The Truth About Alice

★★★★★ Teenage schoolgirl Alice Franklin’s life is turned upside down after a rumour she had sex with two boys at a party spreads round the small town. Things get worse when one of the boys, the school football star, dies in a car crash and his friend claims he was distracted by saucy messages from Alice while he was driving. Dedicated to “all the Alice Franklins”, this young adult fiction novel tries to examine how and why these rumours start and persist. Simple and easy to read, without any really graphic content, it’s adult, but not too adult.