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A close look at sexual coercion, cyberbullying, and other perils of surviving high school jock culture.

The story hinges around the close-knit trio of Nikki, Ani, and Lydia, who welcome the attractive, worldly new girl Suze into their fold. DeShawn and Marcus, two best friends and outsiders, catch wind of a rumor when a photo circulates revealing Suze, looking drugged, being carried from a party by her friends. DeShawn, empath and gifted tech whiz, intuits that something is wrong while snarky, budding journalist Marcus senses a story. Tarkin, king of the Jonesville jocks, has nude pictures of Suze, and he blackmails her into dumping her friends and becoming his girlfriend. Suze sets out to settle the score, enlisting DeShawn for backup. Things go from bad to worse when DeShawn becomes a suspect in a serious crime. The quick assumption of DeShawn’s guilt exposes the injustices and life-threatening realities he faces as an African American young man while indifferent administrators do little to protect students from harm (Ani is Indian American while Nikki, Lydia, and other major characters are white). Readers glimpse the inner workings of racism in criminal justice procedures, gender-based double standards, sexual coercion, diminishing privacy, and cyberbullying. In exploring and exposing interlocked oppressions, readers will grapple with intriguing twists on a rape revenge story, although the relationship between homophobia and sexism is not meaningfully explored.

A gritty read for a woke generation.