Infographic and Book Review: The Party by Robyn Harding

One sentence summary of The Party:
A horrible accident at Hannah’s sweet sixteen party threatens a family’s cushy but stale lifestyle.

Hannah’s a social climber and her party might be her ticket to the big leagues.

She’s not exactly an outcast, but she’s a good girl. She gets good grades, has nice friends. She wants to break out.

So the pressure is on to make her sweet-sixteen party fun. A popular girl will be coming to the sleepover, so Hannah needs to hold the sweet and deliver some illicit teen vices. Boys. Booze. Bud.

What could go wrong? Well, a lot. Something bad happens, and it creates a mushroom cloud of havoc that takes down a lot of people.

There’s an old adage that in order to fix something, you sometimes must first let it break.

That adage does not hold true here.

The bad things happen like a line of dominoes. One triggers the next, triggers the next, triggers the next. All it takes is a tap and they all fall down.

The Party delves into that fraught world of teenagerdom, looking at the fragile social order and cutthroat ways some will try to get ahead. It’s like a caste system; with teen royalty, their ladies in waiting, and then all of the little people.

And the adults aren’t much better. We see characters in The Party who are almost ravenous in their pursuit of Hannah’s pretty, poised mother from her throne.

Social dynamics are hard, especially in the encapsulated teen world. Here’s an infographic with three books (including The Party) that go deep into the dark corners, where teen royalty is like an episode of Game of Thrones.

Important distinction: these books are about teens, but not for them.

Infographic: 3 books that look at savage teen social climbing.

• The Party by Robyn Harding
• The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson
• Dare Me by Megan Abbott