Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed Reviews

• 
  Toni

  Wow. A very complex story to tell and I thought the author did a good job of showing everyone’s perspective. So many twisting threads to pick through and unravel. I felt like I could really understand each persons point of view and understand the tremendous impact events had on their lives.
• 
  Morgan

  I received this book from NetGalley for review.
  
  There is so much about this book that’s great, but in my opinion there is also a lot of fluff. I really loved the aspect of reading the perspectives of everyone involved, and it was very clear this author thoroughly researched all sides of this issue. It was very nuanced and unbiased as it shared the thoughts and experiences of people on both sides of this incident, those who created and interacted with the account, and those who were targeted.
  
  Eventually I did get to a point in reading where I felt like there was nothing else that could be said about this incident, but it just kept going. There were such minute details that sometimes were not at all necessary to understand the author’s points. It took so long to get to the resolution of the book that even though this was a very interesting topic, I got bored. There was great scientific information, but it felt clouded by unimportant dialogue and anecdotes.
  
  I liked the idea of the poems and writing pieces in between chapters of information- but it was never made clear if these were creative pieces added by the author, or actual pieces written by the people involved.
• 
  Marisa Pierucci

  Wow---what an incredibly powerful book. If I were a high school teacher or parent of a high schooler, I would assign this book as soon as it's published. I don't remember hearing about this story when it first broke, but it's a power testament to how hate can be so easily spread and quickly take over while wrecking so many young lives in the process. It is written in a very easy to read format with short chapters that are perfect for teenagers who are easily distracted. I just can't say enough about what a powerful book this is. Most adults would benefit from reading this too. It's so easy to be a keyboard warrior nowadays and kids especially don't release that what they post even when they think it is private can and does have real world consequences.
• 
  Staci Vought

  4.75, rounded up. This book was very comprehensive and powerful. The ideas presented were deeply developed, and care was taken to represent ALL of the feelings and affects for all parties involved. It made me think, moved me to look up information on my own when I was done reading, and challenged some perspectives I previously had. It goes way beyond examining race, and looks at punishment, mob mentality, the power of words, the teenage psyche, and more. It was a little longer than it needed to be, but I appreciated the short bursts as opposed to long chapters. Anyone who engages with this book will be challenged in their thinking.
• 
  Jenna

  Accountable by Dashka Slater is a non-fiction account of the aftermath of a racist Instagram account created by a high school student.
  
  The account creator made posts on this private account that targeted classmates and teachers. Some of these posts included references to nooses, the KKK, lynchings, and gorillas. The creator, as well as its 14 followers, were disciplined by the school district once these posts were discovered.
  
  The discipline caused an uproar from students, parents, and community members. Part of which was a sit in organized by students. The account followers were brought in, while the students in the school protested. In some cases, not so peacefully.
  
  The author does a fabulous job of telling both sides of the story. She tells the perspective of the creator, as well as the people who were referenced in those posts, the victims. As one can imagine, this wasn’t something that disappeared. It followed these people for a long time and I’m sure it will continue to follow them for the rest of their life.
  
  As a teacher, I find that young people sometimes have a hard time grasping the permanence to some of their actions. In this case, the creator realized that he was in the wrong. However, he also blamed part of it on being 16 and stupid. I think this is a great example to our youth to show them that their actions do matter. Whether they start the issue or follow it. With today’s social media, it’s so easy to witness hate and do nothing about it. It’s easy to say hateful things without having to physically face the person you’re being hateful towards. I hope this book teaches some of our youth the consequences of social media.
  
  I do also enjoy the format of this book. The perspectives are constantly switching and the chapters are SHORT. For young readers, I believe this makes the book interesting and puts it into digestible pieces. It’s certainly a book I’ll recommend to some of my higher level readers.
  
  Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review. All in all, this was well told story.
• 
  Lara Cowell

  Author of the acclaimed The 57 Bus, Dashka Slater has produced a powerfully thought-provoking non-fiction narrative: Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed. The story begins in 2017, when a racist Instagram account is started by Charles, a Korean-American high-schooler, presumably in fun, and gains followers. However, when the account is eventually exposed, the ensuing toxicity rocks the town of Albany, California, fracturing long-standing friend groups, traumatizing those who were victimized, and raising the titular question of how the perpetrators – the founder of the account, the commenters, and the passive followers – ought to be disciplined and held accountable for their actions, also how to justly address the harms done to the innocent. While the book has places where the pacing lags, also some confusing sections where it’s unclear whose perspective or story is being relayed, Slater nevertheless presents a cast of care-aboutable, complex adolescents who resist being reduced to clear-cut perpetrators and victims, and also frames this case in its larger social context, where we regularly tussle with questions regarding social media content, privilege, race, hate speech, trauma, and how to deal with crimes committed by juveniles. Rather than judging those involved or seeing them in clear-cut, black and white terms, readers will want to read the characters’ stories, know their histories, and weigh the nuances of this extremely difficult situation. Rendering justice presents a knotty dilemma, and Slater masterfully highlights the difficulties in doing so.
• 
  Claire

  This is the second book by Dashka Slater, the author of THE 57 BUS. I really liked that book, so I was eager to check out her next narrative nonfiction. Unfortunately this one did not live up to its predecessor, although there were still parts I liked.
  
  THE GOOD
  - The chapters are short and easy to read. (The subject matter isn't "easy," but the language is simple and accessible.)
  - The author makes an effort to interview tons of people and present everyone's side of the argument.
  - There's a lot of research about race and racism that explains it very well.
  - It's very in-depth.
  
  THE NOT AS GOOD
  - The book did not need to be 500 pages. I think it should have been 350-400 pages. There is excessive detail in parts.
  - There are occasional poems in between the nonfiction parts that I found to be out of place in a nonfiction book. Did the author write these herself? It's unclear. (There was a poem by one of the victims that I thought was good to include, but I'm talking about the random other poems.)
  
  I recommend this book if you are interested in the case presented, otherwise you might get bored by the excessive detail. I definitely recommend Slater's first book over this one, but there was still a lot of positive here.
  
  Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Diane Adams

  Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for an electronic ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.
  
  I knew from the title that this was going to be a true story, but I did not realize it would go into so much depth covering all sides of the story. This was really an impressive feat of journalism.
  
  The boys who were involved with the material posted in social media clearly had no idea what an impact it would have, nor how quickly they could lose control of the account they thought was private.
  
  The students of color had no idea that other students whom they considered friends had the types of attitudes that were expressed, liked, and agreed with on Instagram.
  
  The book detailed what happened and, more importantly, the response to what happened and the aftermath. Other school districts who experience similar situations could learn a lot from how things were handled by the school system in the book. There is a lot of food for thought here—how well did they handle the situation? Was justice served? Who were the victims? Who benefitted more from the outcome, the victims or the perpetrators (called the “harmers” in the book).
  
  Every school library should have a copy of this book, and every school administrator and school board member should read it.
  
• 
  AndiReads

  ACCOUNTABLE is one of the most amazing contemporary reports on casual racism I have read to date. I am of a school employee and so many aspects of this story resonated with me. The story takes place in a small wealthy town near Berkeley California but could certainly take place anywhere. A few high school boys bonded around a meme account that highlighted many racial slurs and some of their black classmates discovered it. What happens next is a series of errors and mismanagement.
  
  Accountable reads like a thriller- the incredible reporting by Dashka Slater enables us to hear from a great many of the voices impacted as well as the perpetrators. This book is unusual in that you are able to follow the events all the way through and see the trajectory of those impacted many years later.
  
  If you are a parent, educator or ally this is a book for you. I was so struck by the stories of the young people effected by the instagram account. Many times you do not get to hear more about them as they are only cast as victims. Moreover, this is a book for allies - it is clear that there is a great difference between an upstander and a bystander. Too often adults lament that social media is the issue. I would say that these "edgy joke memes" existed and were passed on Take a day or two to read this book, you will not regret it! #MacMillan
• 
  Kristin

  Slater's previous YA nonfiction, The 57 Bus, was a masterclass in nonfiction. Fast-paced, laser-focused and gripping with educational information and personal narratives doled out in ways that make connecting the dots easy.
  
  Accountable is the exact opposite. It drags on and on and ON. Slater covers the stories of two dozen teens on both sides of the racist account until they all bleed together. The most page time is devoted to trying to understand the motivation perpetrators but, unlike the perpetrator in 57 Bus, these kids still aren't sorry and still don't get it. They keep complaining about how they shouldn't be punished their whole lives for a "mistake". The account creator even say that the victims of his racist posts deserved a payout for what he and his friends put them through, but doesn't see why that should come out of his money.
  
