This was a super fun read that explores themes of ethical journalism, politics, and how we consume information in the modern era.

I was hooked the second the book started getting into Cat's and Angeline's respective passions of journalism and YouTubing. At first, they seem to be pretty different mediums, but as the story goes on we get an exploration of how both newspapers and YouTube videos can be used to spread information -- for better and for worse. This also parallels how Cat and Angeline clash at first, but learn that they have more in common than they think by the end of the story. I thought it was a great way to explore sisterhood through an interesting lens!

The writing style jumped around a little too much for my taste, but overall I found this to be an engaging story that made me think. It was also a pretty cathartic way of dealing with the stress over the real election :P

How did I not know what I was getting into when I started this book? This was so much fun! Sources Say from Lori Goldstein was a very current and relevant look into the inner workings of a political debate and the he said she said ridiculousness that can occur, but on a high school level. And what better time to have this kind of book front and center than right now?


Through a handful of interesting people, we get the story of the big StuCo election of Acedia High, a charter school outside of Boston. The student body has NEVER cared about Student Council before now, but when the school’s golden couple battle against each other for Student Body President, things get real!


Cat is passionately following in her grandfather’s journalist footsteps, working for the student run newspaper and trying to amp up her Northwestern application by winning the coveted Fit to Print award. Meanwhile, her sister Angeline is a rising star of her own Youtube channel focusing on self care and beauty products. Running for President is the only way their mom will allow her to join a coveted Evelyn’s Epic Everyday Boot Camp, something that would secure her stardom in the YouTube world.

Due to events occurring at a big party before the school year starts, Angeline and her longtime boyfriend Leo breakup. Now, Angeline and Leo are running against each other in the battle for Student Body President and things go absolutely crazy! While some of the craziness that ensues is a result of the two of them finding their platform and gunning it, some serious and relevant issues are brought to light.

While Cat is responsible for reporting the election for their school’s Red and Blue paper, a new online news source calling themselves The Shrieking Violet, continues to anonymously report some seriously defamatory news blasts about her sister, Angeline.

Who is in the right and who is in the wrong? Will relationships ever be able to mend after the battles of this election? This was such a great book and it totally left me guessing until the end.

”You want to stand out, stand the eff up and do what you’re always saying: Bring it.”

Sources Say is a cheeky YA contemporary take on the current political climate in America and the chaos that takes place during election years. Student Council elections at Acedia Charter School are usually the least important thing on the student bodies mind. (Which is funny to me because in reality it seems like today’s teens are way more conscious about politics than even the adults I graduated with are now.) Throw in a new government teacher who makes it exciting and the fact that this year two of the schools most popular seniors are throwing their hats in the ring for President, and let’s just say Acedia is on the next level of political excitement. Of course both president hopefuls are running with their own personal motivations in mind, and less about actually helping the school. The school that is in desperate need for some change concerning the fair treatment of its students. Did I also mention those two students are recent exes?

Sources Say does a good job using the ecosystem of a high school to cover the dueling extremes of the two-party system, the differences between honest news and falsely propagated “news”, and the navigation of relationships that are platonic, romantic, and familial. The story is told through the eyes of two sisters who don’t quite see eye to eye. Cat is a bit of a loner who is highly focused on the school paper, and her dreams of going to Northwestern. Angeline is a popular Vlogger, and is using the election to gain her way into a vlogger boot camp, so that her channel and reach will only get bigger. Both of these characters are affected by the election in different ways, and it also has impacts on their relationship/s that I don’t think either of them saw when the whole thing started.

All in all this is a good read if you want to read about politics in a lighter way, and enjoy subtle coming of age and life lessons. I enjoyed the relationship growth and change between Cat and Angeline, and how they sort of learn about themselves over the course of the election. The fact that it felt like the author was definitely poking fun at the way politics and the media surrounding it work was also pretty amazing. At this point it’s all a bit grim, so we may as well find some small way to laugh about it while we fight to change it. Definitely pick this one up if you need something light involving high school politics.

Sources Say

4 stars

Initially, I struggled to get into this one because, although the main characters are teens, I felt the writing style was a bit more mature to connect with. It kind of felt like I was reading an adult book and not a YA contemporary which left me confused and not sure where the preface of the novel would come in. I also really struggled to like both our main female leads. Sisters who couldn’t be more different who both disregarded affection for the other and were pushing their own wants while still wanting to prove to the other they were better. It was an interesting concept to read but not one I could connect to. This, of course. is a personal partiality.

However, as the story progressed, I was enlightened by how the characters developed along with many of the concepts introduced in the novel. I think the author’s focus of showing the way female students are treated in comparison to male students in a way that not only allowed for the main characters to grow and develop but also opened up the eyes of the reader to what is similarly happening in reality is a captivating standpoint. I also think the author did a phenomenal job of showcasing political viewpoints and the importance of voting for change through a school election while also showing the way media can corrupt a person’s image through spreading lies and propaganda. Overall, I think a lot of readers, whether old or young, regardless of gender would benefit greatly to the topics portrayed in the novel.

