FOLLOW ME BACK is an addictive YA thriller that held my attention from the first page. I enjoyed watching the unlikely friendship develop between a music star and an ordinary girl suffering from agoraphobia. The ending was something I didn’t see coming, and at first wasn’t sure I enjoyed how it left off or not. Guess I’ll have to read the sequel to come to a better conclusion! Thank you NetGalley for the adnaced copy.

I absolutely LOVED this book! I ended up buying a finished copy and read it super quick! This wasn’t a title I did a full review on, I just Did a whole lot of fangirling on Twitter about it for a few days.

OMG, so many apologies! I read and reviewed this book but I totally spaced putting it on here for some reason!

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLY. FREAKIN'. CRAP. I. CANNOT. EVEN. WHAT. WAS. THAT. ENDING. EVEN. I. JUST. CANNOT. EVEN. THIS BOOK WAS SO FREAKIN' GOOD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

OKay... I have calmed myself down a little... jUST KIDDING THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING.

Okay, seriously. I'm calm now.

I first saw this one on NetGalley and was drawn to it because of the cover. And then I read the blurb. If you've been following my reviews for a while, you probably know that I love books with romance that occur in the Hollywood/celebrity environment.

DNF - couldn't get into this at all. Not a bad book, and certainly readable as I raced through the first 10% in no time. It just wasn't for me - I was hoping for something more creepy/thrilling and it's firmly on the romance/coming-of-age side.

Meh. I blame myself for not really liking this book since I know I don't enjoy Contemporary reads, but I thought I would enjoy it more than I did. Don't get me wrong, it's not BAD, I just don't like stories like this. I think there is an audience out there that will truly enjoy it and want more, I'm just not one of them.

Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘ Monday Memos’ we’re going to discuss a book called ‘Follow Me Back’, a psychological thriller that will definitely find a place among your TBR pile (or To Be Read for those of you who don’t speak BookTube) very soon. ‘Follow Me Back’ is the debut book from A.V. Geiger, one of the latest superstars to come out of the writing website Wattpad, and was provided for review by Sourcebooks Fire. On the outside this book seems like your typical Young Adult contemporary novel, but it quickly evolves into a story that will keep you mesmerized until the end. So now that you’re excited, let’s begin the review! Ready? Ok, let’s go!!!

 

‘Follow Me Back’ is a dual perspective novel that tells the story of 18 year old Tessa Hart who is a super fan of musician Eric Thorne. Tessa become famous within the Eric Thorne fandom when her fanfiction ‘Eric Thorne Obsessed’ goes viral. Due to her newfound internet fame, Tessa grabs the attention of fellow super fan MET (a screen name that stands for Mrs. Eric Thorne), as well as Eric’s management team. However, Tessa is harboring a deep secret that will eventually change her life forever. We also get insight into 18 year old superstar Eric’s deep resentment of his extreme fame, due to the fact that his fans seem to be more interested in his body than his music. When Eric creates a catfish Twitter account in order to ruin his own image, he sets off a series of events that will expose the dark sides of fame & obsession.

 

I feel like I have to start off this section by saying that not only is this a 5 smiley face book, but it broke the smiley face scale. Luckily the last few books I’ve reviewed have been very good reads, but this is undoubtedly the best book I’ll read this year. The characters are incredibly well developed & interesting, the plot grips you from the first word & never lets you go, & the twists and turns not only make perfect sense, but actually surprise you. Lastly, I really have to commend A.V. Geiger on her talent as a writer. She is able to perfectly jump between the perspectives of Tessa & Eric, while making their characters feel distinct and interesting. She is also able to use the tool of flashbacks through police reports to help her story become even more compelling. Needless to say I am so excited to not only read the sequel to this book, but to also add A.V. Geiger to my list of auto-buy authors. I am so excited to see where her career goes, & encourage all of you to invest in this duology TODAY!

"Tessa Hart's world feels very small. Confined to her bedroom with agoraphobia, her one escape is the online fandom for pop sensation Eric Thorn. When he tweets to his fans, it's like his speaking directly to her...

Eric Thorn is frightened by his obsessive fans. They take their devotion way too far. It doesn't help that his PR team keeps posting to encourage their fantasies.

When a fellow pop star is murdered at the hands of a fan, Eric knows he has to do something to shatter his online image fast―like take down one of his top Twitter followers. But Eric's plan to troll @TessaHeartsEric unexpectedly evolves into an online relationship deeper than either could have imagined. And when the two arrange to meet IRL, what should have made for the world's best episode of Catfish takes a deadly turn...

Told through tweets, direct messages, and police transcripts, this thriller for the online generation will keep you guessing right up to the shocking end."

