Reasons to Hate Me
by Susan Metallo
High School    Candlewick    400 pp.
9/25    9781536240351    $18.99

High school senior Jess finds herself a pariah when her best friend Chloe’s boyfriend, Noah, sends a school-wide text claiming that she tried “to have sex with me.” Now Jess and Chloe aren’t speaking, and Chloe’s new friends bully Jess at every turn. Jess, who is autistic and wonders whether she might be asexual, is devastated and responds by writing a blog in hopes that Chloe (who is also autistic) will read it and forgive her. Meanwhile her grades plummet, she drops her beloved drama class, and she struggles to manage an emotionally messy home life with her divorced mom and bossy older sister. The only bright spot is her friend Cam, “easily the hottest guy in our grade,” who is on her side no matter what—even after that one unfortunate make-out session. Sympathetic readers will find many reasons to love this book, including Jess and Cam’s genuinely sweet relationship, Jess’s borderline-obsessive passion for musical theater, and the diverse cast of drama kids who come to her aid just when she needs it most. Jess’s sardonic, self-deprecating blog posts, bursting with humor and heartbreak, gradually clue readers in to the truth about Noah. They also make clear that Jess still has time to turn her senior year around, if she can only learn to tap into her waiting support system. Top notch.

From the November/December 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.