I wanted to like this book, but struggled to get through it starting from the early pages. Maybe my hopes were too high based on the title’s allusion to the classic Lord of the Flies, which is such a polished, carefully crafted, and much more subtle commentary on the societal and individual flaws resulting from a turbulent society than this novel. While I don’t love Golding’s Lord of the Flies, I respect it; I felt that this attempt at satire in homage to his work mocked it instead.

Moldavsky incorporates many real elements from the ill-fated Fyre Festival as well as some modern elements of the use and misuse of social media and the lives of influencers. However, I felt it was too overdone, characters too stereotypical and one-dimensional, and, in ways, outdated for the target audience (e.g., some slang used is now passe). I did read to the end to honor the publisher and Netgalley, who provided me with an advanced reader’s copy, but had that not been the case, this would have been a DNF for me.

Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Henry Holt and Co., Netgalley, and the author for early access to the book for review and determination for recommendation to high school students.

Ok. So I’m split. I like it. But I don’t love it. I think it’s because I have such a back and forth history with its predecessor “Lord of the Flies” that I got annoyed with some aspects of this book. However, I do appreciate how easy it was to relate it to current times. The personalities are exaggerated and I think that’s the point. But it became irritating - or maybe I have short patience.

Rafi is about to dive into the second season of her podcast - Musical Mysteries - and the subject himself will be attending the highly anticipated event of the summer: Fly Fest! So obviously she has to go where the story is - journalism is the name of the game. Rafi’s goal: prove that River Stone killed his girlfriend. Here’s the kicker - as soon as the concertgoers arrive to the secluded island (because of course the concert takes place on a secluded island), they realize they’re alone - no hosts, no company representation. It’s just the influencers, their carry-ons, and their vibes. Did I forget to mention, there’s no WiFi? Yep. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. It becomes a blood bath as tensions rise, people become desperate, and some even begin disappearing.
Let’s Tackle/My experience of the book/Relationships/Lessons
Exclusivity:
A lot of the time, Rafi is feeling like an outsider. Sometimes she feels she is better than the influencers, and other times she feels she is inadequate compared to their perceived perfection and following. The latter is most related to her podcast success.

The influencers attend the concert in order to be included in what’s happening , but even after they get there and see that they’re stranded, they invent a scenario that makes it so they themselves believe they have to earn their way into the actual, more exclusive, concert. In short: they didn’t want to admit they got got.

(Spoilers ahead)
Perception is everything to everyone on this island, Rafi included. River hides the real reason behind his girlfriend’s disappearance because he’s afraid people will laugh at him. Jack hides behind his *inventive* makeup techniques - who cares if it stinks. As he so aptly put it, you can’t smell through Instagram. Rafi even wants people to believe she’s too serious to care what others think about her, even though she’s constantly battling her idea of self worth being associated with her follower count.

The characters are pretty one dimensional. What you see is what you get, but this is the kind of novel where that’s expected. Exaggerated personalities with no real substance in order to prove the point of the story. People will find themselves with power, and still not use it for the best. Rafi had one opportunity to use the internet and she uses it to go on Twitter - she’s no different from the other concertgoers who have had access to internet for much longer but instead of calling for help, they choose to scroll. Bro- these people didn’t bathe or really eat for an entire week because they were so caught up with social media. If that’s not a commentary, I don’t know what is.
(End of Spoilers)

The book is told in third person, from Rafi’s POV. Very briefly it switched to River’s POV.

I have to share some cute writing nods to the original: Peggy/Piggy, the conch. I didn’t read the entirety of the Lord of the Flies, maybe 50 pages. But those are the references I recognized.

Things that irked me: “Hella Badid” and “Mysterinos”. I feel like the name of the famous model in this book is way too close to a real life model, and this could have been easily changed to another name. I’m not sure I understand the intention of doing this. It’s a YA book, but I don’t think GenZ’ers would have needed this association to imagine how popular the model is in the book. The term “Mysterinos” is also too close to a name coined for listeners of a real life podcast. Again, I don’t see the point of this. Is it to show that there’s no originality anymore - am I reaching for meaning where there is none and ascribing thought to a process that had none?

Regardless of those two things that really ground my gears every time I read them, the book had a medium pace and easy to keep up with.

I’m not here to compare this book to the original , but I will say that whereas the original’s writing was boring and literally made my eyes hurt, the absurdity written in this book were almost comical and scary - enough to keep me engaged.

I was provided an advanced copy of the e-book by NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. I had to look this up, because the ebooks don’t have page numbers - but there were 320 pages.

I read this book because of the cover - are you kidding me?? It’s gorgeous. I also have this fascination with “Lord of the Flies” because I’ve tried to read this book 3 times without success. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not reading it, and that’s ok, because LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR BOOKS I DON’T ENJOY!

I’m indifferent about this book. I lean more towards liking it because I reacted audibly and it’s rare that a book will have me doing that. I quite literally laughed out loud a bit.

I recommend this to those who love a good power hungry entity, delirious deserted island tropes, and exaggerated personalities.

Ratings
Overall: 3/5
Heaviness: 1.5/5

Trigger warnings
Seclusion, comparison, idealizing lives/images, social media persona, beauty standards

Lord of the Fly Fest by Goldy Moldavsky, 320 pages. Henry Holt and Company, 2022. $19.
Language: R (38 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: HS – OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
Rafi (18yo) knows that River is a killer, and she’s going to prove it on her podcast by interviewing River at Fly Fest, the upcoming music festival on an island. But arrival on the island is nothing as advertised. When the time comes to make a decision about what to do, Rafi has a choice: convince everyone to unite in a call for help or trap all of them on a deserted island so that she can get her interview with the killer among them.
Moldavsky has rewritten Lord of the Flies in a modern setting, including the internet, social media, and influencers. The principles are the same and apply to us now as much as they always have, which is something that I knew intellectually after reading the classic version, but seeing it through Rafi’s perspective was both eye-opening and fun. One thing I have always enjoyed about reading Moldavsky’s works is her wit, and this book did not disappoint.
Jack is implied White, and River is Australian. Rafi appears to be White on the cover, but her and Peggy’s skin tones are not mentioned in the book. However, they are implied American, like the majority of the characters. The mature content rating is for mentions of drugs and alcohol, mentions of nudity, and innuendo. The violence rating is for mentions of murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

This was so much fun! Lord of the Flies meets Never Coming Home meets Hunger Games all wrapped up in a creepy festival is exactly what I needed to end the summer with. It was a wild ride and definitely worth it if you're a fan of kids getting stranded on a remote island and a good mystery.

Lord of the Fly Fest is a retelling with dark humor, and a heavy dose of satire of social media influences and celebrity culture. I had a fun time with the book, and the dialogue made me laugh out loud a couple of times. It was fast-paced and had a nice format, with Rafi’s podcast episodes sprinkled throughout the book. It’s also filled with easter eggs and references to the original Lord of the Flies, which were fun to try to pick out.

But I also felt it lacked some depth, and basically every character was really annoying. Which makes sense since the influencers are meant to be over the top and very insufferable. But it just got a bit frustrating after a while to read about. The only character I truly found sympathetic was River, and the story would have worked better if Rafi wasn’t just as annoying herself! She’s supposed to be the only “sane” person, but when she makes mistake after mistake she’s just as annoying and foolish as the others - just in a different way. The podcast aspect and mystery, as well as some of the humuor is what made the book enjoyable for me despite the less than appealing characters.

Satire can be very hard to get right. You want to get over the top to really exaggerate how ridiculous something is, but there’s a fine line between finding a nice balance and just being a bit too much. And, as with many types of humor, it is very hit or miss with people depending on their own humour as well as their understanding of the jokes. and some of the references were a little too on the nose to be fun and not just a bit cringe.

**Actual rating is 3.5 stars**

With a title like Lord of the Fly Fest, this story was exactly what I thought it would be, but with a very interesting twist with the people that are stuck on the island all being some sort of influencer. Except for River a famous singer/guitar player, and Rafi who spent all her money to make it to Fly Fest to prove that River is a killer.

As soon as the boat drops everyone off, Rafi realizes things are not what they are supposed to be. Not only isn't there anyone that works for Fly Fest anywhere to be found but things are quickly spiraling into craziness. Thankfully River, Rafi, and beauty influencer Jack have found a large shipping container full of sandwiches... too bad they are just cheese and lettuce, and everyone refuses to eat them. Things get crazier and crazier and soon it's the group against Rafi, and there is a chase, a rescue, and a great podcast entry at the end that kind of sums up what happened after everyone got off the island and returned to the real world...
I loved the podcasts interspersed throughout the story, and even though Rafi made a couple of pretty big bad decisions I really liked her, and her podcast. River even grew on me throughout the story as we learned what really happened to his girlfriend, and what else he's been lying about
This book took me on a pretty wild and crazy ride, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

The cover of this book is so riveting and totally pulled me towards reading it. And I love the drama of the fraudulent Fyre Fest meets Lord of the Flies, so the title all works for me, too. And with character names like Rafi, Peggy, Jack, etc... you already know you're in for a good time and will look forward to finding Easter eggs and pointing out homages/references. I had a fun time with the book, but I think I wanted a little more... depth? It was a fast-paced read and I enjoyed the format, but a lot of things felt very surface-level. There was just a lot of vapid vanity and self-indulgent, self-obsessed whining (I mean, I get it. The characters are meant to be insufferable. And I think the satire is supposed to be so intentionally on the nose, too. Again, I am fine with all that in theory.) that it got a little old after a while. Every few chapters we get a reprieve as the format changes to a Podcast narrative about a murder we are trying to unravel as the story proceeds. The story fell off a little for me about the 30% mark and did not pick back up to its original pacing until about 80%. Fun enough, but not my entire cup of tea.