I also enjoyed the formatting of the novel, I thought adding in social media references/posts along with comments of differing views and standpoints added a lot more to the overall message and tone of the book that made it hit a lot closer to home. And I really, really loved it. I think it showed great character development, had some amazing plot points and topics that can be educational and beneficial for many young readers today, so much so I wish that this novel had been published when I was in high school. It would’ve made me think a lot about the world around me.

There wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t wholly invested and curious how the election would play out and intrigued by where the characters would be by the end of the novel. But as I stated before, I do think the writing is a bit more mature for a book geared toward young adults and there was a lot going on that could’ve been a bit more fleshed out but other than that truly a phenomenal read and definitely one I recommend.

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the set up of this book with parts of Cat's article about the election interspersed throughout the book. The Shrieking Violet articles were also hilarious and I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the clickbait articles versus Cat's more traditional newspaper. I liked starting the book with Angeline and Leo post-break-up and needing to work through their feelings for each other in the wake of their big fight. I also liked how well Angeline and Cat's relationship contrasted with Leo and Sammy's. The ideas of the book were good however, I really didn't connect to any of the characters and that's really what makes or breaks a book for me. There was nothing about the characters that stood out for me. The "villains" of the book are obvious as are all the plot beats.

That said I really like the writing style and there were some lines that just made me pause and sit back. A favorite of mine, "You may be sick of being roadkill, but the truth is, only one of those tire treads belongs to me." The snappy lines and humor really saved this book for me. There was also some good discussion around gender discrimination and performative activism. This wasn't the best book I've read this year but it was by far not the worst.

Sources Say by Lori Goldstein follows two sisters, Angie and Cat, close in age with a relationship that is strained at best. The two couldn’t be more different, social butterfly and YouTube influencer Ang is everything Cat isn’t. Cat writes for the school paper and is more of the loner type. There’s a lot of topics at play in the book. Ang and her long-time boyfriend Leo have broken up and are now competing for Student Council President, keeping their peers entertained as they each stoop to new lows to win. Cat has her own difficulties when the anonymously written paper The Shrieking Violet causes some drama in her life and makes her question her own ethics, giving new meaning to the phrase fake news.

While this is a young adult high school book, it isn’t without some good life lessons and character growth. Each character is flawed and makes mistakes but the author focuses on owning the mistake and learning from them. A fun book to read but still has some weighty issues making it an engaging story.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers and Lori Goldstein for gifting me a DRC of Sources Say in exchange for my honest review.

SOURCES SAY is a story following two sisters who get caught up in their school’s student election, which leads to more recognition than they ever could have anticipated. Angeline & Cat aren’t twins, but they’re so close in age that they’ve always been kind of lumped together, despite the fact they don’t spend lots of time together and kind of resent one another. This dynamic between not-so-close sisters was really interesting to see play out throughout the course of the book. They are so different—Angeline is an upcoming YouTube influencer with lots of friends, and Cat is an aspiring journalist who is more of a loner. Seeing both of their perspectives throughout the book helped the reader understand where their neutrality toward the other comes from, and also shows the evolution of their relationship over the course of the book. I also really enjoyed seeing the politics play out on the page. The battling school newspapers added a lot to the story and was a scaled-down version of what we experience in real-world politics. I did think that the way the election blew up nationally in the book was unrealistic and I didn’t love that this extreme measure was taken. I also thought that some of the contributing factors to making the election blow up were outlandish and confusing; there was a lot going on that added to the fame of the event and was overall too much, in my opinion. In general, I thought the book covered a lot of topics that weren’t all done justice, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would if the book had been more concise. Overall though, this was an interesting story following an election and a scaled-down political event, perfect for the upcoming election.

This was a really funny YA novel about school politics and family. I loved the exes battling over student council! My favorite part of the story was the sibling relationships and how they were portrayed. They fought and they hurt each other. However, they protected one another and stood up for their siblings. I appreciated that we saw more than just a romance in this story. Overall, this was a cute book and a light summer read.

Rating: 4/5

This book took me entirely by surprise. Two exes, one election, and one crazy horrible school prank, it just sounds like an amazing book. It didn't surprise me by the quality of the story, but by the focus on the relationships throughout the novel. Cat and Angeline have what might be considered a strained relationship. I absolutely loved seeing how this election shaped them and how they saw each other. Not to mention, this book did not pull any punches when it came to mistakes. Each and every character is shown messing up in some way, but the focus is not in how they messed up, but what they did to change and fix it, which I believe to be an incredibly important lesson. I honestly adored this book, and absolutely can't wait for it to come out so I can grab myself a physical copy.