Anyone else as addicted to The Arrangement and Catfish as I am and thinking YAS when reading this description? OK, only me?

I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did! But I definitely look forward to reading the sequels now.

This is an interesting, different, and current story. It follows Tessa, a super fangirl, and her rockstar idol, Eric Thorn. The premise is talking through direct messages over Twitter, so you may need to understand the social-sphere to enjoy it.

I liked the storyline and character building. It was fun to imagine being part of a world where your celebrity crush is messaging you.

There is a lot of suspense that builds at the end, and I couldn't put it down. I'm still not sure what happened at the end...eek gotta read the rest!

*Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC, for which I have given an honest and unbiased review*

I enjoyed it, but I felt there was something missing. I enjoyed the suspense aspect. I just felt a little disconnected from the characters and the storyline.

In this day and age, it's fun to read something via the way we basically communicate these days - tweets, direct messages and police transcripts... Ok, ok, we don't read through police transcripts - but it was a great addition to this wicked little story.

I went into this story automatically giving it a little leeway. I really thought it would be more teen angst and almost a satirical look at social media obsession and how scary it can be.. and I think it is.. sort of.... However, it also takes a look into a bit of social media bullying, the ease (even without agoraphobia) to hole yourself up into a world of just online communication and how we never truly know the person behind the screen name. Tweets, fandom, pop star obsessing - I can't even imagine how I would've been when I was younger if I had all this social media to obsess with. I'm bad enough as it is without feeding into any obsessiveness I may harbor.

I really needed to know more about Bailey and how the situation with Tessa came into play. What exactly IS the FULL background of their story? I NEED ANSWERS! And that ending - while I love that it took a left turn at Albuquerque, WHAT?! I'm so confused! But so intrigued. Personally, I love the darker turn that it took.

I'm also THRILLED to see there's a book 2 coming out in June. You best believe I'll be reading it because I need these answers.. and I really hope that I get them! Did you know you can actually follow the characters twitter pages in real life? I haven't looked yet but my fingers itching to press the follow buttons 😉.

Thanks NetGalley for allowing me to read what has to be one of the best/most irritating books I’ve read so far in 2018. Torn between excitement at the story and its humdinger of an ending, and wanting to scream at people because I NEED ANSWERS!
Told through a mix of police transcripts and Twitter feeds, this is an interesting format. Agoraphobic Tessa is struggling to cope with anxiety after events that we aren’t told much about. The only thing that keeps her happy is following pop star Eric Thorn.
We also see events through Eric’s eyes. Eric loves music but hates the shallowness of the industry he’s caught in. He longs to tell his fans just how he loathes what they represent. Instead, he decides to try and sabotage his popularity through setting up a fake Twitter account...and happens to befriend Tessa.
What happens next is rather odd. Tessa and Eric (under his assumed identity) share their innermost thoughts. They seem to be forming a relationship and, ignoring all sentiments of credibility, this is actually really nicely conveyed.
The area that I found odd was as things move towards what seems to be their inevitable conclusion. I was blindsided by a ‘new’ character who appears to know a lot more than suggested (though I couldn’t work out whether we had actually met them in some way) and then came the sucker punch of an ending.
Left there I think I would have been throwing things in an almighty toddler tantrum, but as the set-up to book two I am so excited to see whether what we are led to believe has happened has actually taken place (in which case Tessa is the most badass character I’ve seen for a while) or whether it’s all a smokescreen for a very different story.
Either way, this is exciting...

Execellent book and well developed characters. The ending was awful until you knew that it wasn't the end. Looking for the next one!

Creepy fandom taken to extremes. Rather prescient, I believe.

The cover and description of this book pulled me in at first. Then from page one, all the way to the end I was hooked. This is definitely going to be one of my new favorite authors as the plot was well done and the characters multi dimensional.

Tessa Hart after an incident during her Creative Writing Course, she returned home and became agoraphobic. She found her connection to the outside through social media and writing/ reading fan fiction sites like Wattpad. She was also a big fan of the singer Eric Thorn and one day on the idea of her therapist, posts her story of Eric Thorn online and the post goes viral and gets it own hashtag #EricThornObsessed. The real Eric Thorn though is trying to move away from the cookie cutter world and is also very wary of Social Media and his fans due to another singer in a band recently being murdered by a crazed whacko fan. His manager, on the other hand, has ideas and wants Eric to follow @TessHeartsEric. Eric Thorn decides though to start a new account called @EricThornSucks under his middle name Taylor. Soon Tessa and Taylor start chatting away, and Eric finds himself falling in love with Tessa. He tries to give her clues that it's him, but she doesn't get it. I have to admit I found Tessa's character quite naive and it does show the dangers of catfishing and the fact that you don't know who you are talking to online. Near the end of the book, we learn the reason and person behind the incident that caused Tessa to become an agoraphobic and also Tessa learn the real identity of Taylor. One thing leads to another, and we find the next chapters in the form of police transcripts. The ending though of this book confused me, and I was like WTF have I just read, and WTF has happened? I even had to re-read the last chapter twice to make sure I was on the right page as it was totally confusing. I am now eager to read Book #2 and find out what happens next with Tessa and Eric and where the hell Eric ended up after he left Tessa's house that night.

