Sometimes you read and book and you go: I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to read, what I needed to read in this particular moment in time, but now that I read it, I realize this is it. That was me and Lori Goldestein’s Sources Say.
The easy reasoning behind that would be because the book touches so many subjects that are important in today’s world, from how hard it is to get facts in a polarized world, to what constitutes fake news and why they exist in the first places. The second easiest conclusion would be because the book, somehow, manages to do both those things while still not being – at face value, a political book.
And yes – as a political science major, I certainly appreciate these things. Talking about politics is often framed in the least friendly way possible, and if we could all present important topics in such a fun, easy way, our youth would be much better off. Far be it for me to tell you these lessons aren’t important, or that picking up the book for those reasons would be a bad idea.
But that’s not what got me about the book, no. What got me about the book is that, deep down, it’s mostly about feminism, but not the feminism of people who have had time to sit with the concept, to study it, to find their own place within that word, but the feminism of girls just trying to figure out what that word means …for themselves, and the world around it.
Fittingly, this book is also about what it means to be a sister, and the bonds women create with each other. This is especially refreshing considering the media we consume, still, in 2020, relishes pitting women against each other, often, because of a man. There’s very little space for friendship, sisterhood, and the many, many ways women uplift each other, instead of tearing each other down.
Here, however, there are two sisters who have issues, yes. They don’t have the perfect relationship by any stretch of the imagination. But their issues are real, and the author examines them in a funny, smart and relatable way.
We feel for them – in good and bad ways. And that’s really all we want out of a book. To feel. If you’ve consumed some form of entertainment and came out on the other side not really caring, then that was just a waste of time.
Sources Say is the opposite of that.
In fact, Sources Say might just be the best book I’ve read this year. No, wait, let me take the might out. It definitely is.
High school isn’t exactly my domain these days, but you don’t need to be a teenage girl to relate to what these characters are going through, and you don’t need even need to remember high school to relate to topics like female ambition, accountability and how to enact change in a world that seems determined to push back.
And that’s why this book works on every level. Because the politics, the juggling all kinds of information and especially, the having to find your own place in a world that seems determined to push you down is something every teenager, no, every woman can relate to.
I certainly did.
Sources Say is available on Amazon.
You can find the book description here:
Two exes. One election. All the drama.
For fans of Becky Albertalli and Morgan Matson comes a funny, hearfelt novel about fueding exes running for class president and the scandal that makes the previously boring school election the newest trending hashtag.
At Acedia High School outside of Boston, student council has always been nothing more than a popularity contest. Nobody pays attention. Nobody cares.
But all that changes when the Frankengirls show up. During the very first week of school, someone plasters the halls with Photoshopped images of three “perfect tens”–images of scantily clad girls made from real photos of girls at school. The student body is livid. And the two presidential candidates, Angeline Quinn and Leo Torres, jump on the opportunity to propose their solutions and secure votes. After their messy break up, Leo and Angie are fighting tooth and nail to win this thing and their constituents are mesmerized as they duke it out.
As if things couldn’t be more dramatic, the school’s two newspapers get involved. The Red & Blue is run by Angie’s sister Cat and she prides herself on only reporting the facts. But her morals are tested when The Shrieking Violet–written by an anonymous source and based less on facts and more on fiction–blatantly endorses Leo. Rumors fly, secrets are leaked, and the previously mundane student election becomes anything but boring.
About Lori Goldstein:
Lori Goldstein earned her BA in journalism but eventually found her true writing passion in the world of fictional people. She’s never met a beach she didn’t love, a book she wouldn’t read, or a strange food she wouldn’t try. She is the author of SOURCES SAY (9/8/2020), which Kirkus calls “Entertaining, thought-provoking, and heartwarming”; SCREEN QUEENS, which Kirkus calls “a fun and uplifting story that celebrates female friendship and empowerment”; and the VOYA-starred young adult contemporary fantasy series BECOMING JINN. You can visit her online at http://www.lorigoldsteinbooks.com, @loriagoldstein on Twitter, and on Instagram @lorigoldsteinbooks.
