No Filter

In this touching debut novel from Irish author Collins, British 16-year-old Emerald’s problems with family and friends are exacerbated by the social media feeds she can’t turn away from. Emerald’s mother has just entered rehab for her addition to prescription drugs, and Emerald is sent to stay with her estranged grandmother on the Irish coast for the summer. There, she meets a kindhearted boy named Liam with family troubles of his own, and the two quickly fall for each other. Told in Emerald and Liam’s alternating perspectives, this novel largely focuses on their various dates and other encounters, though Emerald’s story drives the narrative and Collins expands the thread of her family worries to include her grandmother and father. Though the romance doesn’t offer many surprises, Collins’s voices and setting are vivid and fresh, the teens’ relationship is engaging, and Liam is a particularly sensitive and devoted love interest. As Emerald watches her friends’ lives go on without her online, her visceral sense of pain and loss (and FOMO, really) will resonate with many readers. Ages 14–up. [em]Agent: Marianne Gunn O’Connor. (Mar.) [/em]