School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Journalist and author Slater once again achieves another level of introspection about society through the lens of teen behavior. While The 57 Bus dealt with hate crimes and the juvenile justice system, her newest nonfiction deals with social media and school districts. In 2017, a racist social media account was outed in a small school district in Albany, CA. Followed by a handful of students, it targeted Black girls in the school and posted race-based memes for what was described as "edgy humor." What followed was a multi-year interrogation of prejudice, teen behavior, school response, and punishment that ended with adjudication in the courts. Wanting to tell a balanced story, Slater sought to interview as many involved families as possible and while not all of them sat for interviews, the book includes court documents, statistics, testimony, and more, which are included in the back matter. The book is an honest accounting of the event couched in a societal reckoning of free speech versus hate speech. Its length accounts for a full chronology with one flaw in its approach: sectioned into 15 parts with prose chapters titled, rather than numbered, and several unexpected poems, it creates unnecessary breaks in the intense narrative. The shocking reality that Albany could be any town is what sustains the rabid interest in seeing how the story plays out since it touches on many aspects of contemporary culture. VERDICT This is a well-timed page-turner due to Slater's investigative reporting and must be read, shared, and discussed. Make this a priority purchase.--Alicia Abdul
Publisher's Weekly Review
Slater (The 57 Bus) chronicles the fallout of a high schooler's bigoted Instagram account in this emotionally raw work, divided into 15 parts. In 2017, racist and misogynist meme posts from an Instagram account run by a Korean American high school junior leaked onto other social media platforms. This was just the beginning of the account's reach, which started with a following of 13 primarily white and Asian students in Albany, Calif., and soon consumed the rest of the town. Conversational prose paired with forthright interviews from the individuals who experienced the event document court cases, mediation attempts, and student protests against the account and its owner, as well as how the incident affected followers of the account, classmates in the periphery, and students who were directly impacted post-graduation. In addition to these eye-opening testimonials, Slater explores meme and internet culture, and its effect on teenagers' mental health and self-perception. Raising essential questions about accountability and complicity, this pertinent read encourages personal reflection and presents a balanced, nonconfrontational look into a situation that, as one student affirms, had gone "a little too far." Includes an author's note, statistics, sources, and a bibliography. Ages 12--up. (Aug.)
