FIVE MORE PIXS

In this debut YA novel, three teenage girls fall victim to sexual blackmail.

Thirteen-year-old Californian Jane Lin has been troubled lately. Her best friend, Caitlin “Kate” Young, whose home life has only worsened since her alcoholic father’s death, is in a coma after an attempted suicide. But Jane finds solace in her new online acquaintance, Scott Bouchard, who claims to be Kate’s cousin. Their discussions become a relationship, which soon leads to an exchange of nude pictures. But when Jane learns Scott has been lying, he turns to blackmailing her for additional photographs, lest he send the ones he already has to her family or friends. Earlier, Kate, an anorexic, met someone named Sara Beaulieu through an app. Sara unfortunately championed Kate’s eating disorder and suggested ways to optimize her fasting. This also entailed sending pics to Sara, who wasn’t quite who she claimed to be. Over in San Francisco is teen Sofia Ackmann, who, like the other girls, finds herself compromised by deceitful interactions online. But Sofia tells someone about her predicament and may have a way to fight back. Tronc splits her engaging novel into five overlapping narratives. Most take place in the 2010s, save for a hop back to the early 1990s that ultimately connects with everything else. There are certainly unsettling conversations, especially when they include insults like body shaming an adolescent girl. But the author deftly establishes characters: Jane reads class notes aloud to her comatose best friend and Sofia has a rock-solid bond with her older sister, Abril. Furthermore, the sextortion story bravely and respectfully addresses serious issues, such as eating disorders, suicide, and online privacy. The author, who grew up in France, lets slip the occasional typo or grammatical error, but none of this distracts from the vivid tale and strong characterizations.

A superb dramatization of timely teen issues that will educate readers of all ages.