Want To Go Private

Title: Want To Go Private
Author: Sarah Darer Littman
Pub: 2011; Scholastic
Pages: 406
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

This is Such A Horrific Book and it has #nightmare written all over it.  If this was a movie I would be watching it with my hands covering my eyes, peeking through for broken images.  Since all of the visualizations were in my head and I couldn't visualize a pair of hands to cover up the horrid pictures, I spent most of the book biting my bottom lip.

Hands down I would not want to be a kid in today's technological era.  Nor would I want to be a parent when there are so many ways for predators to reach out.  And THIS BOOK takes those fears and makes them real.

Abby is fourteen and she's starting her freshman year in high school, but she's a bit of a wallflower while her best friend from forever ago is a bit more open to possibility.  Because of this Abby feels lost and alone forming a friendship with this twenty something online who totally gets her.

And it's so obvious she wants a connection.  Luke gets that.  He works with it.

But goodnight there are moments in this book where I wanting to grab a hold of Abby and shake her.  It's absolutely scary how easily kids can fall for these creepers.  I remember what it was like to think that you're in love while in reality having no idea what that really means.  And it's that kind of naivete that led Abby to make some really outrageously and heartbreaking decisions.

This is a book that I think EVERY PARENT AND CHILD should read together.