Synopses & Reviews
Str-S-d:I’ll begin with Lucy. She is definitely first on the list. You can’t believe how it feels to be in the cafeteria and turn around and there she is staring at me like I’m some disgusting bug or vermin. Does she really think I WANT to be this way? I hate you, Lucy. I really hate you. You are my #1 pick. I wish you were dead.
The day after anonymous blogger Str-S-d wishes the popular girl would die, Lucy vanishes. The students of Soundview High are scared and worried. Especially frightened and wracked with guilt is Madison Archer, Lucy’s friend and the last person to see her the night she disappeared.
As days pass with no sign of the missing girl, even the attention of Tyler, an attractive new student, is not enough to distract Madison from her growing sense of foreboding. When two more popular students disappear after their names are mentioned on Str-S-d’s blog, the residents of Soundview panic.
Meanwhile, Madison receives anonymous notes warning that she could be next. Desperate to solve the mystery before anyone else disappears, Madison turns to Tyler, but can she trust him when it becomes clear that he knows more than he’s sharing?
The clock is ticking. Madison must uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearances . . . before her name appears in Str-S-d’s blog.
In the spirit of stories like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Todd Strasser updates the teen thriller for the techno age with Wish You Were Dead, the first installment in a new “thrill”-ogy.
Review
"Benoit’s handling of cultural diversity, adolescent religious awareness, and everyday technology in teen lives makes for satisfying, thought-provoking reading."
—Booklist
"Bullying, blackmail, and bad choices are interwoven through this cautionary tale in a manner that's relatable and engaging."
—VOYA
"With a quick pace, this psychological thriller takes readers for a ride, providing clues to the secrets the characters are trying to hide but without disclosing all of the information until later chapters. The coldness of the caller in relation to the damage he/she is doing to the bullying victims as well as the blackmail victims is particularly chilling."
—School Library Journal
Synopsis
In the vein of the teen suspense classics I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Face on the Milk Carton, Cold Calls is a chilling thriller, an unsettling mystery, and a provocative exploration of bullying, culpability, and the cost of keeping secrets.
Synopsis
Three high school students—Eric, Shelly, and Fatima—have one thing in common:
“I know your secret.
” Each one is blackmailed into bullying specifically targeted schoolmates by a mysterious caller who whispers from their cell phones and holds carefully guarded secrets over their heads. But how could anyone have obtained that photo, read those hidden pages, uncovered this buried past? Thrown together, the three teens join forces to find the stranger who threatens them—before time runs out and their shattering secrets are revealed . . .
This suspenseful, pitch-perfect mystery-thriller raises timely questions about privacy, bullying, and culpability.
About the Author
Todd Strasser, author of Give a Boy a Gun, Boot Camp, If I Grow Up, and the Help, I’m Trapped . . . series, has written wildly popular middle-grade and teen books of all genres. When he’s not speaking at schools and conferences, he makes his home in a suburb of New York City. Todd is active in a number of sports but enjoys surfing most of all. Visit him online at www.toddstrasser.com.