator offers emotional support in exchange for escalating sexual favors. A warning: Abby and Luke's webcam exchanges are shocking and sometimes graphic. Sure, it is a cautionary tale, and from time to time Abby's teenage angst can seem slightly melodramatic, but the vivid depiction of the aftermath of Abby's encounter with Luke will stay with readers for a long time. Bonus: Chezteen.com leads readers to a site filled with online resources to protect themselves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)