These links show the original reading lists. Inclusion is not a guarantee of suitability for your child.
Natasha Preston - Author
This offers a tense exploration of privacy, online performance and trust, with Connie’s perspective giving the social-media issues emotional focus. It also delivers a substantial murder-and-attack thriller, rather than a gentle discussion of digital life.
family vloggingconsentsocial mediaprivacytruststalking fearsboundariesdecision-makingonline attentionsafetypublic identityfamily responsibility
Fiction
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Themes in Context
Privacy and online exposure
Connie’s mother shares family life for followers, while Connie increasingly resents exposure, comments and the publication of personal details.CriticalCritical: the book challenges or disapproves of this theme.Critical: the book challenges or disapproves of this theme.
How the book presents it: The story strongly questions whether attention, money and audience engagement justify overriding a young person’s privacy and safety.
Talk about: Does the book give enough space to Connie’s lack of control, and how does it treat the family’s competing views about the vlog?
Trust and safety
Connie receives unsettling online attention and struggles to judge whether people, sightings and explanations are safe or threatening.AmbiguousAmbiguous: the book leaves its position open to more than one reasonable reading.Ambiguous: the book leaves its position open to more than one reasonable reading.
How the book presents it: The thriller uses uncertainty about whom to trust, while showing that Connie’s responses can be brave yet reckless and that reassurance does not automatically remove her fear.
Talk about: If warnings are dismissed or minimised, how does Connie decide what action is proportionate?
Social media and responsibility
The family’s online success affects routines, relationships and safety, while Connie questions whether financial or social rewards make the exposure worthwhile.CriticalCritical: the book challenges or disapproves of this theme.Critical: the book challenges or disapproves of this theme.
How the book presents it: The book presents online success as unable to repair the emotional costs of lost privacy, and connects audience-building with responsibilities towards those being filmed.
Talk about: What responsibilities should a family have before sharing another person’s life publicly, especially when that person objects?
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Why It May Be Worth Reading
It may prompt useful conversations about consent, family boundaries, attention-seeking online and whether popularity or income justifies exposing others. The book presents these questions through relationships that do not always offer Connie dependable support.
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What Deserves Attention
Before choosing it, consider whether the reader is comfortable with repeated threats, stalking fears, four teen deaths, head injuries, an injured girl, mild profanity, teenage drinking and relationship secrecy.
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A Conversation Worth Having
How does Connie decide whom to trust when adults, friends and online strangers respond differently to her concerns? Does the story distinguish sensible caution from fear that has begun to control her choices?
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Reading Approach
Read alongside a calm check-in about online privacy and personal boundaries, not immediately after frightening scenes if those linger. Agree that the reader can pause, discuss troubling moments or stop without needing to finish.
Confidence & Basis
Theme indicators describe how the book presents a topic; they are not a verdict on the whole book or your family's values. Confidence reflects how much book-specific material was checked. Only part of the book information was available, so some details remain unconfirmed.
What remains unconfirmed
Privacy and online exposure: Some details of this treatment remain unclear.
Trust and safety: Some details of this treatment remain unclear.
Social media and responsibility: Some details of this treatment remain unclear.
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