Review by Booklist Review
Raised by her (super cool) grandmother since her parents died, Izzy O'Neill has free rein, and for the most part, she's handled it well: she hangs with her two best friends, she dreams about becoming a comedy writer, and when she has sex, she does it responsibly. But everything changes when she hooks up with the son of a conservative politician and a photo of the two of them starts circulating. At first it's just around school, and while everyone seems to have an opinion, it's nothing Izzy can't handle. But then the scandal blows up on a national scale, and even though there were two people in that picture, it's Izzy that everyone is focused on. When her oldest friend, who recently admitted his (unreciprocated) feelings for her, turns nasty, Izzy feels like she's out of people to trust. With dark humor, Steven dispels the myth of the Nice Guy and examines the stigma still attached to female sexuality. Izzy's wry voice and fierce spirit make her impossible not to root for.--Maggie Reagan Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
At a party, eighteen-year-old Izzy has sex with two different male classmates. And no, she's not interested in your judgment: "I'm having a good time and I'm not hurting anybody. What's the problem?" But then a photo of her doing it with the first guy, Vaughan, appears on a website called "Izzy O'Neill: World Class Whore." And then, someone posts the nude photos she exchanged with Vaughan afterward. Soon the entire school has seen Izzy naked, and because Vaughan is the son of a senator, she becomes the center of a national scandal. Izzy's tough-she was orphaned at age five-but the scandal threatens her sense of self-worth, her friendships, the possibility of a relationship with guy number two, even her budding career as a screenwriter. Izzy's blog-style journal entries are refreshingly sex-positive and wickedly clever, full of jokes both bawdy ("Much like Vaughan thirty seconds ago, the party seems to be reaching its climax") and timely ("lying in bed in a vague state of furious nausea, like how I imagine Melania feels when she watches Donald remove his shirt"). Unfortunately, Izzy's story also feels all too relatable; readers will be able to recognize to some degree her feelings of humiliation and violation, and the double standards, commoditization, and harassment she experiences. "The way the world treats teenage girls-as sluts, as objects, as bitches-is not okay," Izzy concludes. "It's the exact opposite of okay." To quote Izzy herself: "Hear fucking hear." Rachel L. Smith November/December 2019 p.99(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
High school senior Izzy O'Neill has a "spectacular list of problems" that's about to get longer.The hilariously crass 18-year-old self-proclaimed "aspiring comedian and all-around idiot" is an unapologetic connoisseur of peanut butter cups and sex. When photographic evidence of her love for the latter is posted to a website entitled "Izzy O'Neill: World Class Whore," she finds herself at the epicenter of a national sex scandal, bearing name-calling, judgment, and public scrutiny of her actions and her body. During the following weeks, Izzy tackles double standards, slut-shaming, and male entitlement. The boy who appears in the leaked sex photo is the son of a powerful uber-conservative politician. In their small American town, the school's sex ed program focuses on abstinence and purityand is taught by a deeply religious teacher. Izzy tells her story via blog entries as events happen. Her snarky, scathing, and irreverent narration is dotted with hilarious parenthetical asides. The shaming and harassment wear down her natural confidence, but she manages to keep her sense of humor even when she truly is the opposite of OK. Whiteness is assumed for most characters, including Izzy. Ajita, Izzy's supportive best girl friend, is Nepali-American, and Izzy's love interest, Carson, is black. Essential for opening and fueling dialogue about a culture that normalizes slut-shaming and promotes toxic masculinity. (Fiction. 13-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
