I've made a resolution in 2016 to read books that are on the banned/challenged list, and I expect FIRSTS will make that list in the near future. It features a supremely unlikeable MC, Mercedes, a high school senior who is spending her un-chaperoned nights sexually-educating the clueless virgins of her high school. 
 Yep. Guys nervous about your first time with your girlfriend? Call Mercedes. On the super-down-low, though, as you wouldn't want your actual girlfriend to find out you had a one-nighter with another girl. 
 Okay--so THIS BOOK has a trainwreck plot. Mercedes is a smart girl, awaiting her MIT acceptance, with a wealthy father she hasn't seen in three years and a Cali socialite mother whose longest relationship has been with her plastic surgeon. Kim, as Mercedes calls her mom, is despicably clueless and emotionally abusive. Mercedes has been wholly shamed into strict diets and couture life, with little to no parental affection. I know, I know...poor little rich girl. Still, the absence of parenting leaves Mercedes vulnerable to predation when she's young--and her own first time was little more than acquaintance rape by a manipulative older boy when she was thirteen. 
 And, Mercedes doesn't want the fumbling firsts for other girls. She's sure her "good deeds" will be of benefit, but she's rapidly sucked into some rotten scenarios under the misapprehension of control. Mercedes thinks basically anonymous sex will protect her from the hurt/pain of connection with another human. Also, she thinks setting the mood and being in her own sanctuary--her boudoir--will provide control to a situation that is fraught with intimate danger. All of these fallacies become plain to Mercedes as the story goes on. (As the train builds steam going around that blind curve...) 
 Boys talk. They do. They find a way to use her "service" to their own end, and Mercedes falls into a shame spiral. That's nothing compared to the shock and EEW of finding herself on the bad end of a one-sided fascination from her best-friend Angela's virgin boyfriend, Charlie. 
 Mercedes has few friends. She admits to being bad with people. Really bad. She has excluded herself from the regular company of god-bothering Angela, because Angela's all about "saving herself" and Mercedes has (essentially) been "ruined" since 8th grade. And, the virgin thing started at the beginning of senior year--so their friendship has become more strained. As more and more boys fill up Mercedes' log book, Mercedes finds herself more estranged, and seeking further validation. She sets up a regular sex date with her lab partner, Zach, who is a remarkably open-minded guy. 
 Zach is a great guy, really, and only wants to date Mercedes. He loves her, and is thwarted from telling her, well, by Mercedes who doesn't want that closeness. New girl Faye also turns Mercedes' head. There's an open flirtation there, and it looks like Faye and Mercedes might hit it off, but Charlie's lurking in the background and doing really REALLY nasty (and illegal) things to ensure his place in Mercedes' bed--all without Angela finding out. 
 Expect there to be video fall out. Expect there to be slut-shaming and fighting and angry girlfriends and electronic humiliation and public airing of a pseudo-sex tape. All while NOT ONE ADULT is the wiser. (That sound you heard? That was a a big huh? from me.) 
 What I liked about this book: 
 1. The "Life Goes On" message. Mercedes is called to account and harassed, assaulted and nearly raped a second time. Her closest friends stick by her side. They go above and beyond the pale to help cast Mercedes' deeds into Yesterday's News. 
 2. Mercedes learns that her value exists in herself, and that friendship is a valuable endeavor. Mercedes doesn't believe herself worthy of love or affection--and finds it hard to accept those overtures, from anyone. At first. 
 3. There are no easy resolutions in life. When you upset people, you have to bear the results of that--not regarding the episodes of assault on school property, however. That shoulda been nipped in the bud by administration. And the Sharpie attacks on her locker would have been painted over by my kids' schools toot-sweet--not left to languish in all their slur-ry glory... 
 4. Realistic, if crappy, response to Mercedes' shenanigans. I'm not a fan of slut-shaming, but this book is actually designed to take on slut-shaming, by being sorta sex positive. So one must endure the firestorm of hate to "endure" it, in Mercedes' life. 
 Stuff that made me set the book down for a bit: 
 1. Trainwreck plot. As a mature woman, I have perspective that Mercedes lacks. I knew her little enterprise would become public knowledge from the outset. When it all got to be TOO much--especially Charlie's overtures--I needed to take a break. It's no fun turning every page and wanting to smack the narrator twice. 
 2. Lack of punishment for Mercedes' attackers, be they physical or sexual. I had a hard time believing that Charlie's "punishment" was being outed as a jackass who spilled the beans.What he actually did was criminal, and should have resulted in some legal repercussions. The hallway tormentors also got off with no notice. In what world, I wondered. 
 3. The double-standard of girl versus boy "promiscuity" was only barely scratched at. 
 No one is going to find Mercedes or her actions likable. She doesn't particularly like herself very much, for reasons other than her sexual activity. I believe, however, that some readers will find her sympathetic. Back in my younger days, we had the "Jerry Springer" standard for decency. If your actions didn't get you called in as a "guest star" on the seedy Jerry Springer Show, then you were still "decent." Mercedes has a distinct "Jerry Springer" vibe, which makes sense. 
 All the best trainwrecks appeared on that show. 
 That said, the book is interesting as a study in moral contrasts and contemporary puritinism. FIRSTS is clearly going to a challenged book for the very fact that kids haz sex, and not just a little bit, in this book. Don't hope for fade-to-black, everything plays out in cringe-worthy living color. 
 I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley.