On the Subject of Unmentionable Things
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A girl rewrites sex education, one viral post at a time, in this fiercely honest and delightfully awkward novel from the award-winning author of Words on Bathroom Walls.
Phoebe Townsend is a rule follower . . . or so everyone thinks. She’s an A student who writes for her small-town school newspaper. But what no one knows is that Phoebe is also Pom—the anonymous teen who’s rewriting sex education on her blog and social media.
Phoebe is not a pervert. No, really. Her unconventional hobby is just a research obsession. And sex should not be a secret. As long as Phoebe stays undercover, she’s sure she’ll fly through junior year unnoticed. . . .
That is, until Pom goes viral, courtesy of mayoral candidate Lydia Brookhurst. The former beauty queen labels Phoebe’s work an “assault on morality,” riling up her supporters and calling on Pom to reveal her identity. But Phoebe is not backing down. With her anonymity on the line, is it all worth the fight?
Julia Walton delivers a brutally honest novel about sex, social media, and the courage to pursue truth when misinformation is rife. Who knew truth could be so scandalous?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Walton (Just Our Luck) delivers a sharply rendered tale featuring white high school junior Phoebe Townsend, whose sex education blog goes viral after a conservative local politician denounces it. Most of Phoebe's classmates know her as the quiet girl who writes for the school paper; no one would suspect that she, under the pseudonym Pom, also writes a sex ed blog. While she initially started the site to journal her extensive research into topics her school's health classes glossed over—including masturbation and female arousal—all that changes when the white president of Linda Vista, Calif.'s Citizens' Coalition for Responsible Censorship, Lydia Brookhurst, attacks Phoebe's blog on Twitter, calling it "disgusting." The confidence boon Phoebe gains from Pom's notoriety inadvertently helps boost Phoebe's popularity; she manages to line up interviews with health professionals and charm both the cute school paper editor and the star quarterback with her newfound take-charge attitude. But when Brookhurst's continued demands that the blogger "reveal" herself threaten Phoebe's anonymity, she must decide whether she's willing to walk away from her mission or risk going public. Via Phoebe's persistent and courageous voice, snippets of her Twitter and blog posts, and a wealth of useful factoids, Walton crafts an essential, sex-positive volume. Ages 14–up.
