review: the s-word by chelsea pitcher

After Angie caught her boyfriend and her best friend together on prom night the entire school began calling Lizzie, the pastor’s daughter, “slut.” They wrote it on her locker and scratched it into her car. Not long after that Lizzie killed herself. Then the words “suicide slut” appear around the school in Lizzie’s handwriting along with some of her diary entries that point to some of her tormentors. Although Angie had stopped speaking to Lizzie, she decides to look into Lizzie’s suicide. Her journey is heart-wrenching as Angie discovers how much Lizzie never told her. And it’s not just about Drake on prom night; there’s another bombshell that Angie almost can’t believe, but handles fairly well. The S-Word tackles a few difficult subjects, but doesn’t get preachy. The high school characters seem real and react in understandable, if not always likable, ways. It’s a powerful story that kept me riveted as the secrets were revealed.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.