Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book! I feel like this was a really fun and fast paced read. I would recommend it to anyone just looking for something fun!

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Wattpad Books, in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to be honest, I was super excited to read this book but I wasn't exactly expecting a lot from it. The Famoux is the story of Emilee, a girl living in a future where global warming has destroyed most of the world. Spending most of her time being bullied by her schoolmates or yelled at by her family, Emilee is shocked when one day she is scooped off the street and offered the chance to join her favourite teenage celebrities, The Famoux. Leaving her own life behind, she moves in with them and becomes a part of their world. Only then does she learn that one of them has been murdered by a secret organisation, and it seems very likely they will kill again.

The start of this book is fairly rough. If you're a teenager you'll undoubtedly love it, but there are quite a lot of 'YA dystopian' tropes here. The people and the cities all have twee names like 'Chapter Stones' and 'Delicatum'. It gives major Selection vibes (which admittedly I love). But push past the first few chapters and suddenly you get to a story which is surprisingly very genuinely good.

The blurb is a little misleading I feel. The Famoux are reality stars but their celebrity group functions a lot more like a hype house without the TikTok. Every one of them has their own talent, and they spend most of the time doing activities together and building publicity. If you're expecting a story based around being on a reality TV show, this isn't it. However, the main strength of The Famoux is its intriguing plot and characters. The Famoux are all pitted against each other in a popularity contest for their lives, and this results in some very enjoyable character interactions and dynamics. I got sucked into this world and, better yet, I couldn't predict where the plot was going or who would do what next.

Overall, this book is a ton of fun. If you don't mind the occasional YA trope indulgence, there's a real gem of a story to be found here. As soon as I finished it, I was desperate to read the sequel and return to this world. I really hope it gets published as this book definitely deserves some love and attention.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

I mean, the blurb seemed kind of interesting and the cover of the book was epic.
But the story... not so much... it just fell flat for me.

Can I have the next one please? Like, now?

I sincerely hope that Kassandra is working on the second one right now because I'm dying to have it! I bought this book as soon as it came out in Barnes and Nobel, but put off reading it because I knew waiting for the second one would suck, and yeah, it's gonna be rough. I looove (most) of the changes she made from the original, especially the ending to the book. I'm excited to see where she takes this. I agree with others that it started out pretty slowly, but my favorite books series of all time (Under the Never Sky) was the same way for the first book, so I'm not gonna hate.

Okay, this book had crazy The Hunger Games vibes for me. Not exactly sure what it was, whether it was the apocalyptic world with the dystopia running things from a far away land, the weird leaders of the Famoux group that pick and prod at everything they can and rage when things aren't perfect, or just the overall way the story was told, but let me tell you I loved every minute of it. Is this going to be a series? I can't get enough! I need more, like, immediately. And I think you would too, if you liked books like that.

Emilee has always been different. In a world where every new generation of kids starting at the beginning of the year have a different eye colour to mark how old they are, she was born with her mom's eyes, an icy blue, instead of the generational flat grey. Sure, that may not make a big difference for her world in theory, but for the bullies at school, they've made a life out of not only tormenting her over it, but also abusing her and occasionally even throwing her in the creek. She thinks life can't get any worse, until one day her mom, the only person who sticks up for her, seems to have run away. And she doesn't have anyone to comfort her anymore. Her world has crumbled, and so has the rest of her family.

After having to cancel her life plans to move away, her sister hates her. Her brother doesn't really care about her, and her father is absolutely destroyed. He doesn't even leave his bed for work anymore. But just when she thinks there's nothing left to look forward to in life, a new group of Famoux are revealed, and Emilee can't get enough. The Famoux are the top tier of celebrities, always followed around by paparazzi, never getting a minute to themselves, especially when once a month for two days, the darkening happens. That's a phenomenon when something takes over the skies, and doesn't let any light through at all. But that's when the fishbowl happens, when the Famoux are put in a glass house for everyone to watch in person and on broadcast 24/7, like the most intrusive kind of reality tv show.

But something's happening to them, too. After finding one of them dead at the bottom of the stairs, rumour start to churn about if the show killed her off for views, if they were getting a little stagnant, and they wanted to liven up the ratings a bit. And after a fight with her family, Emilee is determined on getting some air when she finds herself not only at the fishbowl with the rest of the crowd, but also with her bullies who are planning on tying her up in a basement and leaving her there for the duration of the darkening. But the person in charge of the Famoux finds her and offers her a different kind of lifestyle. To become one of them. And of course, Emilee takes it. That's when Emeray is born, but what's going on behind the scenes of the group is unlike anything she could have imagined.

