She's Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard (review)

When photographer Veronica and athlete Mick meet at a party, there's instant attraction, and Veronica tricks camera-fearing Mick into having her picture taken. As the picture goes viral on Instagram, Mick gets kicked out of her home by her model mother, with whom she refused to do a photo shoot that could have made their rent money. Meanwhile, Veronica's chaotic friend Nico drags Mick deeper and deeper into his environmental art installations that are rapidly increasing their body counts—and budding couple Veronica and Mick may not make it out alive. This thriller is expertly paced, with Heard starting out slow to introduce her flawed, complex teen protagonists and later escalating events into a page-turning crescendo. Dramatic irony is utilized well here in the alternating perspectives of Mick and Veronica to maintain suspense, and readers really won't know what's going on or who'll make it out alive until the end. With the already intriguing premise of a lesbian thriller that takes inspiration from Portrait of Dorian Gray in its focus on a single picture's effect (if not the theme of aging), Heard follows through on the promises this concept offers while deftly integrating social media and a thriller plot with creepy, well-executed twists.