Maldonado, Crystal

Crystal Maldonado is an author of YA books. Her debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, is a New England Book Award winner, a Cosmopolitan Best New Book, and a POPSUGAR Best New YA Novel. She works in higher ed marketing by day and as a writer by night. Her work has been published in Latina, on BuzzFeed, and in The Hartford Courant. In No Filter and Other Lies (Holiday House), golden-haired Max Monroe has a picture-perfect existence: beauty, friends, and many followers. Except it’s all fake. “Max” is actually Kat Sanchez, a quiet and sarcastic 17-year-old living in drab Bakersfield, California. There’s nothing glamorous about her existence but she thrives as Max: doling out advice, sharing beautiful photos, networking with fans, even finding a gorgeous follower named Elena. But the closer Elena and “Max” get, the more Kat feels she has to keep up the façade. “Max” is the first time people have really listened to what Kat has to say – and after a lifetime of invisibility can she really give that up? But when one of Kat’s posts goes viral and reaches the girl in her photos, her real and fake worlds come crashing down around her.