Social Suicide

Author: Gemma Halliday

Series: Deadly Cool # 2

Genres: Mystery, Contemporary, Young Adult

Publisher: HarperTeen

Released: 24 April 2012

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com Twittercide: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.
Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the "Herbert Hoover High Homepage" would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper's brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went . . . a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the homecoming queen-hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH's resident body finder, I'm stuck trying to prove that Sydney's death wasn't suicide.
I'm starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos. . .

My Review: So, I loved Deadly Cool.  Loved, loved, loved it.  Which means that I had pretty high standards for Social Suicide, and I am pleased to report that it delivered!  You may read the blurb and think: “death by twitter…hmmmm” and admittedly it does seem a little strange and mainstream, like a way to instantly date the novel, but somehow it doesn’t. 

In the second installment of this fantastic series Hartley is forced to confront what exactly is going on between her and Chase.  And this, my friends, was my favorite part of this story.  Reading Hartley and Sam’s banter back and forth about what exactly Chase’s intentions are, and then the semi-public humiliation that is wrought from misinterpretation is not only hilarious but pretty real.  Having Hartley dress up, and the subtle nuances in Chase’s behavior reminded me so much of high school I could practically hear the crowd at the Friday night football game, smell the day old lunch room food, and see the emptiness of after-school staff meetings.

I liked how Sam’s boyfriend stepped it up this round, and I loved that Hartley’s mom is still a pretty major part of her life.  If there is one thing that I truly adore about this series, besides Hartley herself, it is the relationship that Hartley has with her mother, how real it is without being suffocating.  Actually, all of Hartley’s relationships are kind of my favorite. I mean seriously, is Sam not the best "best friend" EVER? I mean seriously, she is kind of perfect (and not in a too perfect kind of way, in a 'you're such an awesome bff' kind of way, like really truly awesome). 

The only thing that did get on my nerves with this novel is that Hartley is still kind of the same.  In Deadly Cool Hartley grew up a little bit, she left her cheating boyfriend, made some new friends and joined the newspaper staff, whereas in this one it’s kind of the exact same Hartley.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I wanted a little bit more to happen to her personality-wise.  The fact that nothing did gave this novel a “filler” kind of feel.  Don’t get me wrong, Social Suicide is just as much fun, if not more so than Deadly Cool because Hartley is trying so hard to figure out the “guy” thing along with who killed Sydney, definitely one I would recommend for someone looking for a fun mystery read with a lovely amount of fluff and an immense amount of fun. I mean, I want the next Hartley Featherstone novel, like . . . now.