In Confessions from the Group Chat, Jodi Meadows (Bye Forever, I Guess; the Lady Janies series) skillfully and authentically evokes the challenges of navigating a middle-school social life in the time of social media, when any misstep may be disastrous.
Thirteen-year-old Virginia has a prickly relationship with her three best friends. The group is at the top of the eighth-grade social ladder, but the roles within the foursome, at least on the surface, have some not-so-subtle delineations. There's the "queen bee," the "creative genius," the "mean girl with a heart of gold," and Virginia, who doesn't know where she stands (the "Cat Person"?). So, when Virginia is teased for her crush on an unpopular boy and she pushes back against the girls' bullying, it's no surprise that the fight blows up into a "toxic cloud of social disaster." Her former friends begin publicly posting screenshots of terrible things Virginia has written in their group chats about other people (leaving out their own hurtful comments), making her a middle-school pariah.
Meadows writes a protagonist who is not a straightforward victim--Virginia did contribute to the group chat, and she continues to be somewhat dishonest to protect herself and others. This choice reflects messy reality in an emotionally complicated novel that can be appreciated by middle-grade and YA readers. Fans of Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham's Real Friends series should find Confessions refreshing and suffused with the authentic, complex flavor of early adolescence. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor