The S Word by Chelsea Pitcher

The S Word by Chelsea Pitcher
"Lizzie wasn't the first student at Verity High School to kill herself this year. But the difference is, she didn't go quietly.

First it was SLUT scribbled all over the school's lockers. But one week after Lizzie Hart takes her own life, SUICIDE SLUT replaces it--in Lizzie's own looping scrawl. Photocopies of her diary show up in the hands of her classmates. And her best friend, Angie, is enraged.

Angie had stopped talking to Lizzie on prom night, when she caught Lizzie in bed with her boyfriend. Too heartbroken to let Lizzie explain the hookup or to intervene when Lizzie gets branded Queen of the Sluts and is cruelly bullied by her classmates, Angie left her best friend to the mercy of the school, with tragic results.

But with this new slur, Angie's guilt transforms into anger that someone is still targeting Lizzie even after her death. Using clues from Lizzie's diary and aided by the magnetic, mysterious Jesse, Angie begins relentlessly investigating who, exactly, made Lizzie feel life was no longer worth living. And while she might claim she simply wants to punish Lizzie's tormentors, her anguish over abandoning and then losing her best friend drives Angie deeper into the dark, twisted side of Verity High--and she might not be able to pull herself back out."- summary from Amazon

I was a little bit underwhelmed with this book. I really felt like the mystery was just tacked on to keep the plot moving. It never really felt like a part of the overall story, but it was enough to keep me reading to the end which did have a very interesting twist. But still, I don't think it's enough to really recommend the book.

I honestly don't know what else to say about this book. I don't really have feelings about it in either direction, so it's hard to really talk about it in any critical way. I didn't really feel connected to the characters or the situation, nor did I feel like I got to know any of them terribly well. It was just an okay book, bordering on below average.

Overall, I feel like there are better books out there that deal with this whole slut shaming thing much better than this book did. I'm sure I've read some but I can't think of any right now. Has anyone else read this book? What did you all think about it?

FTC: Received e-galley from Netgalley. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.