Deepfake

August 15, 2020
The high school rumor mill becomes even more treacherous when deepfakes are thrown into the mix. Dara and Will are at the top of Greenpoint High's senior class--enviable because, as the Rumor Has It gossip site reveals, they are a happy couple whose top grades put them both in the running for valedictorian. The anonymous writer suggests that Will's best friend, MJ, is upset--possibly because she has a crush on him or because her first-choice college rejected her. But it is the site's next post, containing a video of Dara speculating that Will cheated on his SATs, that causes an uproar among this default-White cast. Despite Dara's denial that she ever said this, Will breaks up with her and the school initiates an investigation of Will's SAT. The story is narrated in alternating chapters by Dara and Will, with occasional chapters from MJ's perspective. Given current media hype over manipulated videos, most readers won't understand why the Greenpoint brainiacs readily believe the video is real, making Dara's determination to expose the fakery feel anticlimactic. These themes were more surprising in 2017's Takedown by Corrie Wang. Here, the more intriguing questions come later: Who created the deepfake, and who is the writer behind the gossip website? Teens hooked on tales of high school drama who stick with it to the end, when the betrayal is revealed, will feel satisfied. Readers who embrace the premise will enjoy watching the drama unfold. (Thriller. 12-16)

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September 1, 2020

Gr 7 Up-Will and Dara have been dating on the down-low for months while competing to be the valedictorian at their high school. They and their friends are obsessed with getting into top-ranked colleges, and both seniors have been accepted into their dream school when a video surfaces on the school gossip website. In it, Dara claims that Will paid someone to take his SATs and thereby cheated his way into Stanford. Will, furious, refuses to believe Dara's plea that she never made such a video. It's only when Dara is able to prove that her actual internet posts have been scraped for the raw data used by an AI program to create a deepfake (a video that appears to be the actual person talking when in fact it's been cobbled together from various tidbits) that the teens realize they'll need to work together to save Will's hopes for college. But will they ever be able to repair their damaged relationship? Once again, Littman takes on the dangers of technology and puts them in a context that makes sense to teens, demonstrating how deepfakery can lead to a society where you cannot believe anything you see or hear on the internet. This is part mystery and part family drama with a dollop of techno-thriller thrown in, and teens with an interest in technology will enjoy it, although younger readers may tire of the incessant focus on getting into the right school. The romance takes a backseat to finding the culprit and although it's not exactly "happily ever after" for Will and Dara, the realistic ending works well. Main characters are white, and there are Black and South Asian secondary characters. VERDICT A solid purchase for libraries serving teens.-Elizabeth Friend, Wester M.S., TX

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