”But a picture is a powerful thing, and if Rafi had known how this one pic would affect the course of their time on the island, she never would have taken it at all.”

Lord of the Fly Fest follows Rafi, a teenager who scraped together all of her saved up money to attend Fly Fest, an exclusive festival where the headliner is River Stone, a musician who gained fame after his girlfriend mysteriously disappeared.

This book is really good at making you angry. The island where Fly Fest was supposed to take place is filled with spoiled influencers and minor celebrities. And everything they say makes it painfully clear what their career is. It’s not a complaint I have; just something I thought was interesting.

As for the “true crime” (in quotations because it’s a crime that happened in the world of the book, but not a real-life case) element of the book, I was not a fan. This is a personal preference of mine, but I consume true crime media very rarely if even at all. Not only does it terrify me to spend time focusing on the worst crimes imaginable, but it gives me a weird vibe when creators of true crime content bring up old cases. I’ve heard that it has helped reopen cases, but it’s also brought attention to victims’ families when they don’t want to be in the spotlight.

Now that I’ve gone off my soapbox, I’ll talk about what I thought of the overall plot and characters. Rafi was a decent protagonist— I have nothing to complain about with her. Peggy was another likable character; they befriended Rafi pretty early into the book. Everyone else, as I mentioned earlier, was pretty annoying, but it was clear that the author’s intention was to write them like that.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to someone who had to read Lord of the Flies in school and kind of enjoyed it, but would like to experience it with more of a modern lens. If you’re a fan of the TV show The Wilds then this is a great book for you.

I am obsessed with this cover it is absolutely beautiful. I loved reading The Mary Shelley Club and when I realized Goldy Moldavsky was writing a book based on the Fyre Festival and Lord of the Flies, I was extremely happy when I received an early copy. I really enjoyed reading about Rafi. She has a semi successful true crime podcast. Rafi’s main mission is to expose a famous musician River Stone at a musical festival that people paid good money to attend. Rafi truly believes that River might have been involved in the killing of his ex girlfriend. However, when all the attendees arrive on the island, they realize the festival was a scam. All the attendees are trying to survive the island. I am glad I’ve watched the Fyre Festival documentaries and I was able to understand all of the references that were hilarious such as the cheese sandwiches, the influencers, and the suppose models that were suppose to attend. I know my students will enjoy this novel as much as I did. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to receive an early copy.

I hate to do this and say this about the book, but I wasn't really a fan of this story. I really read it because the cover looked cool but what was inside disappointed me to a certain extent. It was the characters. They weren't really developed enough for me to truly care about them. But I DID LOVE how scary this was. It defiantly made me keep the light on.

The premise of this book was interesting: a Lord of the Flies-esque Fyre Festival amalgamation that pokes fun at our obsession with celebrities and popularity.

Rafi is a podcaster who spends way too much money to go to Fly Fest, an exclusive music festival. She is hoping to interview River Stone, a popular musician, about the suspicious disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. Obviously, as we can guess from the title, cover, and description, the festival is not happening, and chaos ensues.
Overall, I thought that the author did a great job capturing the essence of Fyre Festival; I chuckled several times at the ridiculousness of these influencers stuck on an island desperate for Internet. My favorite were the non-twins creating a banana empire. I was expecting a little more actual survival of the fittest (a la Lord of the Flies), but beyond character names and a few pig references, it fell flat on the LotF brutality. Maybe it’s because I’ve branched out into horror more, and I’m expecting too much intensity from a YA book, but I was truly expecting some characters to die. The book kept a lighthearted, tongue in cheek tone throughout, and I think I wanted a tone shift to something darker and more intense halfway through.
With that being said, I would absolutely recommend this to my students, and I am planning on reading more of this author’s work. I enjoyed this book.

