Weightless

In this finely crafted debut, Bannan skillfully delivers a tale of modern-day bullying. When beautiful, sophisticated Carolyn Lessing relocates with her mother to Adamsville, Ala., she's a rare newcomer to the cloistered small town. At first, she's accepted, even admired%E2%80%94until the pushed-aside popular high school girls turn vicious and engage in nightmarish torture of Carolyn via social media. The taunts grow progressively more cruel and even progress into physical violence%E2%80%94until Carolyn finally breaks, with actions that will reverberate for years to come. Told in the first-person plural (the narrators are never named), this chilling story has a haunting sense of immediacy. "We felt such shame it could be hard to sleep at night," they muse toward the end of the tale. Bannan's provocative novel will stay with readers long after they finish it, and should be an especially effective read for teens. (June)