Tart
Becki Jayne Crossley
Bloomsbury
The book opens with Dan peddling his bike across the deserted country town of Chipping Hollow late at night. His destination was his girlfriend Libby’s place because he needed to have a face-to-face conversation with her about something that couldn’t wait.
Unfortunately, he never made it to his destination because he didn’t see the truck as it crested the hill until it was too late. And the driver of the truck didn’t see him because Dan never got around to getting the bike lights fixed.
While Dan lies in a coma at the local hospital, Libby finds out that she has become the target of a hate campaign at school. There is an online posting of her supposedly cheating on her boyfriend and the school hallway and classrooms echo with snide remarks calling her a ‘slut’, a ‘whore’, a ‘bitch’ and a ‘tart’.
I suppose it is wishful thinking on my behalf that this kind of behaviour had become extinct, but abusive sexualised name calling and insults and spreading rumours of a sexual nature online is alive and well.
Neha, who arrived in the last year of St Hilda’s co-ed school half-was through the school year, was finding life difficult and friendless as well. She could avoid the subtle racism, but being queer at a Christian school in a quaint village where everyone seems to have known each other since birth was a difficult hurdle to navigate.
Neha keeps her sexuality a secret because she feels that exposing her sexuality would make her more of an outcast. As the bullying of Libby turns from verbal to physical, Neha decides that she has to befriend her and protect her from the poisonous teenagers at the school.
When Libby finds herself falling for Neha, she worries that if she follows her heart she will betray the people she cares about most. Can she discover who she really is before she loses everyone, and what secret did Dan want to share with her as he sped towards her place?
Lezly Herbert