This book is about a girl who has one season of a podcast under her belt and wants to make her next season famous. She follows a famous guy to what is supposed to be an island getaway because she wants to prove he’s a murderer. Once in the island, where there’s no staff, accommodations or even food, she realizes nothing is as it seems.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand this book is actually pretty fun and I liked reading it. The problem is this book is hyper specific. You really need to know about Fyer Fest for this book to mean anything. It leans way to heavily on its parallel. This book can really only work for another year tops before the pop culture landscape completely shifts and suddenly everything is going to fall flat.
Also calling this Lord of the Fly Fest automatically makes it compared to Lord of the Flies and that is a terrible idea. Compared to a classic work of teen horror and social commentary this book doesn't even begin to measure up.
I guess as a whole this book just doesn't work. The idea was solid but its just been to long for this to be relevant. I can't see this book doing well with most people.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this book for free. My opinions expressed below are honest and voluntary.

I was definitely lured by the cover on this one, along with the idea that this was probably going to be filled with satire and sarcasm and all the other s- words I love so much. Upon being accepted for this ARC, I did what anybody who likes to spoil themselves does and read the reviews on Goodreads for those who were granted the ARC and reviewed since I requested…it wasn’t great. Now, I’ve been in the minority opinion before, both positively and negatively; I’m perfectly comfortable living in my own little world. But this is not one of those times.

What I liked about the book:
1. I enjoyed the podcast scripts interlaced with the normal paragraph structures. I also enjoyed how Rafi’s personality was definitely heighted on her podcast compared to how she was normally. This is super relatable to me, given I was a radio DJ in college. I was the shy, quiet girl in all my classes, but a loud, salacious radio personality on-air and working events as a DJ.

2. The first 40% of this book was actually ok for me. It was over-the-top ridiculous in making fun of influencer and follower culture, and it was pretty hilarious. From reading reviews ahead of time, I went into this not taking it too seriously, and I think that definitely worked to my benefit.

What could have been better:
1. This book was too long and changed “missions” too much. When the main point of the book was abandoned at around the half-way mark, I quickly lost interest. This was further exacerbated by it changing points a few more times. First, dude’s a killer, then he’s not a killer like she thought but he’s still a killer, then no one wants to go home but we’re going to just let the killer thing rest since there’s a Wi-Fi problem, then he’s a killer again. I hardcore skimmed the last 20% of this book because I refused to quit that far in.

It was all very confusing and begged the question, “What is the point and why should I care?” At the end of the day, there wasn’t one and I didn’t.

2. This book reminds me of why I’ve never had any desire to go to Burning Man.

3. So much of this book is about looks, which is supposed to be the overall satirical message, but since when are bangs controversial??? Our narrator mentions this, but I have never heard of this in my life! I’ve been rocking bangs for years and have never come across this before.

While I didn't enjoy this book all that much, I have heard other books by this author are fabulous!

The premise and cover both caught my eye for this YA novel. Before we proceed, let's take a look at the provided synopsis:

"To get her true crime podcast on the map, Rafi Francisco needs a splashy case. Her plan? Land an interview with Fly Fest headliner River Stone, who rose to stardom after his girlfriend's mysterious disappearance—and expose him as the killer she's sure he is. But Fly Fest, the dreamy Caribbean getaway they were promised turns out to be a nightmare. Soon, Rafi is fighting for her life against power-hungry beauty gurus and spotty WiFi. And, as she gets closer to River, she discovers that his secrets might have even bigger consequences than she suspected."

Unfortunately, I think my age has something to do with my disinterest in this story as the chapters passed me by. The characters really irked me. They were insufferable drama queens and robots, and I get that was part of the point -- surrounding our MC with unlikeable "influencers", which are people definitely have trouble connecting with and understanding -- but I still hated the constant interactions with these people from the very first time. I also didn't feel very interested in the MC, though she had her promising traits. The idea of the podcast was one of my draws to this book. But alas, the characters and all the "vibes" and "influencer" content made me unhappy in my reading.

this was an arc so no spoilers but oh boy i did not like this book!! i was not the hugest fan of the mary shelley club by goldy moldavsky but this was intriguing enough that i decided to request. however i just rlly did not vibe w this book. the writing style felt rlly sloppy to me and i am starting to great increasingly annoyed by books that are “critical” of gen z influencer culture. i just feel like it’s somehow already getting tired. i’m also not the biggest fan of the original lord of the flies so the retelling aspect didn’t work for me either!! idk to me satirization doesn’t work unless there’s something being said besides “this is easy to make fun of” so this book is a no from me.

SPOILERS FOR NETGALLEY:
it seemed to me like rafi didn’t learn her lesson? there was no end moral? i also HATED the way they made fun of “gen z language” which was mostly aave?? the river plotline was so ridiculous and i felt like the book itself just ended up with no plot. so yeah, not super for me.

