If you’re looking for a good, dramatic, hilariously over the top at times high school drama, then this is the book you’re looking for. I had so much fun reading this book because I felt like I was right back in high school, but with some social media issues attached alongside. Angeline and Cat couldn’t be anymore different, and I loved seeing how their stories play out as the story progresses. If you’re looking for something that’s more on the light-hearted side, but with good messages about the dangers of popularity and social media, then this is definitely one to get on your radar. I needed this fun story in my life after all of this dark fantasy I’ve been consuming!
Acedia High School’s student council elections are usually a popularity contest, with this year being no different. Except when pictures of “Frankengirls”, or photoshopped images of scantily clad girls at the school show up creating “perfect 10’s”, two candidates jump to action. Angeline Quinn and Leo Torres both come in to propose solutions to this problem and secure the election. However, their messy break-up may be hindering their win, as their battles are watched by the school crowds. It gets worse when the two school newspaper groups get involved. Angeline’s sister Cat, who only wants to report on the straight facts and the The Shrieking Violet, which is written by an anonymous source that seems intent on writing inflammatory pieces that blatantly support Leo. Rumours will fly and secrets will be leaked, and they’re only getting started.
My goodness, the amount of DRAMA this book has truly does bring me back to high school. Angeline is a social media influencer with inspirations of growing her channel, and seems to be very ambitious in how she goes around to getting what she wants. She seems to have an okay relationship with her sister, Cat, who is more reserved and used to seeing her sister in the spotlight. They don’t share the same group of friends and Cat has always felt distant because of the way her sister treated her when they were young. While the two have a very complicated relationship, it’s clear they’re going to have to work together a little in order to help Angeline go forth with her election campaign.
Leo was a meh love interest (for me) because he seems to toe this line between being an asshole and caring for Angeline. At times it felt like it bordered on toxic from both sides, which also speaks a lot to high school relationships (not all of them, please don’t come after me if you married your high school sweetheart). I think if this had been approached in a little more depth it might have changed the overall mostly lighthearted tone of the book, so I’m glad we didn’t go too deep into it. My personal preference for love interests in this story was honestly Cat’s and that’s mostly because it was a very friends to lovers type of situation.
I’m digging the themes of this book. The toxic nature of social media coupled with sexism in the classroom. Angeline and her friends face harassment from someone in the school who is using pictures of their bodies to enhance the features they think would make them a “perfect 10”. The response by the school felt very on par with what a lot of young women experience: “we’ll do something about it if we can, but it just seems like a harmless prank otherwise”. While this pushes Angeline to use her social media platform to push for justice, it also shows how easily that attention can backfire. Everyone has an opinion, and the internet can be forever.
The story moved quickly for me, and I loved the combination between chapters, newspaper articles, and text messages that go back and forth between Angeline and her friends or Cat and her friends. It adds really neat layers to the story that make it flow a lot easier and just increase the enjoyability of it. Sometimes you just need a break from the traditional chapter layout.
There were a couple of moments where I felt we didn’t have enough explanation in the story for a full picture. One of them was with Angeline and Cat’s dad as their relationship is strained, but I wanted to get into this a little more. Also, I wanted to explore Cat’s romantic situation a little more because although the summary seems to look at Angeline pretty heavily, I felt like the perspectives were pretty even between Cat and Angeline.
Overall, this was a very intriguing story and I look forward to seeing what Lori comes out with next. Definitely go and put it on your TBR if you’re looking for something funny sprinkled with a bunch of drama in between!
Sources Say is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Two exes. One election. All the drama.
For fans of Becky Albertalli and Morgan Matson comes a funny, hearfelt novel about fueding exes running for class president and the scandal that makes the previously boring school election the newest trending hashtag.
At Acedia High School outside of Boston, student council has always been nothing more than a popularity contest. Nobody pays attention. Nobody cares.
But all that changes when the Frankengirls show up. During the very first week of school, someone plasters the halls with Photoshopped images of three “perfect tens”–images of scantily clad girls made from real photos of girls at school. The student body is livid. And the two presidential candidates, Angeline Quinn and Leo Torres, jump on the opportunity to propose their solutions and secure votes. After their messy break up, Leo and Angie are fighting tooth and nail to win this thing and their constituents are mesmerized as they duke it out.
As if things couldn’t be more dramatic, the school’s two newspapers get involved. The Red & Blue is run by Angie’s sister Cat and she prides herself on only reporting the facts. But her morals are tested when The Shrieking Violet–written by an anonymous source and based less on facts and more on fiction–blatantly endorses Leo. Rumors fly, secrets are leaked, and the previously mundane student election becomes anything but boring.
