Susan Taitel

Random Acts of Nudity by Susan Taitel

Nobody ever died of embarrassment. That’s what Viola has heard, but she’s certain she’ll be the first.

Fifteen-year-old Vi is devastated after Ethan, her first love, dumps her for a skinny popular girl. Just as her broken heart begins to mend, a sex tape featuring Vi and her ex goes viral.

In the course of a day, she transforms from a quiet honors student to the school’s biggest joke. She can’t travel from one class to the next without hearing cries of “slut” and taunts about her size sixteen figure. Mortified that her most private moments are now public, and crushed by Ethan’s betrayal, she’s torn between striking back and hiding in her room until graduation.

Things start looking up when she falls for Oliver, a boy from a neighboring school who doesn’t know her reputation. With him, she gets to be Vi instead of that sex tape girl, but she can’t help worrying he’ll be another Ethan. She’s wary of trusting him with her heart, not with the video just a click away.

 

Arielle and David: First of all, great title.  A great title can sell a book by itself.  We’ve seen this over and over again.  And it’s a great beginning to your pitch.  It really displays the voice of the book.  Many writers make the mistake of writing a book report.  We need to know what the voice of the book is, and you do a wonderful job of establishing that right off the bat.  And you really make us sympathize with your main character. We are rooting for her, which is such an important part of any story.  This whole idea of sex tapes going viral is also so current, such a hot button topic.  What can be improved?  We don’t get enough sense of the plot, the arc, what’s actually going to happen.  There is a great set up here, but we don’t know enough about the twists and turns of the action that’s going to keep us captivated.  Also, we should know that she is size 16 earlier in the story, because it will make it more poignant that she’s dumped for a skinny girl.  Also, again, a couple of comparable titles would be really good.