It Wasn’t Me is a very young skewing YA novel that does little to mask its similarities to The Breakfast Club. Theo, a gay seventh grade with a penchant for photography, discovers the collection he had just put on display at school were vandalized and there are five other students at the scene of the crime. If that wasn’t bad enough, the next day his attempt to redo the prints is ruined when someone opens the door to the dark room during their development. Since the following week is Spring Break his teacher suggests getting all six students together every day to talk through things and hopefully discover why this happened- and who is responsible.
“I guess I never really thought about it, but everyone can be the victim, the bystander, or even the perpetrator, depending on the day”
This is a cute premise but the whole time I kept feeling like, for all my YA love, I was a bit too old for this one. While Levy handles some adult themes- troubling home lives, sexuality and learning disabilities- these kids are in a grade where they still have recces. It works a lot better if you mentally age everyone up 4 years. But between the writing seminar in Autoboyography and It Wasn’t Me’s school sanctioned Justice Circle I’m officially done with YA novels that have insanely unrealistic modus operandi.
