I was thrilled to get an ARC of this book after having loved the first in the series, This Is Not The Jess Show. Much to my delight, the sequel did not disappoint.

I admit that I had to go jog my memory before I started This Is Not The Real World - I kept remembering parts from the first book as I read that I had forgotten about. Honestly, it made me want to go back and read it again! However, I was able to remember the details I needed and dive into the sequel.

I really loved Jess' return to Swickley and all the different ways Anna Carey delved into this return. She examined Jess' changing relationships with her family and the other cast members (who Jess now knows are actors AND has learned about their social media lives), how the small town set feels after seeing the real world, and the strong desire to do right - all while juggling a new romance (which was cute but didn't, in my opinion, overpower the rest of the story) and trying right the wrongs don't by LLP. (I also loved the subtle end of the world vibes that Anna tucked in - climate change is wreaking havoc which means people want to get lost in media. Hmmm. Sounds possible...)

I read this one straight through and it really was a fun read. I've told my book friends that they'll love it and they are eagerly waiting for the release. Super great to read a sequel that didn't disappoint!

Thank you to Quirk Books and Anna Carey for letting me read this one early. You can find this one out on shelves 5/24.

I devoured This is Not the Jess Show last year and was so excited to get to read the sequel early. I loved being in this strange world again but this one didn’t snag my attention like the first book did. I still highly recommend reading it but definitely read the first one before digging into this one. There’s not much of a catch up session at the beginning and I’d forgotten some characters so that part was challenging for me. I do hope there’s more of this series!

Jess has escaped the set of the nostalgic 90s reality show that she believed was her real life. She’s getting familiar with the world and all the futuristic parts she has no idea of. The production company finds her and forced her boyfriend to return to the show. Jess teams up with a network of people fighting to uncover the injustices around the show. Jess decides to uncover the truth she has to go back to the set. Revenge is on her mind but it might be too dangerous to get back out again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quirk Books for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The second book in a series can sometimes be weird. We know who our characters are, but maybe some parts of our story are still unclear. We are usually thinking, "Can this book REALLY be as good as the first?" For Anna Carey's sequel to This Is Not the Jess Show, the answer is YES!

Just like the first book, Carey gives us so much suspense and many juicy details regarding the television show Jess Flynn was forced into at birth. Even after her escape from the Stuck in the '90s television set, Like-Life Productions's manipulation tactics did not stop. Tired of watching her friends suffer, she decides to return to the set in the name of revenge.

While it did take my brain a little bit to catch up and remember all of the events that transpired in book one, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I could even see there being a third installment. It was a fun, quick read that was simple yet engaging.

What a GREAT continuation of an already amazing story. Just when Jess thinks she’s escaped the world of LLP and left the fake 90s behind, she’s pulled back in. To save herself, to save the boy she loves and to uncover the truth behind the Chrysalis & the money making machinations of LLP. Once back in, she doesn’t know who to trust. She has Sara and Charli helping her on the outside, as best as they can. Is Val trustworthy? Amber & Kristen? She and Kipps are on their own, not knowing what will happen. Of COURSE, there’s a cliffhanger, leaving a few major loose ends. Cannot wait until NEXT year to see what happens. This is a must for YA mystery/suspense lovers. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Tw: child abuse, emotional abuse, car crash, kidnapping

I was SO excited to receive this book early because I absolutely loved This Is Not The Jess Show and of course I went back and reread it before diving into this one because I didn't wanna miss a single detail!

This book is so fascinating because it's dystophic, but it's a dystopia that could actually happen, with today's culture and the need to always be online and know what everyone's doing 24/7

According to how the book ended, I think we might get a third book and I wouldn't be opposed to that, because I need to be sure that my characters get the happy ending they deserve and I'm not ready yet to say goodbye to them!

Anna Carey's writing is marvelous, the pages really flew by and every character was well-rounded and I really felt like I was in the story. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from her!

I highly recommend this to any Black Mirrors fans or anyone looking for a fast-paced novel about the horrors of technology, reality shows and social media.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy.

thank you netgalley and publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

loved the romance!! also really liked the main character and the plot was unlike anything i’ve ever read. the ending was intenseeeeee. i quite enjoyed this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc.

While I did enjoy this, I didn’t find myself as captivated by the sequel as I did with the first book. I enjoyed the new set up(Jess coming back and aware of the show) and the opportunity for Jess to get answers but I would’ve appreciated a few more reveals or discussion about the terrible things the network was doing. I’m also a little sad we didn’t see Jess get to have a conversation with her parents and get to tell them how she felt. We got a little bit of that but I felt like she deserved more.

I felt this one was a little rushed but I still enjoyed it.

This Is Not The Real World picks up where This Is Not The Jess Show left off.
I find the whole premise of this fascinating because it definitely feels like something that could really happen.
I enjoyed getting to see the characters "out of character" in this sequel. It also shows the power of social media.
This is a fun read that makes you think about the entertainment industry.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy for early review.

I really enjoyed the premise of this series, the way that the main character Jess has been unknowingly living her life on a tv show was interesting.

The first book was fast paced, and thrilling as Jess was uncovering the secrets and betrayals of those on the show with her. After escaping the show with her boyfriend, Jess hides out with the only people she can trust from the show, that also escapes. However, her returning to the show, and portraying her character again, feels like a huge step back in the plot, and made everything feel quite pointless, and repetitive.

I don't think this book had the same gripping, and intense plot that the first book had, and personally, felt that slowed the book down. Regardless, it was nice to see more of the characters, and more dark secrets about the show that Jess was unaware of, like secret rooms and online groups trying to debunk the show and save her.

