Well.... This was a rather disgusting book. To be fair, when you pick up a book where the main character is a pedophilic school teacher specifically looking for new 8th grade students to have sex with... yeah. Gonna be disgusting. This was explicit to the point that if you narrated porn you'd probably be less graphic than some of the scenes in this book. 
 Spoiler warning, by the way. Although I don't feel that this book is particularly the kind that has an ending that is ruined if you know it before hand, for me to discuss the overarching point of the book, I am going to need to talk about the ending, or at least part of it. Short non spoilery version: the author (in my opinion) seems to want to point out the different ways sexual abusers are treated depending on the gender of the aggressors. It specifically shows how women abusing male minors is seen as a positive for the minor and not as abuse, when that shouldn't be the case. 
 Now, onto the longer more spoilery review. (oh sidenote, the designer in me needs to comment on how brilliant the cover is. WHOEVER DESIGNED THAT I WANT TO SHAKE YOUR HAND, SIR OR MADAM.) 
 As mentioned, the subject matter is revolting, but that's the point the author seems to be trying to make. When it comes to teachers sexually preying on their underage students, we rarely see the perspective of the female teacher seducing teenage boys and when it does happen within society, there's less moral outcry than when the victim is a girl. The book LITERALLY says at one point "I'm not sure any teenage boy would call a sexual experience with [Celeste the main character] as abuse" and means that as a condemnation of society and how they treat victims of sexual abuse. From a cultural perspective, what Celeste is doing might not seem as abusive or traumatic than when the genders are flipped, but the book places us directly inside Celeste's head, and let me tell you, it is not an enjoyable place to be. We see exactly how manipulative and twisted Celeste is, see what lengths she is willing to go in order to be sexually gratified. She preys upon her students in a quite literal sense, scouring through the rosters looking for prepubescent boys who are innocent enough to not brag to other students yet outgoing enough to accept her advances when she makes them. Each day is just another opportunity for her to wage a mental war on her victim. And yet, she is not seen as an abuser by most of society when she gets caught with two of her students. Some people are disgusted, yes, but you see and hear a lot of rhetoric being thrown around about how her victims benefitted from her abuse. How they're lucky to have been with her because she's so attractive. That any red blooded teenage boy would be begging his hot teacher to have sex with him. Regardless of her victim's libido driven desires, they were manipulated and controlled by Celeste so that she could get the gratification that she wanted, nothing else. They were not in the position emotionally, mentally, maturity wise to be an equal participant in their relationship and the book shows this in no uncertain terms. Celeste is horrible to the point of almost parody and in the end she isn't reviled the way a male pedophile would be. She gains sympathy on trial by using the "too pretty for prison" argument. Let me break that down a bit. Celeste, a woman who had sex with her fourteen year old students throughout the school year, lying to them and their parents and emotionally blackmailing the teens into never telling anyone of what was happening, garners sympathy from society because they are worried her good looks will make her a target of abuse in prison. Let's reverse the genders and try to imagine a world where this would happen: a male teacher has sex with fourteen year old girls throughout the year and tries to argue that he shouldn't go to prison because he's too handsome and the other inmates will abuse him. People would be saying "good riddance" to him! Instead with Celeste, there is genuine concern, arguably more concern than what's given to the mental state of her victims. 
 The author said in an interview that this story was inspired by a former classmate turned teacher getting arrested for having sex with her students and getting a much more lenient sentence due to her attractiveness and gender. I have no difficulty believing this. The events of Tampa might be exaggerated to further illustrate the author's point, but the reaction to Celeste and her crimes is still based in the reality we face today: attractive female teachers having sex with their male students is seen as a positive in the minor's life, when it really should be seen for what it is: abuse.