The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Swinarski, Claire. What Happened to Rachel Riley? Quill Tree Books, 2023. Kindle Edition.

What Happened to Rachel Riley? is Claire Swinarski’s middle grade novel about sexual harassment in middle school. The book is set in Madison, Wisconsin and centers around Anna Hunt, an eighth grader, and her attempts to make her way in her new middle school. Anna is an inquisitive and intense girl, and this sometimes sets her apart from the rest of the students. Throughout the novel she attempts to make new friends, solve a mystery at her school, and fight for those who need defending. By the end of the novel, she comes to a clearer understanding of what her role is when faced with injustice.

As the novel starts, Anna has started school at East Middle School. She is very observant of other students’ nonverbal cues, and she is intrigued when she notices that she, a new girl with no friends, gets applause when her birthday is announced, but Rachel Riley, another student, gets completely ignored. One of her teachers, Mrs. O’Dell, gives the class an assignment to examine a social issue of their own choosing. Anna decides that she wants to learn what happened with Rachel Riley. Her teacher does not approve of a project centered around another student’s popularity, but Anna decides to still try to solve the mystery as part of a podcast she is producing for an application to a podcasting program at Northwestern University.

Most of the students at the school are friendly to Anna. She befriends a girl named Bee Becker early on, and another girl named Jordan is also friendly with her. None of the girls want to answer Anna’s questions about Rachel, and they initially refuse to give her any information. They get annoyed that Anna is always asking questions and will not just let them relax and enjoy themselves.

Eventually Anna learns that in seventh grade, the boys in the class started to slap the girls on the butt. Different girls were worth a different number of points. Rachel was worth a lot because she would always get upset, and Jordan was worth a lot because she would always laugh it off. They boys tried to get another boy named Cody involved, and when he would not slap the girls’ butts, the boys taunted him and started to call him gay. He eventually created a website keeping tally of all the boys’ points as a way to fit in. In this competition, the winner would get to kiss Jordan just before she was supposed to win the award for being the nicest girl at the Spring Fling.

Jessica knew about this, and she wanted to stop it. In order to do so, she snuck into the barn where the Fling was to be held to switch out the names of the winners so someone else would win and she could avoid getting kissed. The barn was dark, however, and she had to light a lantern. Rachel met Jessica at the barn, and Jessica accused Rachel of being jealous that the boys wanted to kiss her. Jessica then accidentally knocked over the lantern and the barn burned down. Rachel knows that Jordan could not handle everyone hating her, so Rachel told Jordan to leave, and Rachel took the fall for it all. Everyone thought that Rachel burned the barn down because she was angry about the game, and the whole school ostracized her. Students do not want to give Anna this information, and it takes her most of the novel to piece this history together.

One day, in eighth grade, the boys start up a new game where they snap the girls’ bras. At the winter dance, Rachel goes up to the microphone and publicly calls the names of boys who are harassing the girls and tells them she will dox the next boy who snaps a girl’s bra strap. Chaos ensues, and Anna pours punch over a boy’s head. The principal thinks it was inappropriate of Rachel to call out the boys by name publicly, and Rachel is expected to write an apology letter. She is suspended when she refuses to do so. In the hallway, Trevor snaps Anna’s bra strap, and when she asks him not to do it again, he demeans her by telling her that she is not worth very many points anyway. She goes to the bathroom and cries.

Eventually the guidance counselor is made aware of the situation at the school. The administrators call a meeting for the eighth graders. All of the girls are allowed to speak and say how they feel, and then the boys are allowed to respond if they want to. A new sexual harassment policy is put into place. In January at a basketball game, Anna sees Trevor snap Malika’s bra, but then she sees Riz and Malika call Riz out. Riz appears to apologize, and this gives Anna some hope that change can occur.