This book was amazing, start to finish. I couldn't put it down once I started, but that was fine because I really didn't want to. Despite being so famous and rich, most of the characters seemed really down to earth, even in the worst of times. They do what they have to do to survive. But what I loved learning about the most, was their apocalyptic world. I actually would have liked to get to know it a little more than we did, but It's enough, especially if there's more coming in the future. I will say though, that most of the actual action in the plot happened in the last 10% of the book, which isn't ideal for me, but I still loved it. I was just a little stressed with the race against the clock kind of situation and felt like things could have been explained more than they were. That being said, I think this is one of my new favourite books! If you're a fan of post apocalypse, dystopia, celebrity drama and The Hunger Games, I really think you'll like this book too.

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I have to say, this was definitely an intriguing book. I really like dystopian novels and the reality show setting of this grabbed me. It was fun seeing Em leave her old life where she was bullied and unloved behind to set out for something new and exciting. The pacing was a bit off though and this ends on a cliffhanger when I think it could have easily been a standalone.

Em is an interesting character. She's bullied and ostracized by her classmates for having unique colored eyes, something well beyond her control. Her father is mentally checked out and her siblings pay her little attention. When she gets the opportunity to move on to something else, of course she grabs it it I didn't blame her. She's thrust into a celebrity world and is very naive about other's intentions which was frustrating at times but not sur8since Em was so sheltered.

I liked seeing Em try to be herself and her relationships with the other Famoux members were pretty interesting. There's also a sinister subplot that added a darker element to the story. I did think some of the extra drama could have been eliminated to make this a standalone, adding in some action. I do wonder what will happen in the sequel, so I guess I'll check it out when it releases.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, it's been a while since I've read a dystopian book! To be completely honest, it was better than I expected.

I had some problems with the worldbuilding at the beginning. It's just a little hard to believe, that the countries/nations/states (?) would decide that becoming one, big country is better than being separate. It just... doesn't make much sense, that's not how the politics, especially geopolitics, works. Also, some of the proper names are... a little bit bizarre and don't make sense, like, why a state in Southern Europe would be named Betnedoor and its capital Waltmar??? That doesn't sound like any Southern European language at all. And other proper names have ridiculous explanations (Delicatum - please, if you like this name so much, just try to come up with some better explanation, and Sticks is an obvious set up for certain future thing, IYKYK). Generally speaking, the proper names are just a tip of iceberg of improbability. There's quite a lot of things that look more like something the author thought would sound cool than something that is actually plausible.

When you look past these things, however, especially the further you get into the book, it's actually quite enjoyable. The plot thickens with every chapter, the characters get more and more interesting and there is drama and plot twists! It's basically like The Selection, except instead of monarchy there are reality show celebrities! So, if you're into this kind of things, this is a perfect book for you!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked the color and contract of the cover. That intrigued me.

The Famoux is a Young Adult book, but as a grown woman, I was very intrigued by the concept.
A new country emerges after an environmental collapse. The Famoux are the popular celebrities of said country. They're from a reality tv show called The Fishbowl. 16 year old Emilee is obsessed with Fishbowl and has the unique experience of being on the show herself. She realizes quickly on that the fame isn't all it's cut out to be because of a stalker.

The plot idea was fairly unique. I personally haven't read anything like it.


I'll definitely be looking out for other work by this author.

More of a 3.5

We follow Emilee who is a 16-year-old girl who lives in a post environmental collapsed version of our world. In this world that is still recovering, a 24/7 distraction is in the form of the Famoux, a group of elite famous people. When Emilee gets the offer to escape her awful life and become a member, she takes it and enters a life of glamour, she realizes that the Famoux’s life isn’t as they appear and that fame can be deadly.

I did enjoy this book, Emilee as a character is good, especially with everything she has going on in her life she manages to not make a lot of stupid choices, she makes a few but she’s 16 what do you expect. The world is ok, most of the environmental changes seem realistic which is a good thing. All of our side characters are just ok, and the plot has potential but fell flat in a few spots but was still super enjoyable.

I went in thinking this was going to be a stand-alone but with that ending (which had multiple wtf moments that I liked) makes me think and hope there will be a second book.

Overall this book is good, nothing absolutely mind-blowing but it’s a fun and enjoyable book.

