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rjdenney's review against another edition
5.0
This was an awesome, crazy, and raw read. I loved the writing so it's safe to say I will now read anything by Chelsea. BOOK THOUGHTS VIDEO COMING SOON.
sksrenninger's review against another edition
4.0
I couldn't put this down! Grippping and kind of dark high school drama with an interesting twist.
mehsi's review against another edition
2.0
I had expected more, and the first half of the book was good. After that it just seemed to drag on and on. The ending was interesting, but nothing special.
Overall, if you want a book that drags on and on, read it. Otherwise avoid it.
Overall, if you want a book that drags on and on, read it. Otherwise avoid it.
mollywetta's review against another edition
I could only read about 10% of this. I wanted to like it. It had the potential to be a "pulled from the headlines" type book, as there have been several recent cases of girls committing suicide after incidents of slut-shaming. But the writing and characters were both weak, in my opinion, and though I wanted to finish in order to write a full review, there are just too many books out there I'd rather read.
sayde's review against another edition
1.0
I think this book had good intentions but for me it missed the mark completely.
Unlikable main character. Unoriginal High school students. Rushed romance.
Unlikable main character. Unoriginal High school students. Rushed romance.
mischief_in_the_library's review against another edition
4.0
I'm surprised by the dislike shown in a lot of the reviews here. Personally, I was expecting a light read (not sure why, given the blurb says the narrator's best friend just committed suicide), but found it a lot more enjoyably complex. People complain about the one-dimensionality of the dead girl (doesn't everyone become a saint in death?), but I particularly liked the characterisation of Angie. A cheerleader who displayed a handful of stereotypical traits of one, but whose most prominent personality traits made me surprised she wasn't being cast as belonging to the mildly-unpopular.
Perhaps I enjoyed it more because my expectations were lower going in. Everyone else seemed to be hunting for a message that never came,but without it, it was just an enjoyable story. Definitely worth the time.
Perhaps I enjoyed it more because my expectations were lower going in. Everyone else seemed to be hunting for a message that never came,but without it, it was just an enjoyable story. Definitely worth the time.
caffeineaddict980's review against another edition
5.0
After Lizzie is caught in bed with her best friend’s boyfriend on an important night in her high school setting, the whole school turns against her along with her best friend.
As a result of this, she kills herself.
Angie begins an investigation into her best friend’s suicide when Lizzie’s diary entries are showing up in lockers, everyone is a suspect in her death.
Much like Thirteen Reasons Why, we have a slight nod to the concept of The Butterfly Effect in which there are different results and different outcomes based on one decision being slightly altered.
The book shifts from Angie’s point of view to Lizzie’s diary entries, so we get a glimpse of both girls and their lives. As the plot thickens, we see things become revealed that we as readers didn’t expect, it turns out Lizzy’s suicide is more complex than meets the eye.
There were scenarios in the book that began to become uncovered involving characters that I had my doubts about, but when it was confirmed that my gut instinct was right, this book had me thinking ‘I knew it!’
All the different aspects of the ending took me completely by surprise. There was the revelation that Lizzie was actually in love with Angie all along, which was a nice LGBT twist!
It turns out that Angie herself wrote those things on the lockers and put the diary entries in lockers to try and work out what happened and who has actually harassing Lizzie and bring everyone to justice and she ends up making a colossal decision that affects everyone.
This novel took me by surprise and was nothing like I expected, it had me doubting my own gut instincts at points! Full of twists and turns, this novel touches on dark and important themes that need to be addressed and were addressed well in this novel.
As a result of this, she kills herself.
Angie begins an investigation into her best friend’s suicide when Lizzie’s diary entries are showing up in lockers, everyone is a suspect in her death.
Much like Thirteen Reasons Why, we have a slight nod to the concept of The Butterfly Effect in which there are different results and different outcomes based on one decision being slightly altered.
The book shifts from Angie’s point of view to Lizzie’s diary entries, so we get a glimpse of both girls and their lives. As the plot thickens, we see things become revealed that we as readers didn’t expect, it turns out Lizzy’s suicide is more complex than meets the eye.
There were scenarios in the book that began to become uncovered involving characters that I had my doubts about, but when it was confirmed that my gut instinct was right, this book had me thinking ‘I knew it!’
All the different aspects of the ending took me completely by surprise. There was the revelation that Lizzie was actually in love with Angie all along, which was a nice LGBT twist!
It turns out that Angie herself wrote those things on the lockers and put the diary entries in lockers to try and work out what happened and who has actually harassing Lizzie and bring everyone to justice and she ends up making a colossal decision that affects everyone.
This novel took me by surprise and was nothing like I expected, it had me doubting my own gut instincts at points! Full of twists and turns, this novel touches on dark and important themes that need to be addressed and were addressed well in this novel.
thewallflower00's review against another edition
3.0
This book was different than I expected. The style feels like a film noir, with short sentences, an investigation, a troubled personal life.