Book bloggers, bookworms and YA fans i general... you all need to read this book!
Wow what an engrossing read! Dark and mysterious and fresh at the same time! I don't want to say much because I don;t want to spoil it but you need to read it and why @EricThornSucks 😊 and why he is a sweetheart too! I'm so in love with these two characters I can't even!
There is so much tension and suspense but also swoon worthy romance All in this awesome book!

Wow. I wasn't expecting this novel to be ... so ... bad. In the beginning, I was intrigued because the first chapter opens up with a police transcript. Immediately, the reader knows that things get serious. However, as the story continues, it becomes apparent that this is nothing more than just some fanfiction romance. This novel reads like fanfiction. And it's not even GOOD fanfiction! We have a whiny, condescending pop star with an irrational fear of his fans. We have a PR team with no empathy, or conscience whatsoever. And we have an insipid fandom that apparently consists only of shallow girls. Oh, except for our one unique fan, Tessa, our snowflake. This bothered me so much because fandoms are really not like that at all. I'm not very involved with any fandom but I know that there are a lot of fans who take the time to get to know the celebrities they love, who analyze their work, and who really appreciate the celebrity for their art and for their personality. It's not just "about the abs" as Eric depicts it in the book. This novel suggests that it is going to be a thriller but is really just a romance. At the 80% mark, we finally see the thriller that we are promised but it is really badly executed. We have the introduction of a random character with their random plan that was not properly incorporated at any point in the story. It was just such a mess, and it was so confusing to read. And then there is another cringe-worthy romance scene, followed by another twist. And the story ends as a cliffhanger, with the promise of a sequel. It was just too much for me to handle. My concluding thoughts? This is just some really bad fanfiction that is full of cringe-worthy and hard-to-believe romance (seriously, these characters DO NOT understand what love is) and a last minute thriller thrown in as an attempt to satisfy readers. I will not be reading the sequel and I will not be recommending this novel to anyone. 1/5 stars from me.

Tessa Hart, agoraphobic fangirl, starts talking to a troll online after he insults her favourite person in the world, singer Eric Thorn. She becomes friends with the troll, not knowing that it is actually Eric Thorn himself, seeking some kind of cathartic release. As their online relationship deepens and the pair grow closer, they begin to rely on each other more and more- Tessa to get the courage to leave her room, and Eric to feel like a normal person.

As a concept, I was so excited to read this book! A mixed media famous/non-famous book? I'm in. 100%. For a large part of the story, it seemed to be delivering, and A.V. Geiger was obviously writing Tessa's POV from a place where she really understands her position as a teenage fan. Unfortunately, as the story progressed, the story seemed to break down. If it had remained 'famous guy and a fan fall in love' story, I would have loved it. I just didn't quite understand what happened towards the end. It felt as though the last third of the book belonged to a different book entirely, and I wasn't quite sure what happened.

First and foremost I’d like to thank Netgalley for sending me this copy for review.

I’m not sure how to approach this review because while this was a solid read for me, it’s not something I would particularly pick up on my own. I don’t think the synopsis was misleading but I requested to review the book based on the cover. I think we can all agree that the cover of Follow Me Back is extremely interesting. The two main characters are Tessa and Eric. Tessa suffers from agoraphobia, this is a condition that prevents her from leaving her home due to a traumatic event. Eric is a pop star, very reminiscent of Justin Bieber, and is under constant paranoia because a fellow pop star was murdered recently by a stan (stalker-fan). I’m no celebrity so I can’t speak on behalf of what it is like to live that type of lifestyle but I do think that the author seemed to capture that aspect of the story very well. I didn’t like Eric’s personality by any means. I know he is a teenager and therefore angst-y, I just really disliked him overall. Throughout the book he is basically reverse catfishing Tessa. I felt like this aspect really dragged on and the love story was very cliche. On the other hand, I loved Tessa’s character. I really felt like I could connect to her because I have severe panic and anxiety disorder, something that was fueling her agoraphobia. Tessa starts out with having a very emotionally abusive boyfriend in the beginning of the novel, which I thought was never properly addressed. He seemed like a filler character but I personally would have liked more on his behalf. At least someone acknowledging the fact that he was abusive in a way. Tessa’s mother was very absent as she seemed to be a hard working single mother but I hated the way that she was portrayed without any acknowledgment of how actually horrible she was. Any mother that is getting verbally and noticeably frustrated at their daughter for having a disorder and being unable to leave their house is borderline child abuse. Tessa’s mother knew something clearly horrible had occurred to make Tessa become this way and yet she treated her like disorder was a pest and actively showed how disappointed she was in her daughter for not being able to concur her anxieties quicker. I would have loved to see Tessa confront her mother or even speak to her therapist about how she felt when her mother belittled her for not recovering at the pace her mother preferred.

