I found this book to be a fun revenge tale that both stoked my feminist rage fires and provided an outlet for my anger. It was fun to read; while I didn’t love the resolution of the story, I liked the book overall.
The book is set in a high school, where the boys rate the girls on their technique of a specific sex act. There are several different “types” of guys and girls represented in the book: the “good” guy who doesn’t like what’s going on but doesn’t want to rock the boat, the mastermind with a friendly mask hiding a sociopath, the girl who figures her best chance is to align with the boys, the girls who hates it but goes along, the girl who wants to bring down the system. Maybe it is a bit on the nose, but real life has demonstrated that there are those who engage in locker room talk, those who pretend it doesn’t happen, those who dismiss it as “boys will be boys”, and those who see its true toxicity.
The book is a well-written page turner that I read in one sitting. It had me thanking the universe once again that I went to high school before the internet and social media, though this kind of toxic behavior has always existed. The novel is pretty frank in terms of sex; if you don’t think that teenagers are well versed in sex and alcohol and believe that teachers should be one-dimensional angels called to the profession, you will not like this book. But if you remember what it was actually like to be in high school, if you’ve ever taught a room full of stinky teenagers, if you’ve got a sense of humor and an eye for satire, you’ll love this book.