  And fine, this could be an attempt for the author to be as objective as possible, but coming back to them over and over across 500(!) pages as if a dead parent, depression, or having lower status in their friend group is important information, when the victims are only getting a few poems and almost no personal stories outside the scope of what was done to them, makes this an unpleasant slog.
  
• 
  Gina Malanga

  In 2017 a group of teenagers in a small community made an Instagram page, on this page they posted racist memes made using pictures of their friends, or other people in the school. These images were mean, racist and sometimes violent and when the private account was exposed none of their lives would be the same. The lives of the creators, followers and victims of this account would never be the same as their worlds were destroyed and permanently altered. As an educator reading about the choices the school, teachers and district made were difficult to understand but with the new world of social media schools often don’t have policies in place when things like this happen. It will certainly be a book I recommend to other educators as well as students. This author has become one of my favorite non-fiction writers, for both myself and my students, as her narrative nonfiction format with multiple points of view and outside documents reads like a work of fiction or a podcast.
• 
  H. Woodward

  There’s a lot here. A lot. ‘The 57 Bus’ took a big issue and narrowed the lense- made the big issue personal and real. This book does the reverse, it’s starts small and explodes into a big issue. All of it is here: social media, bullying, racism, gender, friendship, forgiveness, and the nature of justice. Some people will love this book, it will appeal to their activism. Do parents need to read this book? Yes, I’d say it’s more important for them than for their children. Can this book be excerpted and used to facilitate important classroom discussions? Absolutely! It’s well written and hugely informative. Does it instill hopefulness? I’m not so sure it does. Post reading, I feel like a wrung out washcloth: worn.
• 
  Binxie

  In 2017 in Albany, CA, a Instagram account was uncovered that displayed racial and sexual hate posts of Albany High School students. The account was created by an Albany High student. This non-fiction book examines the consequences for the victims, the creator of the account, viewers of the posts, the families, friends, school, and community that witnessed and/or played a part in the situation. Timely and unfortunately this is a situation that continues to take place with no clear resolution or understanding of how to stop the behavior.
• 
  Jenni

  Another amazing book from Dashka Slater, author of The 57 Bus. This one is the true story about a high school boy who starts a racist Instagram account and how that affects not only his life, but his friends classmates, school, and town. I read the description to my debate class because they're already arguing about who should get in trouble for "private" social media posts that end up spreading to a wider audience. This was a fast, fascinating read and will be a MUST in my classroom.
• 
  Marcia Porter

  Once again Dashka Slater takes readers on a deep dive into social issues. I vaguely remember the news when this event occurred but was unaware of, or perhaps never considered, the wide-ranging effects of the incident. I appreciated that each of those involved, from the direct to the periphery, was given the chance to express their point of view. I also appreciated the data and research that was presented. An excellent read which has given me much food for thought.
• 
  Sara B.

  From the author of The 57 Bus. Slater is a master at taking a difficult topic and humanizing all sides. In this account of racism in a Albany, New York, there are no winners, just people who make mistakes and deal with the aftermath the best they know how. Such an important book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher the the digital ARC.
• 
  Christine Piepmeier

  The true story of a racist social media account in a high school and the teenagers it affected. I thought this was really interesting and is a good story for students to be aware of. The writing style wasn’t my favorite - I thought the chapters were too short. Overall, a really interesting story!
  
  I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Patti Sabik

  Another gripping and engaging true story account of social issues impacting our communities. Thoughtful and insightful prose captivates the reader and immerses us in the emotional and physical consequences of social media.
• 
  Megan

  Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC. More detailed review to come closer to publication, but this is an eye-opening and absorbing read.
• 
  la.reads.audiobooks

  Read this book, and let's talk.
• 
  Librariann

  TEN STARS. Must read for all teens & parents. Not out until August 2023.
  
  (More detailed review when not heavily sedated with assorted cold medicines)
• 
  Brittany

  As a junior high educator, I found this text insightful and highly relevant to the lives of my students. It follows the story of high school students caught in a negative spiral of the worst social media has to offer. As I read through the book, the perspectives of the various students brought to mind specific students that I myself have taught throughout the years. Their stories had significant parallels to those that Slater was following in this book. As social media continues to take over as a controlling force in the lives of youth, this book provided a reminder about the negative consequences that can come from the content an individual chooses to post. I will be recommending the read in the future once it comes out to students, as I think it is important for them to see how social media has impacted the lives of individuals like themselves.