GOOD GIRLS

The dark side of the digital age is revealed in this cautionary tale about a good girl who is photographed while “hooking up” with a popular senior. Audrey, an ivy-bound high-school student, is in love with Luke, a handsome guy she considers unattainable. Their relationship consists of passionate sexual experimentation at parties, but barely a hello in the school hallways, and Audrey is sick of it. However, before she can end it, a photograph of her in a compromising position is maliciously transmitted to everyone she knows, including her horrified father, setting off a social and psychological tsunami for the beleaguered heroine. It’s a pertinent, provocative and mortifyingly dramatic set-up, but the work veers into polemic territory as Audrey and her friends argue the issues of the need for connection between love and sex and the ever-present double standard. The romantic ending fails to convince, though kids should take heart in Audrey’s courage and comfort in the notion that life goes on, even after a horrific humiliation. (Fiction. YA)