Louder Than Words

What happens when your fresh start depends on keeping your worst mistakes buried? Jordyn Jones is about to find out. She made mistakes in her first couple of years of high school—mistakes she and her friends desperately want to forget. Yet on her first day at Edgewood High, everybody already seems to know who she is and that she was expelled from her previous school. Luckily for Jordyn, she makes new friends who give her the benefit of the doubt. She meets a cute soccer player, Zay, who likes art as much as she does. She helps a new friend run for student body president, and life begins to improve. That is, until the school’s anonymous podcast, Tomcat Tea, reveals some harmful secrets and rumors about Edgewood students—many of whom are Jordyn’s friends. 

Some of the rumors are true, while others are lies, including the rumor that Zay uses performance-enhancing drugs that could affect his college scholarship. To redeem herself for past mistakes, Jordyn decides to hunt down the podcaster and stop the harm from spreading. Jordyn’s quest to create a culture of acceptance throws her into the spotlight—and earns her dangerous enemies. As the tension builds and the podcast continues, Jordyn risks her happiness to bring down the podcaster. But what she did at her old school is too hideous for anyone to know, and the more she challenges the podcaster, the more the mysterious online character threatens to reveal Jordyn’s past. Secrets will come out; the only question is when. 

Jordyn is an inspiring protagonist who tries to make amends for her mistakes through both words and actions. Her bravery in risking her own secrets to save everyone else’s is admirable and makes the reader root earnestly for her. On the school wall, she paints a mural that encourages students to anonymously reveal their own secrets, taking power away from the podcaster. However, Jordyn’s new friends feel two-dimensional and quickly abandon her when bad news comes out, showing they lack the loyalty real friends would show. They ostracize her and barely give her a chance to explain herself. Some of this may be attributed to teenagers’ fickleness, but their automatic distrust of Jordyn feels flat and underdeveloped. That said, this is the book’s only flaw. Overall, Louder Than Words is endearing and entertaining. 

Readers who enjoy scandalous secrets, high school mysteries, and proud revolutions will love the lengths Jordyn goes to change the culture at Edgewood High. The book navigates the themes of redemption and secrets realistically, and Jordyn’s path makes it easy for the reader to empathize with her. Jordyn is a likable character who encourages students to be honest with themselves and each other. Louder Than Words points out that acceptance takes time and that teenagers need to adapt to betrayals and hard truths slowly to best process them. The book is full of second chances and heartwarming moments of acceptance. The ending and the twist revealing the podcaster’s identity make the story worth reading. There are mentions of suicide and bullying, but Jordyn and her fellow students work hard to eliminate the bullying around them. This book is a must-read because of its strong protagonist, fun twists, and strong message: secrets don’t define who you are, and acceptance and redemption are possible when you’re brave enough to pursue them. 

Sexual Content  

• After cheering for him at a soccer game, Jordyn and Zay kiss. Jordyn describes the event, “I’m leaning in, closing my eyes, pressing my lips against his. Our mouths are warm, but he somehow tastes minty and cool, and I immediately want more. When I grab for his shirt to pull him closer, I can feel him smiling without breaking contact, which makes me smile too, our joy as brilliant as the light that was just all around us and exploding within this unexpected kiss. My arms float up and I cup the back of his head. He grips my hip, almost lifting me into his lap.” The scene ends without further description of the kiss.  

• After this, all other sexual content in this book is limited to one sentence-descriptions of kissing. Jordyn and Zay kiss a couple of times, but the description is light. For example, during their date, Jordyn goes “up on [her] tiptoes to kiss Zay in the middle of the mess [they] made together.” As Zay tells Jordyn about his ex, he mentions that he “just kissed her.”  

Violence  

• In a flashback, Jordyn remembers being a bystander to bullying at her old school. Her former friends, Elise, Yasmine, and Lilly, would bully a girl named Aubrey. “When Aubrey opened the door of her stall to attempt an escape, Lilly tossed more than half [a] container [of makeup] in her direction. The tawny powder caked Aubrey’s thin hair, face, and white collared top instantly, sticking thanks to the water, making her look like she’d just been unearthed, dug up like a fossil; probably ruining her uniform for good. Elise smiled maliciously.” 

• In another flashback, after Jordyn and her former friends find out about Aubrey’s attempted suicide, Jordyn responds to Elise, who blames Jordyn for the entire thing. Jordyn points out that it was mostly Elise’s fault, and things get physical. “So, [Jordyn] grabbed [Elise’s] wrist, just to get her to turn around and see that [Jordyn] wasn’t going to let [Elise] get away with lying. But as soon as [Jordyn] touched her, [Elise] flipped out, shook [Jordyn] off, and pushed [Jordyn], hard. And [Jordyn] fell backward into the door. The handle dug into [Jordyn’s] back, and it hurt like hell. When [Jordyn] recovered, [she] punched [Elise] right in the face. Gave [Elise] a black eye.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• The podcast, Tomcat Tea, spread a rumor about Zay. “Word on the street is that Zay is using performance-enhancing drugs, among others as well.” The rumor is false, but this sparks a conversation about drugs and drug testing.  

• Under extreme stress, Jordyn confesses to her aunt that being a bystander to bullying made her partially responsible for a girl’s suicide attempt. When Jordyn found out about the attempt, “[my former friends and I] were all crowded into Principal Valentine’s office, just standing there, and Dean Murphy just said it so casually. He’s like, ‘Aubrey Day was found unconscious in her room last night. She’d taken an entire bottle of her mother’s painkillers. She’d written a note.’” Aubrey survived, and there is no further mention of pills.  

Language    

• Language includes frequent profanity such as hell, damn, and asshole. 

Supernatural  

• None 

Spiritual Content  

• None 

by Kate Schuyler