UnSlut

September 21, 2015
From sixth through eighth grade, Emily Linden was shamed and bullied, in person and online, for being a “slut.” Upset about girls who committed suicide after being bullied for sexual behavior (real or rumored), Linden revisited the diaries she kept, put excerpts online, and founded the UnSlut Project, where bullying victims can post their stories and find support. This book is Linden’s diary, transcribed “word for word” and filled with detailed accounts of romances, rumors, bullying, poetry, and episodes of cutting and suicidal thoughts, alongside Linden’s present-day comments. Boys and girls come and go in the entries, and without any scenes or shaping, it’s hard to keep them straight. Linden’s annotations oscillate between snark regarding her younger self and sincere reminders about cultural conditioning and gendered assumptions (“One thing about my middle school self that really embarrasses me is my passive, unquestioned homophobia”). It’s alternately eye-opening and depressing to see how young all involved are, how little they actually know about sex, and how unhelpful parents, teachers, and friends are, but the lack of characterization throughout makes it hard to feel a deeper empathy. Ages 14–up.

October 1, 2015
A diary kept in the late 1990s by a middle school girl labeled a "slut" by her peers is transcribed, with footnotes adding her adult commentary, in this expository memoir. Prefacing this collection of intensely personal journal entries is a foreword written by Lindin, who explains the process by which she decided to make them public (with changed names) in an effort both to provide support to teens experiencing slut shaming and to make adults aware of the intricacies of this type of bullying. While it's a worthy intent, the monotony of these day-to-day entries, preoccupied to the extreme with the volley of relationship and friendship drama so common (and developmentally appropriate) to early adolescence, makes this a slow read. The founder of an advocacy program called The UnSlut Project, Lindin's analysis of her younger self definitely adds valuable context, levity, and keen insight into a number of different issues. Some of the most important center on how little agency many girls feel over their own bodies and the psychological disconnect often present for teens who engage in such self-harming behaviors as cutting. However, these same elucidations may turn off teen readers, rooted as they are so firmly in an adult perspective. While this direct presentation of events allows readers to see the nuances of this bullying experience, it's a difficult and at times tedious narrative. (Memoir. 12 & up)

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September 1, 2015

Gr 8 Up-In 2013, Lindin created The UnSlut Project, an online community in which she posted entries from the diary she kept between sixth and eighth grade detailing her experiences being bullied because of untrue rumors about her sexual conduct. As a result of the positive feedback she received, she published her diary entries in book form. The adult Lindin adds commentary throughout. She reminds readers that her diary was written from her perspective only and admits that others may have had different perceptions of the events in question. The journal describes the girl's interactions with her peers, with only brief mentions of parents, family, teachers, or school work. Readers learn how as an 11-year-old, Lindin saw her peers drinking, using inappropriate sexual language, and engaging in sexual activities, which often made her uncomfortable. Because she wanted to be popular, she took part in activities that she found awkward or unpleasant. Often books of this ilk end unhappily in order to drive home a message, but the author makes it clear that in high school she was able to make a new start. Though Lindin was between the ages of 11 and 13 when she wrote her diary, the book deals with some mature sexual themes and situations. VERDICT The eye-opening revelations in this work may help to boost readers' self-confidence by illustrating that our destinies are not determined by others.-Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 When she was only 11, Lindin was branded the school slut. The label came after an encounter that she hardly understood or consented to with two boys in a basement. But for the next three years, Lindin found herself ditched by her friends and harassed by boys convinced she was game for anything. Now in her late twenties, Lindin has collected the diaries she kept as a middle-schooler and published them with footnoted commentary from her present-day self. The diary entries themselves are middle school to the core: the Lindin in them was often melodramatic, solipsistic, and catty; as a target of bullying, she sometimes bullied other girls to deflect. By contrast, present Lindin's footnotes are mature, introspective, and intelligent as she, by turns, cringes over some of her childhood behavior and condemns the system that encouraged it. More troubling, she points out her own sexual passivity in many instances, and the ease with which she believed she was at fault for encouraging unwanted attention. A sometimes tender, sometimes caustic look at the stigmas that surround girls growing up in modern society.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016
The actual middle-school diary of "school slut" Emily Lindin is annotated with thoughts, jokes, and wisdom from adult Emily, creator of online community "the UnSlut Project." The (sometimes cringe-worthy) diary may provide support for readers experiencing similar bullying and slut-shaming, but while the author's notes are friendly and often funny, such a present adult voice makes the overall package feel purposeful. Websites.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)