The book is about what happens after someone's best friend commits suicide after being slut-shamed into a pariah. The main character starts investigating how this came to be and starts uncovering some dark secrets about the people in her high school.
But that's just the hook. This book invokes just about every after-school special trope -- monstrous teens, the too-smart witch, the attention tramp, the handsome sex-crazed jock, cheerleaders, gay/not gay, date rape, the wild teen party, climbing through a bedroom window to see your girl, "Dude, she's like in a coma", defiled forever, driven to suicide, rape leads to insanity, self-harm, sneaking alcohol in high school, "secretly a lesbian", divorced parents, secret molestation, overly Christian parents, the big reveal, and of course, slut-shaming and finishes with a "decoy protagonist/killer in me" combo.
I'm not trying to say a story with lots of tropes is bad. All stories have them. But the problem is that all these tropes are front and center. Like a Lifetime movie. They're all part of the plot turns and revelations. Which means that the characters herein are stereotypes. My beef is that it keeps painting high school with the same brush that all movies and YA books paint it with. Like how no one has academics to worry about. How does the main character get all this "investigating" done? Between passing times?
Don't get me wrong, I like this book, but it's controversial simply because the characters demand it. To the point of being ridiculously implausible. One of the characters is gay. So gay he wears a skirt to school. And of course, the jocks beat him up for it. But then he tells the main character he's not gay, he's just acting like it. Because... reasons?
I was fooled by the summary in its Big Idea piece. I thought this was going to be a book about a girl going vigilante revenge for her friend who got slut-shamed into suicide, and then the revenge starts to consume her, where she couldn't stop. That is most definitely not this book. This book is much like the high schoolers it's portraying -- a hot mess.
It did keep me reading. It was a completely acceptable story with a great style. It's powerful. But it's trying to be a 'super YA novel'. It simply has too many ingredients, like a hamburger with forty things in it. You don't need that many to make a good hamburger. Too much stuff, and it becomes too rich to digest.
The book is about what happens after someone's best friend commits suicide after being slut-shamed into a pariah. The main character starts investigating how this came to be and starts uncovering some dark secrets about the people in her high school.
But that's just the hook. This book invokes just about every after-school special trope -- monstrous teens, the too-smart witch, the attention tramp, the handsome sex-crazed jock, cheerleaders, gay/not gay, date rape, the wild teen party, climbing through a bedroom window to see your girl, "Dude, she's like in a coma", defiled forever, driven to suicide, rape leads to insanity, self-harm, sneaking alcohol in high school, "secretly a lesbian", divorced parents, secret molestation, overly Christian parents, the big reveal, and of course, slut-shaming and finishes with a "decoy protagonist/killer in me" combo.
I'm not trying to say a story with lots of tropes is bad. All stories have them. But the problem is that all these tropes are front and center. Like a Lifetime movie. They're all part of the plot turns and revelations. Which means that the characters herein are stereotypes. My beef is that it keeps painting high school with the same brush that all movies and YA books paint it with. Like how no one has academics to worry about. How does the main character get all this "investigating" done? Between passing times?
Don't get me wrong, I like this book, but it's controversial simply because the characters demand it. To the point of being ridiculously implausible. One of the characters is gay. So gay he wears a skirt to school. And of course, the jocks beat him up for it. But then he tells the main character he's not gay, he's just acting like it. Because... reasons?
I was fooled by the summary in its Big Idea piece. I thought this was going to be a book about a girl going vigilante revenge for her friend who got slut-shamed into suicide, and then the revenge starts to consume her, where she couldn't stop. That is most definitely not this book. This book is much like the high schoolers it's portraying -- a hot mess.
It did keep me reading. It was a completely acceptable story with a great style. It's powerful. But it's trying to be a 'super YA novel'. It simply has too many ingredients, like a hamburger with forty things in it. You don't need that many to make a good hamburger. Too much stuff, and it becomes too rich to digest.
audreychamaine's review against another edition
3.0
The S-Word is definitely a "message" book. You can probably tell from the title. It shows how words can hurt and bullying has the power to lead to suicide. Suicide isn't the real "s-word" at stake here, though. It's the word "slut." When the story opens, Lizzie Hart has already committed suicide following her new reputation after she is caught with her best friend's boyfriend on prom night.
The S-Word was a bit like a more tolerable Thirteen Reasons Why. We learn the circumstances around Lizzie's death and reputation, and main character Angie is set on find every person who played a role and exposing them for who they are, including herself. What made this better, though, was the inclusion of Angie's own story. She's tormented by the death of her best friend, and by never forgiving her in life or asking what really happened on prom night. She feels that she failed her utterly, and would give anything to make it up. There's a bit of a twist toward the end that many readers will catch early on, but it proves that appearances can be deceiving.
Although I'm not too much of a person for message books, I adore books about revenge, and this fit the bill. The slow unveiling of the real story also drew me in as a reader, so I'd put this on the better side of decent YA contemporary novels, for entertainment's sake.
