Seeking edgy American YA novella from around 2010s about three highschoolers kidnapping a rich family's baby for fun and profit??
Around 2010, give or take a few years, my older friends were in a teen book club at our local library where they read YA ARCs and reviewed them. I suspect my mystery book was a recommendation from there, and I think I borrowed it from the library once it was published.
I'd call this YA litfic, I remember it being set in 21st century suburban America with no fantasy elements. An academically ambitious girl and two naive boys kidnap a baby and secretly take care of her in a basement. They were colorfully incompetent at infant care, feeding her chewable multivitamins and cleaning her with something totally inappropriate like bleach wipes. They may have had the intention to gain infamy and cash for returning the baby once the parents started searching for her. I think the girl was masterminding the whole thing and maybe in the end the boys got in trouble and she used the whole experience for a college application essay? It felt provocative and experimental at the time (when I was like 12 lol), I was disgusted by it and voraciously read the whole thing in a day and felt haunted afterwards. I would love to revisit it!
If it helps, I also remember it being a notably small (in all dimensions) hardcover book.
Thanks for reading if you got this far!