Margot Mertz Takes It Down

Margot Mertz Takes It Down

YA fiction
"Over the past two years, I had sat across from teachers,
students, parents, and one time a state legislator. I listened to the
details of their affairs, their embarrassing tweets, their shameful
videos--and then I'd make it all go away. That was the job. For the
right fee, I would go to the ends of the internet to clean up their
mistakes."
Margot, narrator of Carrie McCrossen and Ian McWethy's Margot
Mertz Takes It Down, has had her heart set on Stanford since she was
eight. Her parents had promised to pay for it. Only when the
investment they had planned to use for tuition tanked they let her
know she was on her own as far as higher education.
Many high school students would have gone a more traditional
route. Working at a restaurant or other local business after
school. Creating a portfolio of extracurricular activities and
volunteering. Only Margot, with the help of computer nerd Sammi,
created a business: Mertz Cleans Your Filth, LLC.
Up til now Margot's clients have been people needing to get
embarassing and/or possibly incriminating evidence erased from the
virtual world. But one day her work gets personal. Shannon, a new
client, has had pictures she sexted to a date posted to a revenge porn
site: Roosevelt (the name of their high school) Bitches. She had
learned about this when someone sent her the link. Twenty girls are
being exploited.
This has Margot furious.
"...Seeing all these smart, capable, amazing women who had been
turned into unwitting sex objects. Girls in my homeroom. Girls who
did the morning announcements. Girls I did Girl Scouts with (a
lifetime ago). Not girls, young women. Human beings..."
Only this case is going to be more challenging and involve more
subterfuge than any Margot has ever before taken on. And she's going
to discover some inconvenient truths along the way.
Damaging misuse of shall we say intimate pictures has been a
major problem for teens since sexting became a thing. And adults
shouldn't be all, OMG! horrified. Certain areas of the brain,
including those involved in mature judgement and emotion regulation,
don't come fully online until about 25. Rather that being
judgemental, we should work on education and prevention strategies.
Getting this excellent book into the hands of more YA readers is a
very good step to take.
Coauthors McCrossen and McWethy are married IRL. They say that
thanks to a good couples therapist the venture didn't destroy their
marriage. That's a damn good thing, not only for them, but for all
the readers who are eager to see what they come up with next.
On a purrrsonal note, after days of perfect weather the rain has come
on Maine Day. It's a school tradition that has been celebrated since
1935--a morning of service projects capped off with a barbeque and
outdoor activities. So rain is a complication. Luckily there is a
plan B for moving everything possible indoors. I'm not sure about
oozeball. It's volleyball played over a mud pit. Contestants end up
looking like extras from a grade B 1950s slime creature movie. (Jules)
Rain, rain, go away! Let the birdies come and play. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to all Maine Day participants.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



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