The S-Word was a bit like a more tolerable Thirteen Reasons Why. We learn the circumstances around Lizzie's death and reputation, and main character Angie is set on find every person who played a role and exposing them for who they are, including herself. What made this better, though, was the inclusion of Angie's own story. She's tormented by the death of her best friend, and by never forgiving her in life or asking what really happened on prom night. She feels that she failed her utterly, and would give anything to make it up. There's a bit of a twist toward the end that many readers will catch early on, but it proves that appearances can be deceiving.
Although I'm not too much of a person for message books, I adore books about revenge, and this fit the bill. The slow unveiling of the real story also drew me in as a reader, so I'd put this on the better side of decent YA contemporary novels, for entertainment's sake.
maddi_md's review against another edition
4.0
Angie and Lizzie were best friends once upon a time, that is until Angie caught Lizzie alone in a hotel room with her boyfriend on prom night. Once the rest of the school discovered what had happened, Lizzie is quickly branded the school slut. The word ‘slut’ covers her locker and belonging so one day, feeling bullied and alone, Lizzie commits suicide. This story starts out the day after Lizzie’s funeral when more graffiti and entry’s of Lizzie’s diary begin to circulate around school. Angie struggles with the death of her best friend, the malevolence of high school students and her own guilt over what happened. Angie immediately sets out for revenge against the people who drove her friend to suicide. Angie’s mission to understand her friends final days and discover who targeted her so mercilessly leads Angie to discover dark secrets about the people around her that she was never expecting.
After some relatively recent and highly publicized events in America I became seriously disgusted and obsessed with the idea of slut shaming. Maybe this is the reason that I did enjoy this book so much because it does confront the inequality between men and women when it comes to screwing around. Why is it that the female is instantly pinned with all the guilt? Why is she the one to be alienated and bullied while the guy receives relatively no blame? It’s totally unfair and happens way too often in today’s modern society. I hate it. I hate the word “slut” and I hate the all the judgement. I love that this book confronts the issue and points out how wrong it is. Angie investigates the events that led to prom night and the consequences of that night, she asks the hard questions like ‘why did the school label her a slut?’ and, uncovers the secret’s of Lizzie’s life and those of her bullies.
This is a very emotional and dramatic book. I really felt the anguish and guilt that plagued Angie after the death of her best friend. I loved most of the characters, like Jesse and Kennedy, and absolutely loathed Drew (just like I’m supposed to). While at times this book was slightly predictable, there were a few plot twists that I was most certainly not expecting (but that just might be me) and I found that to be super exciting because I find a lot of books to be a tad predictable these days.
Of course this book isn’t perfect, but not many are. At times I found the main character to be way too melodramatic for my taste. The writing could also definitely be improved upon, there were some awkward and forced moments throughout the book that really bothered me. And while I appreciate that the author is trying to get across a lot of important social issues about bullying, gender inequality, and slut shaming, I also don’t think it needed to be so obviously pointed out. The messages could have been written into the story in a very clear but much more subtly way which would have made it sound slightly less preachery. But other than that I found myself really immersed in this story.
This book has gotten a lot of mixed reviews but I really did enjoy it and would definitely recommend you give it a go!!
After some relatively recent and highly publicized events in America I became seriously disgusted and obsessed with the idea of slut shaming. Maybe this is the reason that I did enjoy this book so much because it does confront the inequality between men and women when it comes to screwing around. Why is it that the female is instantly pinned with all the guilt? Why is she the one to be alienated and bullied while the guy receives relatively no blame? It’s totally unfair and happens way too often in today’s modern society. I hate it. I hate the word “slut” and I hate the all the judgement. I love that this book confronts the issue and points out how wrong it is. Angie investigates the events that led to prom night and the consequences of that night, she asks the hard questions like ‘why did the school label her a slut?’ and, uncovers the secret’s of Lizzie’s life and those of her bullies.
This is a very emotional and dramatic book. I really felt the anguish and guilt that plagued Angie after the death of her best friend. I loved most of the characters, like Jesse and Kennedy, and absolutely loathed Drew (just like I’m supposed to). While at times this book was slightly predictable, there were a few plot twists that I was most certainly not expecting (but that just might be me) and I found that to be super exciting because I find a lot of books to be a tad predictable these days.
Of course this book isn’t perfect, but not many are. At times I found the main character to be way too melodramatic for my taste. The writing could also definitely be improved upon, there were some awkward and forced moments throughout the book that really bothered me. And while I appreciate that the author is trying to get across a lot of important social issues about bullying, gender inequality, and slut shaming, I also don’t think it needed to be so obviously pointed out. The messages could have been written into the story in a very clear but much more subtly way which would have made it sound slightly less preachery. But other than that I found myself really immersed in this story.
This book has gotten a lot of mixed reviews but I really did enjoy it and would definitely recommend you give it a go!!