Combining the concept of the failed Fyre festival and Lord of the Flies is such a stroke of genius I was mentally rating this book 5 stars based on concept alone. So I was disappointed when the book fell flat and didn't fully deliver on the satire/commentary I was expecting.
This isn't the first Goldy Moldavsky book I've less than loved so I'm fully accepting it could be a case of not for me rather than a bad book? But still, consider me let down.

This book just wasn’t for me. I think since I’ve recently read Never Coming Home, and found that writing and plot more enjoyable it had been difficult to get into this book. The main character is unlikeable for me as she leans into the “not like other girls” trope that should not exist anymore. I’m sure if I were younger I may enjoy this book or even had fun with it now if I didn’t read the better plotted book mentioned above (which is why it is getting 2 stars, and not 1). The concept was great but it just didn’t hit what it needed to for it to be a win. There’s someone for every book. For this book, I’m not that someone.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this arc to review.

Thoughts

This book combines the real-life Fyre Fest fiasco with William Golding's classic Lord of the Flies, and I really, truly wanted to like it. Unfortunately, it was a "no" from me. This book is perhaps meant to be satirical, but it was missing some crucial element to make that satire work. In the end, it was simply exaggerated to an extreme that just wasn't fun to read.

Pros
Lord of the Flies Ties: I really did like the Lord of the Flies elements that made it into this book. Any good retelling will embrace key components, and that's part of the fun, for the readers--finding those places of overlap. Piggy and his glasses here become Peggy and their Internet access. Level-headed Ralph becomes our protagonist Rafi. Jack the choirboy becomes Jack the makeup influencer. And there's a conch, because they're still on a tropical island.

Jack: One of the biggest problems with this book is that none of the characters (except for self-righteous Rafi) made any decisions that made sense. But then there was Jack. Oh, he was as exaggerated as the rest, but unlike the rest, he still did some legwork. He went on the hike across the island to look for help. He clung to his sense of self as the world was falling apart. And he held onto his own code, as silly as it was, to the end. So he made internal sense, and he wasn't a complete and utter exaggerated idiot. I appreciated Jack.

Grasping For Straws: The one other thing that made sense was how the influencer characters tried to make everything make sense. They had been scammed, but they didn't want to admit it. Denial is reasonable enough. And when there are conflicting stories and evidences to the contrary, why shouldn't they cling to whatever sanity they feel they have? It's better to think the party is here and they are just on the outside of it than to think they've been abandoned, perhaps forever, on a tropical island with no shelter and no Internet.


Cons
OTT Influencers: There are very, very few people, "influencer" or not, who would prioritize their Instagram over their food supply. These influencers weren't people. They weren't even caricatures. They were missing some je-ne-sais-quoi that would have made them real, believable. They were very, very terrible--the level of terrible that the cats from the 2019 Cats movie were. Which leads us right into my next critique.

Off-Key Satire: This book feels like it is meant to be satire, but it overshoots that mark. This book embraces the absurd, but not in a way that the satire masters do. We've got no Evelyn-Waugh-level critique of society here. These exaggerated characters don't point to anything really. To make matters worse, some of the more pointed passages--like the obvious revelation about Hella's "presence" on the island--are as insulting to the readers as they are to the influencers meant to be critiqued. Any book that has a celebrity called "Hella Badid" has likely missed the mark, at least as far as satire goes.

River Stone: River Stone was Rafi's whole purpose for being on the island, but River and his subplot didn't add anything here. Ultimately, this potential-murderer plot goes nowhere (something you might guess from Rafi's terrible first episode to her podcast). There's little evidence, Rafi's podcast is terrible (yes, it does bear repeating), and it comes to nothing? There shouldn't be a plot included in a book if it will lead nowhere and wrap up into nothing. Especially not the only hook the book had to begin with.


Rating
⭐⭐⭐
3/10

Fans of Kyra Leigh's Lizzie-Borden-inspired It Will End Like This will enjoy this new Lord-of-the-Flies twist on contemporary thriller. Those who enjoyed Ryan La Sala's Be Dazzled will like this new ultra-contemporary tale.

Lord of the Fly Fest is a fast-paced, dark comedy with effective commentary about '"do it for likes" culture. The author's style of writing in this novel made me laugh aloud in some parts in the way she accurately presented the shallowness and absolute ludicrousness of living one's life in pursuit of follower count and a curated social media image. Rafi is also an interesting character whose motivation was told in an engaging podcast format (which I usually tend to skim over in books). The book did meander in the middle and lag for a few chapters but it picked up again by the 80% mark. If you were compelled by the Fyre Fest documentaries and liked the satirical style of White Lotus then you'll like this book.