Reality TV fans (hello, it's me) will be intrigued by this fresh dystopian concept. In a version of Earth where the world goes dark for two days every month, the celebrities of the Famoux clique air "The Fishbowl" for all to see. For 48 hours, fans can watch every move of their beloved stars. But last month, one of them died in the house. Emilee is plucked from obscurity and technologically modified so that nothing of her old self remains but her icy eyes: the eyes of her mother who ran off two years ago, the eyes that have been the focus of bullies for all her life. Once she meets the other cast members, she is privy to many of their secrets. The biggest is this: a group of rabid fans is sending them letters demanding the Famoux take actions to increase drama in the group. The mysterious harrassers track the members' popularity leading up to the next Fishbowl broadcast, and the lowest will be the next victim when the skies darken again.

The story has a fun framework. Readers get to feast on the behind-the-scenes drama of the ultra-famous teenagers both real and staged. We get to see the Famoux in the fanciest clothes at the most exclusive events. But always there's that worry lurking about who will be next to die.

Emilee herself added less interest for me. In the beginning of her meteoric rise in fortunes, she's portrayed as a blank slate: no friends in her past, few joyful experiences to draw on. More surprising is that her broadened world does not reveal her passions or personality quirks. Emilee's manager casts her as the naive, innocent Famoux member, and she lives up to this image. Meanwhile, the Famoux founder predicts she's going to fall for the first person who's nice to her... and that's basically what happens (cue insta love).

All in all, this is an entertaining read with a cool premise. Emilee may show more depth and growth in future books, but it's not yet evident. The very end hints at the plot of the sequel, and it seems Emilee may grow a will of her own in the next phase.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I've been excited about this book ever since I saw the cover. Then when I learned it was a dystopian, I was even more excited. This novel definitely lived up to expectations. I can't wait for book #2!

Emilee has always had a hard life, but it's been worse since her mother up and left one day. Her sister is resentful that she had to quit her life to come take care of her, her brother ignores her at school, and her dad just lays in bed all day. Emilee looks up to the Famoux, a group of young adults who are beautiful, talented, and the most famous people in the world. She never imaged she would become one of them.

The start of this book was slow, but worldbuilding is always slow for me. Once Emilee encounters Norex, the leader of the Famoux, things really start speeding up. You keep learning secret upon secret and I didn't want to put the book down! There are betrayals, secret loves, secret families. The list goes on and on. The book does end on a cliffhanger, but it perfectly sets up the second installment. I am so ready to read it!

Definitely recommend for anyone who loves dystopians!

i honesty really tried to get into this book. and i’m not sure if i just confused this book with a completely different book, since i thought this was gonna be like big brother but in a fantastical world, which it wasn’t. there was so much petty drama and so much relationship issues that made me honestly skim read some pages. and i really thought the whole DEFED thing was stupid, and just so much drama. but, i did like that the mom came back into the book.

The Famoux by Kassandra Tate, 400 pages. Wattpad Books, 2021. $11. LGBTQIA
Language: PG (6 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Two years of being blamed for everything at home on top of the bullying she has suffered for years at school motivates sixteen-year-old Emilee to join the Famoux, leaving her hometown far behind. With a name change and more, Emeray is introduced to a new way of life with the promise that it will be happier now. But her life is less her own than it has ever been as Emeray discovers the secrets hidden in this exclusive group.
Despite the rough start, I eventually started to anticipate picking up Emeray’s story instead of dreading it. Tate starts the book with more telling than showing, which makes the necessary background information uninteresting to get through before the real story takes over. Twists and turns pull Emeray -- and readers -- in every direction, until finally ending with half the pieces put together. I did start to enjoy reading the book after several chapters, but I don’t love it enough to pick up the sequel. The violence rating is for blood, assault, battery, and murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

The book starts by giving a lot of information and I would say maybe bored but it quickly gets interesting, full of secrets, drama, fame, etc. The famoux has a very good premise and goes beyond expectations. The characters are captivating and well built. Bringing an innovative dystopic system, The famoux shows a world where beauty is the most important. I recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and the editor for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

this is one of the most beautiful cover I have ever seen in my life,but when I started to read this, I felt something was missing on it,but at least I liked the characters, I think i could like the other books

Every year around Christmas time, we had (at least until this weird year) a charity event in The Netherlands: Serious Request. Organised by a radio station, and until a couple of years ago, the djs would - you might guess it, it's why I write about it in this review - live in a glass house for a while and do their radio thing there. The glass house was put up in a different city every year, and it was immensely popular. Obviously the Fishbowl during blackout immediately reminded me of that, making this book way more realistic than it otherwise would have been, triggering feelings of both excitement and discomfort.

I found Emilee a very relatable, realistic girl - as far as I can tell as a 35-year-old woman of course xD This book shows that there still are ways to turn the 'old YA-girl-trope' (a girl is the 'chosen one' to be in the spotlights, some romance etc.) into something different.

