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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

High school senior Lulu regularly uploads photos and video to a platform called Flash (think Snapchat). Lulu meets down-to-earth Cass at a party. Although Cass is uninterested in social media and stereotypical trappings of moneyed teens in L.A., Cass's best friend, Ryan Riggs, is the teenage brother of Flash's founder. Ryan is renovating a formerly grand hotel built by his great-father as his family "project." Lulu and Cass regularly hang out at the unfinished hotel, which feels like a refuge. Ryan prohibits anyone else from taking photos there but is constantly framing his visitors through the lens of his own camera. As Lulu and Cass fall for each other, the hotel becomes their intimate, private space-until Ryan betrays them. Lulu, white and Jewish, had already begun thinking critically about media's treatment of women through reading for her cinema studies class and discussions with Cass. Ryan's unconscionable violation of their trust and privacy intensifies her reflection on the female body, from her own to Ryan's great-grandmother's, a silent film star whose work seeded the family fortune, as possession and commodity. Lulu's own understanding of what she chooses to share on platforms like Flash shifts with her expanding perspective on female exploitation. The relevance and immediacy of these issues in the lives of teens today, along with the complexity and depth of Lulu's relationships with family and friends, both add to the satisfying substance of this queer romance. (Age 14 and older)

CCBC Choices 2021 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2021. Used with permission.

From Booklist

February 15, 2020
Grades 9-12 Lulu is Flash-famous: she has 10,000 followers on the Snapchat-esque platform. She's careful about the image she curates for the world, even as she's aware that Flash is the reason her life is currently in a shambles?the video she posted accidentally of her hookup with another girl is the reason her boyfriend broke up with her, the reason she's not quite as untouchable as usual. Then she meets Cass, a girl who seems to exist apart from everything, and her friend Ryan, a trust-fund kid who's restoring an Old Hollywood hotel?and whose brother created Flash. As she becomes more enmeshed in their world, Lulu grows farther away from her own, and her understanding of what it means to be seen?by a friend, by a stranger, as an idol, as a commodity?widens. Elegiac in tone, this is a lush and literary character study that will appeal to readers of Nina LaCour. Sharply incisive and, at times, deeply romantic, it's a narrative that doesn't underestimate its audience as it turns the spotlight on their intensely focused world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

From Publisher's Weekly

February 3, 2020
Romanoff (Grace and the Fever) expertly weaves feminist ideology throughout her captivating queer romance. Following an accidental public post of herself making out with a girl, 17-year-old Lulu Shapiro becomes a minor celebrity on Snapchat-like social network Flash. The post, meant solely for her boyfriend, precipitates the end of that yearlong relationship, and Lulu reacts by cultivating a carefully insouciant social media presence. When Lulu meets Cass at a party, Cass takes her to her favorite place in L.A.: the Hotel, which is being lavishly renovated by Cass's best friend, Ryan Riggs. The mega-wealthy Riggs family likes its heirs to choose a project that will teach them how to run a business-another Riggs started Flash-and this is Ryan's. Though Ryan is awfully keen on photographing beautiful women, his hotel bans phones. For Lulu, the hotel offers a refuge from her social media persona, one that allows her to work through her identity without filtering it for an audience. As Lulu comes to terms with her sexuality, she begins to fall in love with Cass, but the relationship is thrown off course by Ryan's possessiveness, resulting in an unpleasant betrayal. Romanoff's coming-of-age novel indicts social media, the public gaze, and its effects on self-image; through Lulu's transformation, the author shows that no one is as perfect as their feed appears, and that identity is often messier than a single post can capture. Ages 14—up. Agent: Sarah Burnes, the Gernert Co.

From School Library Journal

February 1, 2020

Gr 10 Up-Lulu Shapiro is a quasi-celebrity on Flash (an app similar to Snapchat). She shows her 10,000 followers the self she believes they want to see and follows rules that help her maintain popular status in her affluent Los Angeles private school. What she doesn't show is her heartbreak over her breakup with her boyfriend, her depression after a video was leaked of her making out with another girl, and her questioning of her sexuality. When Lulu meets Cass at a party, Cass takes her to an old hotel, where Lulu attempts to find herself. As Lulu and Cass spend more time there, they are faced with an event that will not only test their relationship but cause Lulu to question if her life on Flash is really how she wants to be known. Part coming-of-age story, part slow-burn romance, part feminist-manifesto, this novel shows that looks can be deceiving. As Lulu explores her bisexuality and the men in her life, she examines the history of feminine roles and how the expectations of others have impacted her life. Frequent drug use and sexual content make this a choice for older teens. VERDICT A solid addition to high school and teen collections and libraries looking to enhance their LGBTQ holdings.-Ashley Leffel, Griffin Middle School, Frisco, TX

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Kirkus

January 15, 2020
A Los Angeles private school student and social media it girl discovers feminism and queerness. Lulu Shapiro has 10,000 followers on Flash, a Snapchat-like platform, thanks to a scandalous video that was never supposed to go public. She embraces her quasi-fame, giving the followers what they want with sexy snaps of her life while keeping a wall up around her closest IRL friends. When Lulu meets Cass, a fellow private school girl who's adjusting to her family's recent wealth, she finds herself drawn to the pretty redhead as well as to Cass' best friend, Ryan Riggs, an up-and-coming teen real estate scion whose older brother dropped out of high school to found Flash. Lulu and Cass develop a friendship that quickly becomes more at The Hotel, a Riggs family building where phones are not allowed. But just as Lulu, who previously only kissed girls at parties, wonders if she is ready for more, Ryan reveals a nasty surprise that has Lulu questioning the implications of a life lived online and the possessive nature of the male gaze. Romanoff's (Grace and the Fever, 2017, etc.) writing is compelling and her subject matter timely, but the novel's arch, jaded voice doesn't quite ring true for its teen characters, sophisticated as they are. Lulu is white and Jewish, and Cass and Ryan are cued as white; there is ethnic diversity in secondary characters. A searing take on sexuality better suited to an adult audience. (Fiction. 14-adult)

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