I Text Dead People
This is an ugly book. On the outside and the inside.
Annabel Craven is an insecure, middle class girl who is starting at prestigious new school and she's afraid she won't fit in. Her mother won't get her a replacement phone so her life is over before it even begins. Or something. She arrives at the Academy and immediately sets to judging every single person she sees. Mostly the girls. Every. single. girl. in this book is judged by our protagonist Annabel because of their makeup and heels and short skirts before they have a chance to open their whore mouths. Those seem to be accurate judgements based on the words that come out of their whore mouths, but seriously cool it with the slut-shaming Annabel.
It doesn't take more than a few pages for the girls to start calling each other boyfriend-stealers and worse. The closest thing Annabel has to a positive interaction is a strange girl at a lunch table, also described as high-hemmed and low-necklined, etc. etc., but since she's weird Annabel lies to her and doesn't willingly sit with her again. She's fantastic. Nobody seems to think about blaming the stupid boy who lets himself be "stolen" by the girls away from his owner/girlfriend.
Urgh, fine, the plot. On that first morning walking to school Annabel gets spooked by a guy in the graveyard, and in running away, picks up this mysterious cell phone. When charged, the phone turns on but she only gets cryptic texts asking for help. She pays no attention to them, but carries the phone around with her anyway.
It turns out she's receiving texts from dead people. Which the readers know from the title, but have to wait a hundred-odd pages before Annabel starts to get it. Even then she doesn't really help anybody. The main crisis of the plot comes and goes, no one gives a shit about the dead girl, and the resolution is the ghost hears the message from Annabel and decides to keep hanging around.
I did not have any expectations from this book, but I was appalled all the same. Who greenlit this? Shut it down and pulp it.
