Two exes. One election. All the drama.For fans of Becky Albertalli and Morgan Matson comes a funny, heartfelt novel about feuding exes running for class president and the scandal that makes the previously boring school election the newest trending hashtag.At Acedia High, student council has always been a joke. Nobody pays attention. Nobody cares. But that changes when someone plasters the halls … that changes when someone plasters the halls with Photoshopped images of three “perfect tens”—composites of scantily clad girls made from real photos of female students at the school. Quickly dubbed the “Frankengirls,” the scandal rocks the student body. And the two presidential candidates, budding influencer Angeline Quinn and charming jock Leo Torres, jump on the opportunity to propose their solutions and secure votes. Fresh from a messy public breakup, Angeline and Leo fight to win, and their battle both mesmerizes and divides the school.
The election fills the pages of The Red and Blue, the school newspaper run by Angeline’s sister, Cat. The Quinn sisters share a room and a grade but little else, and unlike her more sensationalist sister, Cat prides herself on reporting the facts. So when a rival newspaper pops up—written by an anonymous source and the epitome of “fake news”—Cat’s journalistic buttons are pushed. Rumors fly, secrets are leaked, and the previously mundane student election becomes anything but boring.
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A timely and smart novel that examines the pernicious effects of fake news and what it means to be a feminist, and even better, a sister. Lori Goldstein knows the teenage girl’s heart.
If there was ever a book for our time, this is it! Scandal, drama, romance, and fake news collide in this fun, clever, fast-paced read.
A whip-smart, razor-sharp foray into school politics, friendship, family, and the nature offemale ambition. Sources Say is savvy, heartfelt, and so very timely.
”You want to stand out, stand the eff up and do what you’re always saying: Bring it.”
Sources Say is a cheeky YA contemporary take on the current political climate in America and the chaos that takes place during election years. Student Council elections at Acedia Charter School are usually the least important thing on the student bodies mind. (Which is funny to me because in reality it seems like today’s teens are way more conscious about politics than even the adults I graduated with are now.) Throw in a new government teacher who makes it exciting and the fact that this year two of the schools most popular seniors are throwing their hats in the ring for President, and let’s just say Acedia is on the next level of political excitement. Of course both president hopefuls are running with their own personal motivations in mind, and less about actually helping the school. The school that is in desperate need for some change concerning the fair treatment of its students. Did I also mention those two students are recent exes?
Sources Say does a good job using the ecosystem of a high school to cover the dueling extremes of the two-party system, the differences between honest news and falsely propagated “news”, and the navigation of relationships that are platonic, romantic, and familial. The story is told through the eyes of two sisters who don’t quite see eye to eye. Cat is a bit of a loner who is highly focused on the school paper, and her dreams of going to Northwestern. Angeline is a popular Vlogger, and is using the election to gain her way into a vlogger boot camp, so that her channel and reach will only get bigger. Both of these characters are affected by the election in different ways, and it also has impacts on their relationship/s that I don’t think either of them saw when the whole thing started.
All in all this is a good read if you want to read about politics in a lighter way, and enjoy subtle coming of age and life lessons. I enjoyed the relationship growth and change between Cat and Angeline, and how they sort of learn about themselves over the course of the election. The fact that it felt like the author was definitely poking fun at the way politics and the media surrounding it work was also pretty amazing. At this point it’s all a bit grim, so we may as well find some small way to laugh about it while we fight to change it. Definitely pick this one up if you need something light involving high school politics.