Everyone’s Thinking It

Estranged British Nigerian cousins Iyanu and Kitan are two of the few Black students attending Wodebury Hall, an English countryside boarding school. While day student Iyanu, a budding photographer, prefers to fade into the background, affluent boarder Kitan has situated herself at the top of the social food chain alongside her white besties. But Iyanu is thrust into the spotlight when photos she took of her classmates at the recent winter fair vanish from the school’s darkroom and begin appearing around campus with cruel rumors and comments written on them. Resolving to clear her name, Iyanu—accompanied by her crush—set out to uncover the culprit. Among the possible perpetrators is Kitan’s best friend Heather, the most popular girl in school, who “always ensures that her white skin is just bronzed enough for her to appear ‘exotic Black.’ ” Recalling Mean Girls, Omotoni’s compulsively entertaining debut adeptly addresses topics surrounding bullying, classism, homophobia, identity, and racism via Iyanu and Kitan’s alternating chapters, which piece together their fraught relationship history amid the school’s current fallout in biting prose. Ages 13–up. Agent: Claire Friedman, InkWell Management Literary. (Sept.)