The Exact Opposite of Okay

July 1, 2019
Eighteen-year-old Izzy becomes the center of a national scandal after a photo of her having sex with classmate (and senator's son) Vaughan appears on a website called "Izzy O'Neill: World Class Whore." The scandal threatens Izzy's sense of self-worth, her friendships, and her budding screenwriting career. Izzy's blog-style journal entries are refreshingly sex-positive and wickedly clever; readers will recognize the double standards, commoditization, and harassment she experiences.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2019
At a party, eighteen-year-old Izzy has sex with two different male classmates. And no, she's not interested in your judgment: "I'm having a good time and I'm not hurting anybody. What's the problem?" But then a photo of her doing it with the first guy, Vaughan, appears on a website called "Izzy O'Neill: World Class Whore." And then, someone posts the nude photos she exchanged with Vaughan afterward. Soon the entire school has seen Izzy naked, and because Vaughan is the son of a senator, she becomes the center of a national scandal. Izzy's tough-she was orphaned at age five-but the scandal threatens her sense of self-worth, her friendships, the possibility of a relationship with guy number two, even her budding career as a screenwriter. Izzy's blog-style journal entries are refreshingly sex-positive and wickedly clever, full of jokes both bawdy ("Much like Vaughan thirty seconds ago, the party seems to be reaching its climax") and timely ("lying in bed in a vague state of furious nausea, like how I imagine Melania feels when she watches Donald remove his shirt"). Unfortunately, Izzy's story also feels all too relatable; readers will be able to recognize to some degree her feelings of humiliation and violation, and the double standards, commoditization, and harassment she experiences. "The way the world treats teenage girls-as sluts, as objects, as bitches-is not okay," Izzy concludes. "It's the exact opposite of okay." To quote Izzy herself: "Hear fucking hear." Rachel L. Smith

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from April 1, 2019
High school senior Izzy O'Neill has a "spectacular list of problems" that's about to get longer. The hilariously crass 18-year-old self-proclaimed "aspiring comedian and all-around idiot" is an unapologetic connoisseur of peanut butter cups and sex. When photographic evidence of her love for the latter is posted to a website entitled "Izzy O'Neill: World Class Whore," she finds herself at the epicenter of a national sex scandal, bearing name-calling, judgment, and public scrutiny of her actions and her body. During the following weeks, Izzy tackles double standards, slut-shaming, and male entitlement. The boy who appears in the leaked sex photo is the son of a powerful uber-conservative politician. In their small American town, the school's sex ed program focuses on abstinence and purity--and is taught by a deeply religious teacher. Izzy tells her story via blog entries as events happen. Her snarky, scathing, and irreverent narration is dotted with hilarious parenthetical asides. The shaming and harassment wear down her natural confidence, but she manages to keep her sense of humor even when she truly is the opposite of OK. Whiteness is assumed for most characters, including Izzy. Ajita, Izzy's supportive best girl friend, is Nepali-American, and Izzy's love interest, Carson, is black. Essential for opening and fueling dialogue about a culture that normalizes slut-shaming and promotes toxic masculinity. (Fiction. 13-adult)

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