Antisocial

April 1, 2017
Blake's debut tackles the perils of privacy in the digital age.Artistic, mixed-race (mom's a white Southern belle; dad's a Colombian diplomat) high school senior Anna Soler is not excited to return for her final semester at D.C.-area private school Alexandria Prep. Her jock boyfriend broke up with her over Christmas break, and on top of that she has social anxiety disorder, making social interactions difficult enough. All she wants to do is get her relationships back to normal with the friends she dropped while dating Palmer--facing the school cliques alone post-breakup would be too much. But soon cliques become the least of her worries when someone emails a list of search terms to the entire student body--searches Prep students made on their phones ranging from benign ("Jennifer Lawrence") to exposing ("STD symptoms") to deeply personal ("avoid rebounding with a close friend"). What starts as one leak turns into a steady stream, and soon the hacks begin to target particular students, exposing their most private secrets. Who is the hacker, and what is the motive? Will the leaks bring students together or tear them apart? With a conclusion to rival the finale of a show on Freeform, the novel is predictable and at times preachy. Nevertheless, Anna's present-tense narration gets readers inside her anxiety, and the premise is undeniably compelling. In an age of adult anxieties over digital privacy, this book is #relevant. (Fiction. 14-17)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Anna ditched her friends for a guy. Even worse-for a guy well out of her social sphere. When he dumps Anna, she goes crawling back to her friends. Meanwhile, someone has managed to hack the server of the private school that Anna and her friends attend-and post a list of searches performed on the school's computers over the course of one morning. The popular and elite students are panicking. They are the prime targets because of their cruel treatment of others. Couples break up, teachers resign, and decade-long friendships are torn apart. The administration and the police cannot stop the flow of information. Anna, who is trying desperately to remain in her friends' good graces, finds her ex, and then her friends, the subject of these attacks. She has no idea what to do or how to help everyone. The school begins a witch hunt to track down the culprit. While dealing with current issues very well, the book also has some problems. Anna has an anxiety disorder, which is handled thoughtfully. She works hard to stay grounded, using techniques she learned in therapy. Her anxiety is not the focus of the story but is integrated seamlessly into her character development. However, the diversity comes off like tokenism. The social media and pop culture references might date the novel very quickly. Mentions of realistic sex, drinking, and recreational drug use make this title suitable for older readers. VERDICT This cautionary tale is recommended for supplementary purchase in high school collections.-Melyssa Kenney, Parkville High School, MD

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Anna Soler is that girl: she ditched her uncool friends for a boy. But now basketball star Porter has dumped her, and Anna's left to beg her way back into her old group of friends, if they'll have her. It's a bad end to a senior year of high school that gets even worse: a hacker has gone nuclear on the students of Alexandria Prep. At first, it's just the cool kids who are having their private lives leaked, but the seemingly funny take-down soon becomes something more serious as more skeletons are released. It's every modern teen's nightmare, and both friendships and futures are ruined as Anna, with the help of a few hacker friends, tries to get to the bottom of the chaos. Though occasionally heavy-handed when preaching the downfalls of social media, this is nevertheless a compelling read. Flawed Anna, a girl who has made and paid for mistakes, struggles realistically with an anxiety disorder and readers will be double-checking their own passwords once they're done with her story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)