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by Aleema Omotoni (Author)
NAACP Image Award nominee!
Mean Girls meets Dear White People in this bighearted, sharp-witted UK boarding school story about family, friendship, and belonging--with a propulsive mystery at its heart.
Within the walls of Wodebury Hall, an elite boarding school in the English countryside, reputation is everything. But aspiring photographer Iyanu is more comfortable observing things safely from behind her camera.
For Iyanu's estranged cousin, Kitan, life seems perfect. She has money, beauty, and friends like queen bee Heather. But as a Nigerian girl in a school as white and insular as Wodebury, Kitan struggles with the personal sacrifices needed to keep her place--and the protection she gets--within the exclusive popular crowd.
Then photos from Iyanu's camera are stolen and splashed across the school the week before the Valentine's Day Ball--each with a juicy secret written on it. With everyone's dirty laundry suddenly out in the open, the school explodes in chaos, and the whispers accusing Iyanu of being the one behind it all start to feel like déjà vu.
Each girl is desperate to unravel the mystery of who stole the photos and why. But exposing the truth will change them all forever.
- YA Boarding School Mystery: When scandalous photos expose the student body's darkest secrets, estranged cousins Iyanu and Kitan must team up to find the real culprit before Iyanu takes the fall.
- Sharp Social Commentary: A powerful look at race, class, and belonging as a Nigerian student navigates the insular world of an elite UK institution and confronts the harms of blackfishing.
- Secrets and Lies: Reputation is everything at Wodebury Hall, but an anonymous gossipmonger is tearing the social hierarchy apart, one explosive secret at a time.
- Rivals and Frenemies: In the fallout of the photo leak, alliances are broken and new rivalries are formed. Can Iyanu and Kitan trust each other, let alone anyone else, to uncover the truth?
