KIARA FIGHTS BACK

A middle schooler takes a stand for victims of cyberbullying.

This latest in the Spyglass Sisterhood series, whose installments each follow a member of a group of friends who use a magical spyglass to see visions of what might be, focuses on Kiara. Kiara has trouble discerning others’ intent and reading body language, and though the book doesn’t explicitly refer to her as neurodivergent, she is often referred to as “different.” Following a suspension from her old school, where she was bullied, Kiara, her father, and her aunt Molly move to Lakeside for a fresh start. There, she befriends Alyssa, Ellie, and Rachel, the other members of the Spyglass Sisterhood. Through the spyglass in the turret at Ellie’s house, the girls see classmate Jim Berger being beaten up on the playground. As they learn that Jim and other students are being bullied online, they take action. The book moves slowly toward a somewhat predictable resolution, and characterization is superficial. Early in the book, Kiara describes Rachel, a White-presenting Latinx girl, as “seriously white” and “the prettiest of us”—“us” being Kiara, who is Black; Alyssa, who is South Asian; and Ellie, who is White. This unfortunate choice of words seems to reinforce the idea that beauty is synonymous with Whiteness.

A lukewarm read.