The book would have been better with less explaining at the start - without the 'what is where and how' it would still have been quite easy to tell how this world works, and the details were not needed to experience the story. Also, all those names and things ending in an -ex or -ix did remind me of Asterix and Obelix a bit ... but then again, I'm of the old generation who read those strips xD Overall these are only minor things though.

I am not a big fan of Wattpad. Never have, never will be.
I tried my best to be influenced by that while reading the book but I fear I failed. Sadly, this book once again proved what I already know about Wattpad - ir's full of cliches and cliches and honestly... There are sides with better niveau than Wattpad.
I did not like the book at all. Like I said, it was cliche after cliche and I felt like I read this book already when I started it. It wasn't for me. The characters were as fake as a plastic wrapper and I can't muster any sympathy for any of them. The only interesting thing about the book were the circles, introducing some new genetic feature each year. Otherwise, I sadly can't say anything good about that book. The cover is pretty too, but that's really all for me. I struggled so much reading this book because it bored me. Not to mention that the formation was very off which bothered me in reading it.
Maybe I am just not into YA-novels anymore, which is the reason why I was not fond of this book. Maybe I am just too biased by my pervious experiences with Wattpad (and its users) to truefully judge the book. Or maybe this book was just way out if my comfort zone and I did not quite know what to make of it

I received a free copy my Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a little ambivalent about this book, it has a nice idea at the center, the perils of conformity and the mind numbing and distracting role of celebrity culture, but this first book doesn’t spend enough time in establishing the rules of the world (ex. who’s in charge of the famoux).
Another point of contention for me is the lack of agency of Emilee in the first two third of the story, in which she gets dragged around by others without protest or choice. The last third of the book gives her more spine but this trait will probably be explored in the next installment of the series.
It is an nice first chapter of a larger story, but feels a little incomplete and I hope that the world and characters will be more flashed out as the story progress.

I was very excited about the premise of this book, it sounded exciting and fun but instead I got a load of angst and info dumping. There were also things about the story (the age gap "romance") that irked me and made me uncomfortable.
The plot was a bit messy and there were too many characters with different names and nicknames it made it hard to keep track so that took me off the story too.
Overall could have been better.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book, but there was absolutely nothing redeeming about it. The book opens with an info dump that didn't actually explain much of anything. Why did the mother disappear for no reason? Why was the format of the Famoux suddenly changed for no reason? Info dumps unfortunately become a common theme throughout the book, churning out pages of information about the world the author is creating, rather than insert only the relevant details in a more organic way. These info dumps only highlight the purposeless nature of the book. The author doesn't know what story they are writing: a mystery thriller, exploration of celebrity, or a dystopian warning of the dangers of climate change. Any one would be enough on its own, but together the mismashing of themes just leaves me confused.

I was constantly thrown off by the stilted writing style, like the author is trying to imitate her conception of an experienced writer, rather than using her own natural style. And for that matter, what's with the word "Famoux"? It's trying to sound more glamorous and interesting, but just comes across as being pretentious, like someone who adopts an accent to seem more sophisticated. The characters' names all sound like the author smashed names together to try to sound interesting and fresh. I mean, Calsifer? Kaytee? Cartney? Chapter? Norax? The names are so ridiculous that I can't take anything they do seriously. Is this supposed to be a satire of celebrity? If so, then why create a new dystopian world; just because it's a popular genre and will sell the book?

The book is also poorly edited, with inconsistent spellings of the same word (gray and grey, in the same paragraph), strings of words that don't make any sense ("a slip of thick paper spits slowly from the camera"), and things happening for no reason. Emilee is bullied for no reason, her mother leaves for no reason, she's the only one in her birth year with eyes a different color than she should have (due to some unexplained genetic mystery, everyone born in the same year has te same color eyes, but Emilee doesn't. How can genetic quirks change every year in January like clockwork? The author certainly never explains...). Emilee is magically found in a crowd by the producer and instantly put into the Famoux, and of course it's because no one in a world obsessed with beauty has ever told her that's she's beautiful beyond belief. A sixteen year old is allowed to get cosmetic surgery to completely change the way she looks (so then why did she need to be beautiful to start with...?) and join a reality tv show all within ten minutes of meeting the producer, and all without parent consent or an explanation of what the surgeries will entail, what her job description is, what the pay is, what her family will be told? There are "special magnets and minerals embedded in the walls that allow you to hear what anyone in the world is saying about you? That is not how magnets and minerals work! Unreal. Just...unreal.

This book is a mess, like a child is telling it and keeps veering off and changing the direction. Save yourself the time and read something else.