While those problems were minor inconveniences for me and didn’t really take away from the reading experience, Tessa’s therapist was frightening. There were a few red flags in the beginning of the novel (the therapist urging Tessa to talk to strangers on social media to help with her disorder) but the real kicker happened at the end and I feel like I NEED to address it for future readers. This behavior is NOT okay in a therapist.

MINOR SPOILERS ARE COMING

Tessa’s therapist agreed and encouraged Tessa to meet the stranger that she had been speaking to through twitter and even drove her to pick up said stranger. This all happened without the consent of Tessa’s mother as well. NO MATTER HOW COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR THERAPIST YOU ARE, DO NOT GET INTO A VEHICLE WITH THEM. THAT IS NOT THEIR JOB. DO NOT MEET STRANGERS BECAUSE YOUR THERAPIST SAID IT WAS A GOOD IDEA. Not only did this happen but the therapist picked up the stranger and then DROPPED THEM OFF AT TESSA’S HOUSE ALONE TOGETHER WITHOUT HER MOTHER BEING PRESENT. This is so harmful for teens who may be reading this and going through similar therapies or just therapy in general. There are rules in place for what a therapist should and could do with their patient, I want to make it plain and clear that none of this was acceptable or safe.

Now that we got that out of the way, there was a mystery aspect to this story that had me hooked. The ending came to a complete shock for me and once it was all wrapped up nicely with a bow, we got thrown a HUGE cliffhanger. I did enjoy reading this book and I would recommend it to others with the thought in mind that they are aware that a therapist should not be, in any way, like the one in this novel. I will be picking up the next book because I have to know how this is all going to turn out.

Rating: 3/5

Genre: YA Romance/Slight YA Thriller

Recommended Age: 16+ (stalking, death, obsessed fans, mental illness)

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinons are my own.

Tessa Hart's world feels very small. Confined to her bedroom with agoraphobia, her one escape is the online fandom for pop sensation Eric Thorn. When he tweets to his fans, it's like he's speaking directly to her...
Eric Thorn is frightened by his obsessive fans. They take their devotion way too far. It doesn't help that his PR team keeps posting to encourage their fantasies.
When a fellow pop star is murdered at the hands of a fan, Eric knows he has to do something to shatter his online image fast―like take down one of his top Twitter followers. But Eric's plan to troll @TessaHeartsEric unexpectedly evolves into an online relationship deeper than either could have imagined. And when the two arrange to meet IRL, what should have made for the world's best episode of Catfish takes a deadly turn...
Told through tweets, direct messages, and police transcripts, this thriller for the online generation will keep you guessing right up to the shocking end. - Amazon.com

Another book I've read that's from the perspective of someone who has a mental illness I don't see regularly in YA books! Tessa has agoraphobia, which is the fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment and she also suffers from extreme anxiety. I also do not have agoraphobia but I believe that the perspective of Tessa is a very real interpretation of this illness, although if not I'd love to hear from someone who lives with the disorder. Aside from the disability rep, this book also had some diverse characters in it! Win! The characters in this book are very well developed, which is very hard to pull off in a mixed media format. The writing was also very beautiful throughout the book.

However, I did have some dislikes about this book. I really was confused by the ending. Like WHAT?? The book had a really dark odd twist to it as well and it really confused me. This book definitely ended on a cliffhanger and it needs a sequel. I also felt that the way the story was told, while beautiful, could be confusing for some readers. It takes a lot of attention to detail to get where the book is going. Lastly I thought that beginning relationship of the two characters was very odd and there were a few other moments in the book that were unbelievable as well.

Verdict: Aside from the ending this book was fantastic! A great dark romance thriller... thing... read! If you like anything with mixed media format, anything with thrillers, or anything where there are creepy people in books then this book is for you!