Social Suicide

by Gemma Halliday

Overview

Twittercide: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.

Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper's brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went . . . a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the homecoming queen–hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH's resident body finder, I'm stuck trying to prove that Sydney's death wasn't suicide.

I'm starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos. . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062114501
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/24/2012
Series:	Deadly Cool , #2
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

When Gemma Halliday was sixteen she wanted to be either a rock star or Marilyn Monroe. Instead, she ended up working as a film extra, a teddy bear importer, a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, a temporary-tattoo artist, and a 900-number psychic before settling on the career of author. Since then, her books have been published in several countries, optioned for television, and have won lots of cool, shiny trophies, including a National Readers' Choice Award and three RITA nominations. Gemma now lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where she loves watching reality TV shows, eating takeout pizza, and shoe shopping. She is also the author of Deadly Cool.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 8 Up—After surviving the events in Deadly Cool (HarperCollins, 2011), Hartley is working as a reporter for the school's newspaper. Her first big assignment is to write about Sydney Sanders, a Homecoming Queen contestant who was caught cheating in precalculus class. Hartley knows that she needs to get to the heart of the story, so she tries convincing Sydney to tell how she got the answers to the test. However, when Hartley goes to meet the ditzy girl, she discovers Sydney's body floating in her pool along with her laptop. The police are positive that her death is a suicide (or, since she was on Twitter right before she died, "Twittercide"), but Hartley is convinced that Sydney wouldn't have agreed to talk to her before killing herself. Now it's up to the protagonist, her friend Sam, and love-interest Chase to solve the murder before Hartley becomes the next target. Plenty of clues are left to keep readers guessing as the teens work together to uncover motives and opportunities for each of their suspects.—Natalie Struecker, Rock Island Public Library, IL

School Library Journal

Detective-turned-reporter Hartley Featherstone (Deadly Cool [HarperTeen, 2011/Voya October 2011]) is back, and once again bumping into the bodies of classmates from Herbert Hoover High. This time, it is Sydney Sanders, top contender for Homecoming Queen until she is suspended for cheating on a math test. When Sydney is found in the family pool along with her plugged-in laptop, everyone else surmises suicide. With the help of best friend, Sam(antha), and love-interest-turned-editor-boss, Chase, Hartley sets out to unravel a more sinister solution—murder. Can she avoid her old antagonist, Detective Raley, solve the crimes, write the story for her school's online paper, and win the heart of bad boy editor, Chase Erikson? Not before plenty of page-turning hijinks and revised profanity. Halliday reprises the well-paced whodunit and teen romance, balanced with her cheeky humor, especially with the relationship between teen daughter Hartley and her vegan, single SMother, who still serves up heaping helpings of tofu comfort food. In a delightful subplot, Mom mortifies her daughter by deciding to go online in quest of a relationship of her own. There are no empty condom wrappers in this sequel, and the "effing" of the first book has been replaced with "fluffin' fudge," making it more suitable for a slightly younger audience. Readers who start with the sequel are likely to want the first, however, so librarians who do not have it should be prepared to consider both. Reviewer: Donna L. Phillips

VOYA - Donna L. Phillips

In a follow-up to Deadly Cool (2011), Hartley Featherstone returns to romp through another murder mystery. Hartley has joined the Herbert Hoover High online-newspaper staff, working for her intriguing, black-clad friend, Chase, the editor. She's set to interview Sydney, caught cheating on strict Mr. Tipkins' math test. Hartley arrives for the interview only to find Sydney face down in her pool, electrocuted by her laptop, an apparent victim of "Twittercide." Hartley again meets the annoying Detective Raley, who can't really do his job because Hartley won't tell him what she knows. Raley thinks Sydney committed suicide, but Hartley convinces herself that it had to be murder and sets out to catch the culprit. Again, she puts herself in danger, sneaking off at night to dark parks and breaking into her school, trying to investigate how the test answers might have been stolen. She winds up at the homecoming dance with Chase, a welcome development, but her investigation may have worried the murderer, who now targets Hartley. Will she survive? And what's Detective Raley doing with Hartley's mom? Halliday again balances the comedy and suspense notes well, keeping her characters intriguing and her narrative bright. Hartley has enough smarts combined with obvious foibles to make her a likable heroine. Meanwhile, the mystery bubbles along. Suspenseful fun. (Mystery. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews