Worthy by Donna Cooner

From Goodreads,

"Download the app. Be the judge.

Everyone at Linden's high school is obsessed with Worthy. It's this new app that posts pictures of couples, and asks: Is the girl worthy of the guy? 

Suddenly, relationships implode as the votes climb and the comments get real ugly real fast. 

At first, Linden is focused on other things. Like cute Alex Rivera. Prom committee. Her writing. But soon she's intrigued by Worthy. Who's posting the pictures? Who's voting? And what will happen when the spotlight turns... on Linden?"

Goodreads - Worthy

This book follows Linden, a student in high school who falls under the scrutiny of an app called Worthy.  Worthy is an app that lets the public decide if the girl is worthy of the guy she is dating.  But not only does it let the people vote, it allows them to make comments about the couple.  Couples in the school are critiqued on Worthy, but the true question is will the relationships and friendships be able to withstand the public judging them?

This book is very relevant in today's world.  We are a society that is centered and focused on our phones.  I think that in this aspect this book would be very popular with young adults.  I really enjoyed how the book was separated by what was being posted on the app.  As the couples were being judged there was information or comments that were included that separated the book up.  There were also things that were posted by the app moderator that helped create a more immersive experience that made it feel like I was experiencing the app.  I feel like that was a nice touch to help better incorporate the reader into the story.

This book had the potential to have a big message about cyberbullying, but it didn't.  Cooner really missed the opportunity on this.  We live in a world where everyone is glued to their phones, and instead of students being mean face to face, most do it through a computer or phone screen.  I think that Cooner should have really tried harder to incorporate an anti-cyberbullying message into this book.  Most students have experienced some form of cyberbullying, and I think this book would have been more relatable if she had taken this route.  I'm a teacher and we all preach that bullying of any kind is not tolerated.  But then we have books like this where cyberbullying is happening, the app was published in the school newspaper, but yet nobody did anything to investigate or stop what was happening.  It's books like this that give teachers a bad reputation.  A parent or teacher could have and should have found out about the app and put a stop to it.  There should have also been a consequence for the student who created the app, or at least given us the satisfaction that someone punched him because he was causing drama in their relationship.  He gave students the perfect outlet to critique, judge, and comment on others and tell why they were or were not worthy of the person they were dating.  I just find it a very unbelievable situation that no adults knew about the app and that there wasn't any kind of consequence for the student who started all of this.  Cooner missed opportunities for this book to have a huge message and make a huge impact.

I give this book 2 stars.  This book was very much a teenage book with high school drama.  There were plenty of opportunities for this book to have an important message, but unfortunately it didn't.  I would recommend this to junior high or high school students.