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.
This is a fun, if slightly frothy novel transferring the political process to a high school. Irish twins Cat and Angela have very different priorities for their senior year, but they manage to collide together when Angela decides to run for school council president. Cat, as editor of the school newspaper - by default, but it still counts! - is swept up in the campaign as it turns into a battle of the sexes, and the exes.
This is a cleverly written take on America's political system, with one side arguing for more freedom and the other for more control. Fake news and the way people will believe anything that's written down are a huge part of the story. There's also some about exploiting women and bullying, things that most teen novels nowadays touch on.
The characters were good, even if the bad guys were relatively obvious, including the red herrings. I enjoyed seeing things from two perspectives, and watching the sisters come around to each other's way of thinking in the end was very satisfying.
A good read, but, for me, not a great one.
Sources Say publishes on the 8th September, 2020.
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