Ok, THIS IS NOT THE JESS SHOW truly has one of the best premises for a book ever. Jess is a regular 90s teen, going about her business until one day she notices her friend dropping a weird looking light-up brick out of her backpack. Is that an i-phone? YES IT IS. JESS IS LIVING IN A TRUMAN WORLD VERSION OF A TV SHOW AND SHE THINKS IT’S THE 90S BUT IT’S REALLY 2037!!! I mean come, that’s genius. I loved this book when it came out last year, so I was dying to read the sequel. When Netgalley approved me for it earlier this week, I immediately picked it up.

Real talk – if you are interested in reading the first book, don’t read any futher! And you SHOULD read the first book! Ok, stopped reading? Good. So, unfortunately, like most books that have a huge high stakes premise where a character must escape, there is the struggle of what makes the sequel fun when the character has discovered the mystery and out of the weird, high concept idea of the original. This reminds me a lot of the Hunger Games and, guess what, just like sequels of that franchise – Jess goes back to the show! However, it takes a while for her to get there and the fun of her knowing it’s a TV show slightly dwindles the crazy ride of the first book. However, I will never not see anything through (unless it’s TRULY terrible), so this was a fun ride and I can’t wait to see how it all ends. The ending of this book is pretty bonkers too, so you’ll want to pick this one up to see what I’m talking about.

A much more exciting installment than the first one. I enjoyed the use of events that are kind of going on today being thrown into the real world: strikes, extreme weather, hyper-social media. An interesting and sad sequel. Hate this cover style. I only read this being a sequel I never would have picked up this or the 1st one with these covers. Also I saw I gave the first book 5 stars but this one I'd say 3.5, though I think I did like it more. I was reading different books to compare to than now.

Honestly, nowhere near as good as the first book in the series. This book didn’t seem to go anywhere and I found myself really starting to dislike the main character after previously feeling sorry for her in the first book. This book had so much potential upon her re-entering the show… she could have manipulated the storylines so much more on the show.

#netgalleyarc. I was intrigued by the premise of this book, a Truman Show stuck in the 90s, so I read the first book first and struggled to get through that one. This title was better, more fast paced and entertaining. I could picture this series be king s great teen TV show one day. O spoilers, but I was disappointed with how this book ended. I almost hope there would be a third book but I can’t see how the author could stretch this plot out any longer. I’ll be purchasing this for my library, we own the first one, as it’s a fun light read for my students.

This Is Not the Real World was such a fun, thrilling, intriguing, and captivating story.
I couldn't help but be pulled into this world.
I devoured it in one freaking day and was so upset when I I got to the end. Because I didn't want it to end!
Anna's writing is just awesome here.
The book was perfectly paced, I loved everything about this book... the characters were expertly developed, and the world building was amazing!
All in All I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was intriguing and super fast paced straight from the beginning. She knows how to weave a great story.

Quirk Books,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review closer to pub date.

Did you read This Is Not The Jess Show? Then you'll definitely want to read this! Jess was stuck in a 90's (did you see what I did there?) Truman Show-esque reality TV show but managed to escape at the end of the first book. In this sequel the evil producers of the show pull a stunt that gives her no option but to return - which she does under duress but with the aim of exposing the producers of the show to the world.

Fast-paced and easy to read I will be recommending this book to my high school library users.

This is Not the Real World by Anna Carey was a fun read. I didn't realize it was a sequel until I finished the book, but I didn't feel like I needed to have read the first book to make sense of this one.
The plot was fun, with lots of twists and turns. As an older adult, I loved all of the references to the 90's, and I think many of my students will enjoy them too!
I would definitely recommend this book (and the first book, This is Not the Jess Show) to my students.

A huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was elated to receive this title as an ARC from NetGalley! After finishing the first in the series, This Is Not the Jess Show, I was dying to know what happens to Jess Flynn after her emergence from the 90s-themed reality show she is unknowingly stuck in. Although This Is Not the Real World began a little slowly, by the middle the plot began to gain traction and raced home to the ending, which was a relief because I was worried that after such an interesting beginning concept, the sequel would be a dud. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel and would definitely recommend it to teens who I encounter in my library!

Excellent follow up to This is not the Jess Show.
Dystopian and thrilling.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

The world building in 'This is not the Jess show', a young adult, reality TV spin on The Truman Show, was a brilliant introduction to the world of Jess Flynn. She has grown up the star of 'Stuck in the 90s', ignorant of the fact she is known to millions of people around the world. After finally seeming to find safety at the beginning of the first novel, I was desperate to see where Jess' story went in the conclusion of the duology in 'This is Not the Real World'. Her and Kipps are languishing in a secret hideaway, but cannot escape the manipulation and pull of the show's producers for long...

Once again, this novel moves at a break-neck pace as we are gradually exposed to the real evil of the show's producers (I mean, you would think allowing a small child to be raised in the public eye on a reality show would be as low as they can go, but apparently not!) and the underground organisation hellbent on taking them down. It is only about 300 pages long but I feel that extending it by a couple of hundred pages would allow events to be portrayed in more detail and would still maintain my interest!

The ending did not go to where I thought at all but it was a wild ride. (SORT OF SPOILER - I definitely thought Kipps was a tool of the producers. When Chrysalis said 'he sounds perfect for you', I immediately thought he was a construct of the the show's writers and Jess was being further manipulated... Apparently not!! END OF SORT OF SPOILER). Overall, the duology is a fun rollercoaster - a quick read which is certainly worth it. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hard pass. I just finished the first book and there's no way I'm reading another one of these. Terrible.