Michael Wojciechowski

When I read the description of this book, I was thinking Dark Mirror. But, the tone of this book is far more on the lower end of the Lifetime Movie spectrum. I do love some Lifetime drama; I did not love this.

If you're reading this book, you're probably not as far into the rabbit hole of social media as the characters in this book. And that's a good thing. The author's central idea is to explore social media (and like farming) as akin to a pervasive and growing addiction particularly among younger end of millennials and even younger. (The main character Paige is 26.)

The author may be on to something and seeing where wanted to take it is all that separate this from a DNF. Nothing about this is in any way subtle. So if you're looking for complexity, this is not that book. It could be interesting to read and talk about with someone else, particularly from a different generation. The author does tee-up some interesting ideas around privacy and the (potential) real world consequences of creating a fauxpersona online.

Those are the pros. On the not-so-great side of the equation:

1) Paige is by far and away, the most vacuous, shallow, stupid, and aimless main character I've ever met. I could not with her. And for me, it's not in a lovable, cheer her on as she grows kind of way. She continually self-destructs and makes repeatedly bad choices. It is completely unclear why anyone would give her a chance or be attracted to her in any way. For better or for worse, it is difficult to write a character that is that dumb and the author struggles with this in a way that became logically inconsistent. As a small example, Paige has supposedly never heard of the word "frumpy," and supposedly has never read a book or changed a tire. Yet, her vocabulary when she thinks is much bigger. She notices things like Banksy and Warhol paintings and thinks something is "hyperbolic." After working in a marketing job for three years, she has no idea what the company even does. The problem is that the author is about 10 million times smarter than the character and after awhile, that distinction is distracting.

2) The other characters are equally unlikable. We're supposed to respect Eric and at one point, it's clear he's supposed to be the moral compass of the group. And yet, somehow he's drawn repeatedly to women based solely on their physical appearance and/or money. He befriends Paige early and all I could think is why? Paige isn't worth anyone's time.

And that's enough of that. For me, this book was an afterschool special gone wrong. I realize I'm probably not the intended audience, especially as the other reviews have given 5 stars. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take from this and with apologies to the author, two stars is as generous as I can be.… (mer)