Lauren McLaughlin. Send Pics.
Narrated by Kevin R. Free, Christopher Gebauer, and Sophie Amoss.
Digital download. 8 hours, 29 minutes.
Recorded Books. 2020.
Send Pics touches on the double standard, rape culture, racism, improper justice system, and inept school administration. This book will make listeners look at high school very differently and hopefully pay a little more attention to the teens around them.
Shields up! is the motto of Nikki, Lydia, Ani, and new girl Suze. They thought they could protect each other from anything as long as they were together. Marcus is always on the lookout for a big story to jumpstart his journalistic career. DeShawn just wants to build things and go to MIT. Tarkin Shaw, captain of the varsity wrestling team, thinks he is invincible and deserves everything he wants, even if they do not want him. Then something happens at a party and Suze is blackmailed. After, they are all thrown into each other's orbit to try and figure out what is happening. Will the truth be enough or will power and money prevail? Send Pics is a story for the times, a peek into what teenagers have to deal with, and the emotions behind their actions.
Send Pics is told through multiple perspectives and having different narrators for each perspective really helps keep the story straight with ease. I thought the narrators were amazing at portraying the emotion of each character: DeShawn's naivety, Marcus's shock, Tarkin's machismo, Ani's quietness, Lydia's hate, Nikki's dejection, and Suze's fear. Each narrator also copied very well any accents needed. The characters sound very similar no matter who is narrating, but each character has a distinct voice. These narrators know what they are doing. For fans of Speak and The Hate U Give.
Reviewed by Meghan Yost