Tags: psychological thriller, dystopian, satire

It is hard to pin this book down with a review. Based on the pink and cursive cover and a brief skim of the synopsis, I was expecting a lighthearted satire on Kardashian culture. What I got was a thrilling, occasionally satirical, critique of what we value as a society. (Or, more specifically, what we think OTHERS THINK we should value in society.)

The main characters are awful people, but the brief glimpses of vulnerability and honesty that the reader sees allows us to forgive them, just a bit. Even an unrepentant narcissist does something brave and selfless eventually. The timeline bounces back and forth before and after "the Spill," a psychological terrorist attack using mined online data, and American society is wildly changed as a result. But one thing is still the same -- family is complicated.

Highly recommended.

It would be so much more convenient for me if I could pigeon hole this novel as just another "dangers of social media" story, but I cannot. It is, of course, inherently that, but it is many other things as well. So here I am, inconveniently, at two on the morning reading the final pages with my fist between my teeth because nothing about this story could wait until morning.

Megan Angelo's upcoming novel Followers tells two linked storylines, connected at first by the concept of followers and reality celebrity, but later by the needs of these well-developed characters.

In the first story, twentysomething Orla is sure she's going to move to NYC and become a novelist, but unfortunately, she finds a job writing celeb clickbait, with success measured in views and not literary merit. I was reminded of Eleanor's popular listicles in Sociable, Orla would definitely write about things that are just so coffee on a slow celeb-news day. She still wants to write a novel, but at night, she finds herself exhausted, drained, and aimlessly scrolling social media instead of creating.

Her roommate, Floss, knows that social fame is the key to riches and stardom, and she's ready to crash parties, date a famously obnoxious celeb, or whatever it takes to make that happen.  What Floss and Orla put into motion changes everyone's lives, and I loved how it was unstoppable without being a predictable Overnight Sensation storyline. The scenes of Orla's high school crush, now a suburban schlub, are deeply sad, especially how she really wants him to be her True Love, even as he prepares a depressing pitch deck on applying Floss' stardom for his own chance at wealth.

The second story begins in our future, in a closed, reality-TV community. Resident Marlow is extra famous as the face of an anti-depressant, mood stabilizing drug. She's on camera 23 hours a day, with a handsome husband, beautiful friends, and this season, the scriptwriters tell her that she'll be having a new baby. The viewer comments are hilariously on-point, criticizing armpit chub or tiny facial expressions, but of course, Marlow can't respond directly to them without breaking the illusion. This lifestyle is obviously brittle and unsustainable, but again, it doesn't unfold too predictably.

There was one small part of the book that was gorier than I expected -- it's not a shock, readers are led up to it with a lot of warnings about that terrible night and the scar left behind, but I was still revolted.

Because both storylines explore internet celebrity, I worried that this was going to slip into typical pearl-clutching thinkpiece territory (Young people are doing things in public, just for the clicks! Dumb stunts didn't exist before the internet!) but instead this well-plotted novel showed the corporate machine behind reality celebs and sponsored products.

This engrossing debut novel felt uncomfortably timely. The celebrity and online culture aspects were both cringe-inducing and hard to look away from, maybe because it mirrors where we are as a society so closely. It was a joy to read and, days later, I'm still thinking about it.