Thanks to Wattpad, I've been able to read a free copy of Revenge of the Sluts.

- This is a review based on the version published by Wattpad Books -

Title: Revenge of the Sluts
Author: Natalie Walton (@Floats)
Genre: Contemporary teen fiction
Narrative: First person, past tense
Content: 23 chapters and an epilogue.
Link: wattpad.com/story/130421113

Summary:
Eden Jeong, a senior and aspiring journalist at St. Joesph High School, is tasked with the reporting of an email containing intimate photos of seven female students, sent to everyone at the school by a mysterious Eros. However, it quickly becomes a difficult challenge as she is met with resistance from not only the victims but also the school's administration, who won't allow any coverage that can harm the school's reputation. Unwilling to accept defeat, and as incidents related to the email keeps happening throughout, Eden is determined to fight for justice, getting to the bottom of who Eros is.

Cover:
The cover is okay. I think the cartoon drawings age the book down, and I don't know if that's necessarily what you want with a book about revenge porn. But the setup with the girls—their eyes drawn out lining up the title—is great.

Blurb:
I'm having a little trouble with the blurb. "No one ever said high school was easy, and that couldn't be more true for journalist Eden Jeong." This gives the impression that Eden is the one you should sympathize with, simply because she's met with pushback when trying to write an article for a school newspaper. When the actual victim, who you should be concerned for, are the girls who've had their private photos stolen and spread to everyone. It doesn't sit right with me. Other than that, the blurb does a good job of setting up the story.

The good:
First, I want to acknowledge what a great eye-catching title this book has. Kudos to Walton on that.

The story opens directly on the capital moment with the email ticking in, and I love that. No wasting time with introducing characters but straight into the action. It works great for this book. (Though I wish we were introduced to the main character a little sooner than page nine. It was starting to get weird not knowing whose eyes I was reading the story through.)

I like how it's set up with the girls in the email not having any clear connection. It makes for some great guesswork of whodunit and wondering why these girls ended up in the email together—working out what they have in common. I love when a book does that; make you think and theorize. This also meant that I trusted no one in the story, which I actually enjoyed.

What I also really liked, is that the book tries to show the situation from several people's points of view, and it does so in a very realistic way. Even among the girls who've been exposed, we see different reactions. I really appreciate how Walton has tried to put herself into the mindset of such a varied cast of characters, taking the time to develop their individual personalities. She's done an amazing job at it.
I especially appreciate that the school jerk, who tries to make light of the situation, isn't given a redemption arc. Sometimes people are who they are.

The book is pretty well-edited (though it could have done with some more). The narration flows effortlessly, going from one topic to the next. There are some great descriptions and details like including sounds, which makes the scenes come so much more alive. I loved that. There's also a lot of great word choices, which—as a writer—I always appreciate. Just as I appreciate some great lines that made me chuckle.

Another thing I enjoyed, is that the book hasn't been vacuumed for swear words. People swear, it's a fact of life, get over it.

Finally, I appreciate the representation of characters included—the main character being Asian-American. Though, whether a white writer choosing to "speak" for a minority group is right, could be debated. I don't have the answer.

Quotes I liked:

Chapter 2:
"The room buzzed with anticipation and nervous energy; all we needed was a spark and it would explode."

Chapter 11 - Luke Anderson:
"I preferred you when you were quieter. You're annoying as fuck when you're talking."

Chapter 11 - Eden Jeong:
"You heard all the jokes. You knew what other guys said about girls. But you chose to not take it seriously because it didn't affect you."

Chapter 13:
"If no one ever told these guys what they were doing was wrong, or if no one ever made them face consequences, they would never stop."

Chapter 19 - Eden Jeong:
"Doesn't it seem pretty obvious, though? If someone posts a picture like that without permission, it's wrong."

The bad:
As good as the title of this book is, the story doesn't live up to it, which is a shame. The same goes for the idea for the plot. It's a great premise, but the execution unfortunately isn't.

I usually love news stories. My favorite TVshow is The Newsroom. (I've rewatched that baby I don't know how many times). So I was looking forward to reading this book of a school newspaper putting together a story about a very important topic, figuring out who the culprit is. Instead, we get a lot of info dumps and over-explaining about the inner workings of a school newspaper that I cared nothing for and which wasn't important for the storyline. I think maybe Walton used to work on a school newspaper and thought it was fun to add all these details, but it slowed the pace of the book way down. It meant I was genuinely relieved whenever some actionable development happened instead of constantly dealing with trivial newspaper issues. I know those issues are important for the main character, but it brought the story to an almost halt.

This was an overall issue for me; the slow pace of the book. It meant I lost interest and my concentration, which led to me having to do several re-reads of some chapters because I couldn't remember what I had just read. I know that might be a uniquely "me" problem (yay, brain injury), but it was a negative factor nevertheless. So many details in the book are told again and again. In action. In thoughts. In meetings/check-ups. It drags the story out. As a reader, we don't need to be in on all these retells every time someone in the story has to be brought up-to-date on the developments. We were there with the main character when it happened.
It isn't until the last few chapters the pace is picked up, but at least it does get sped up.

There's a lot of characters to keep track of in this book, and a lot of them are only mentioned briefly, which makes it difficult to remember who's who. It made it confusing to follow along at times. I had to make notes on the side of the different characters, and several of them turned out to be of no importance.
Plus, it seems Walton forgets who's POV she has chosen from time to time, as Eden makes a few comments about things she has no reasonable explanation for knowing.

Conclusion:
The book has a lot of good qualities and revolves around an important topic. It includes some very interesting observations of the many different angles a situation like this can be viewed from - angles I didn't consider. Both in the discussions the students of the newspaper have, but also with the students around the school. From the guys laughing at the situation to girls thinking they had it coming (rather than blaming the culprit). To the very serious talk about the long-lasting effect this has on the victims and their lives. It all contributes to making you think. And with a book that handles such a hot topic, that's important.

The book makes a good and valid point about how people are told off for sending photos to willing recipients, rather than those sharing said photos without permission. Because that is a very real issue many constantly face.

I have mixed feelings about Eden, the main character, though. In some moments, she acts with a moral compass you hope everyone has, deleting the email without looking through the images as she realizes it's a violation of privacy. But just a few pages later, she describes the situation it's created as 'exciting,' and that felt wrong to me, considering what a complete nightmare it is for the victims. It made me cringe. And the way she's so focused on being a journalist instead of the high school student that she is, was very odd.

I think the book would have been a much better read if we followed the story from Sloane's perspective—the main victim in the group of girls. The impact of the story would have been a lot greater. It was actually somewhat boring having to follow a main character standing on the sideline rather than in the eye of the hurricane.

And the slow pace of the book was a real issue for me. I forgot about the book for days and weeks. I didn't have that feeling of being unable to wait and continue reading. I could have left it half-finished without a second thought. And for a story centered around something as dramatic as revenge porn, the book is surprisingly devoid of drama. That lack sadly includes the ending, which was sort of anticlimactic. I appreciate how the epilogue rounds up the story, though, touching up on all loose ends.

I'm sure there are people out there, for whom this book is a great read, I was just not one of them.

Three stars
★ ★ ★
(Three stars = A middle-of-the-road book that has potential if more work is put into it.)