Vicarious Vacations

Paige yearns to be liked, in person, sure, but especially on social media. How can there be meaning to your life if not enough people acknowledge it and tell you so for all the world to see? Or at least that is what Paige believes. Now she has a job working with one of her most favorite social media influencers and the girl’s boyfriend. Along the way, Paige is introduced to an organization that makes your dreams a reality…but not really. Vicarious Vacations manufactures ‘likes’ and increases a person’s social media influence artificially. And now Paige is hooked. She has everything that she has always wanted, but at what price? The grass is not always greener on the other side, and everything is not always what it seems to be. Sometimes the price you are asked to pay is just too high. I loved this book! It tackles a relevant subject in our society today. The addiction to social media and the race to be a social influencer and gather the most likes is real, as well as believing everything you see is the real deal. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book!

I received an e-arc from NetGalley and Black Rose Writing in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't put this down, and read it in three days. It's the story of Paige, an Instagram addict who, through various somewhat shady methods, becomes an influencer. It reminded me quite strongly of Dave Eggers The Circle. They cover similar themes and both can be a bit soup-boxy and cardboardy. Both feature naïve protagonists and cover the themes of privacy and social media. Vicarious Vacations was written eight years alter and you can really see the progress / havoc / infringement on our time and privacy that social media has made in that time. Unlike the Eggers book, this focussed a bit more on the personal rather than the systematic, particularly in the final 20 percent. I enjoyed the way, even though some details were invented (or rather, having done the maths, the book is probably set about five years in our future) he uses the real names of the social media companies. I once quit a Candace Bushnell novel because she kept referring to "Instaphoto". This book had a level of authenticity, even if the ending was maybe a little too tidy. I'm very glad I stumbled across Michael Wojciechowskin, and will be looking up his back catalogue.