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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
⭐️ 4 stars ⭐️
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This book made me want to delete every bit of social media I have.
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This book made me want to delete every bit of social media I have.
4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was a good story! Slow in some parts but overall pacing was good. It became a page turner during the middle of the book! The plot of of the book was extremely interesting yet unsettling. I’m considering deleting every single bit of social media I have after reading this.
This was a good story! Slow in some parts but overall pacing was good. It became a page turner during the middle of the book! The plot of of the book was extremely interesting yet unsettling. I’m considering deleting every single bit of social media I have after reading this.
This was so good. I can’t stop thinking about it in these Coronavirus days. It’s a quick read and may be obvious to most but I loved the weaving of the stories and figuring out what the spill was and what happened to everyone.
This book is amazing. It's equal parts The Circle, any Palahniuk book, a dash of Nicholas Carr and Sherry Turkle, and an easy beach read. I will recommend it endlessly forever.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"Followers" by Megan Angelo is a literary fiction novel about life after the private Internet. There is an Internet "leak" that ruins the privatized Internet, which becomes state-controlled to protect people's identity. In addition to the leak, the blue light emitted from LCD monitors, TVs and the ubiquitous smartphone, have scrambled the minds of the older generations causing premature death. "Followers" refer to viewers of celebrity personalities that sell their personal lives, they are filmed constantly at all times by networks for people to tune in and watch, comment on, and gossip about.
I thought the subject and discussion about "posting" our private lives on the Internet and how someone becomes a Internet celebrity in this day and age were all interesting and original themes to explore. I enjoyed the parallel stories between the main characters before and after the leak.
This was a very interesting book about things to consider during modern times and the consequences of the roads we are going down in ten, twenty, fifty years.
I thought the subject and discussion about "posting" our private lives on the Internet and how someone becomes a Internet celebrity in this day and age were all interesting and original themes to explore. I enjoyed the parallel stories between the main characters before and after the leak.
This was a very interesting book about things to consider during modern times and the consequences of the roads we are going down in ten, twenty, fifty years.
Maybe finishing this book in the midst of the current world events wasn't the best idea...
I liked it. Took a while to get into, but liked.
I liked it. Took a while to get into, but liked.
Wow!! This book dazzled me. Completely absorbing world building and addictive story, doling out just enough back story and mystery each chapter to keep you turning the pages. I could not stop reading this and thought it was just such a thoughtful meditation on social media's effects on society, what some people will do for fame, and the difference between sharing ourselves online and connecting with others.
Recommended for fans of Mike Chen, Black Mirror, or anyone interested in asking tough questions about privacy in the age of social media.
Things I really liked:
- the alternating timelines, present vs future. I recommend reading the description of the book before diving in though, because you are dropped into the middle of these womens' lives and it zooms off from there
- the character development -- realistic and puts the characters through the ringer. No easy way out, so they have to go through.
- the world building -- detailed, thoughtful, creative, but not exhaustive so it allows you to fill in some of the blanks
- it reminded me of a Black Mirror episode in the best way possible
- while this is a book about technology and how it shapes our lives, it's equally a story of friendship and family and the choices we make to get what we want. I appreciated the balancing of the two. It reminded me of Mike Chen's sci fi, which never allows the sci fi to overtake the emotional heart of the story and vice versa.
- even though I called three of the "reveals", it didn't matter since they were almost beside the point by the time they come to fruition. I cared so much about the characters and had no idea where they were going to take the story that I was invested way beyond the plotting elements.
Two nitpicky items:
- without getting into spoiler territory, there's a scientific detail you learn about halfway through that kickstarts the big life-changing event ("the Spill") that these characters go through that just doesnt make any sense. I need to do some googling to figure out just how implausible it is, but the rest of the technological disaster is realistic and carried out in a believable manner so perhaps just a dose of suspension of disbelief will be enough for most readers
- it was a tad long. the last 40% could have been a third shorter and just as effective.
I've seen several disparaging reviews on Goodreads using the pejorative description "women's fiction" to describe this fantastic speculative novel. Without getting too ranty about why we have to stop using the term "Women's fiction" to describe books (why does a book about women instantly get labeled as "womens' fiction"? Why is "women's fiction" inherently lesser than other fiction? Why isn't all fiction considered 'women's fiction' when more women buy and read books than men do? UGGGGGG), this is a speculative story starring three female protagonists. The issues they deal with are fame, doing whatever it takes to succeed, friendship, motherhood, mental health, family lies and secrets, technological disasters, social media, privacy......... are any of those issues specific ONLY to women? No. And if this book were starring three men or written by a man it would not have the label "men's fiction" thrust upon it. The pink cover doesn't do this book any favors, though imo, it's incredibly fitting once you've read the whole thing, and reminds me of a couple episodes of Black Mirror ("Nosedive" and "San Junipero") which were not called "Women's television". The storytelling is reminiscent of Mike Chen or Blake Crouch, male sci fi authors who tell compelling speculative stories with deeply emotional cores, yet those are not labeled as "women's fiction" even though the core of several of their stories are ROMANCE and LOVE and father's relationships with their DAUGHTERS.
This book kept me up late reading but also kept me up late thinking about sharing online, how much privacy I'm willing to give up in what circumstances, and how our country as a whole deals with a society-changing catastrophe that results in the deaths of millions of people. (While there is no virus in the story, there is a pandemic of a more sinister nature, and the parallels that can be drawn between the fictional disaster and our current public health crisis might be a bit too real for some people to read at the moment.)
Recommended for fans of Mike Chen, Black Mirror, or anyone interested in asking tough questions about privacy in the age of social media.
Things I really liked:
- the alternating timelines, present vs future. I recommend reading the description of the book before diving in though, because you are dropped into the middle of these womens' lives and it zooms off from there
- the character development -- realistic and puts the characters through the ringer. No easy way out, so they have to go through.
- the world building -- detailed, thoughtful, creative, but not exhaustive so it allows you to fill in some of the blanks
- it reminded me of a Black Mirror episode in the best way possible
- while this is a book about technology and how it shapes our lives, it's equally a story of friendship and family and the choices we make to get what we want. I appreciated the balancing of the two. It reminded me of Mike Chen's sci fi, which never allows the sci fi to overtake the emotional heart of the story and vice versa.
- even though I called three of the "reveals", it didn't matter since they were almost beside the point by the time they come to fruition. I cared so much about the characters and had no idea where they were going to take the story that I was invested way beyond the plotting elements.
Two nitpicky items:
- without getting into spoiler territory, there's a scientific detail you learn about halfway through that kickstarts the big life-changing event ("the Spill") that these characters go through that just doesnt make any sense. I need to do some googling to figure out just how implausible it is, but the rest of the technological disaster is realistic and carried out in a believable manner so perhaps just a dose of suspension of disbelief will be enough for most readers
- it was a tad long. the last 40% could have been a third shorter and just as effective.
I've seen several disparaging reviews on Goodreads using the pejorative description "women's fiction" to describe this fantastic speculative novel. Without getting too ranty about why we have to stop using the term "Women's fiction" to describe books (why does a book about women instantly get labeled as "womens' fiction"? Why is "women's fiction" inherently lesser than other fiction? Why isn't all fiction considered 'women's fiction' when more women buy and read books than men do? UGGGGGG), this is a speculative story starring three female protagonists. The issues they deal with are fame, doing whatever it takes to succeed, friendship, motherhood, mental health, family lies and secrets, technological disasters, social media, privacy......... are any of those issues specific ONLY to women? No. And if this book were starring three men or written by a man it would not have the label "men's fiction" thrust upon it. The pink cover doesn't do this book any favors, though imo, it's incredibly fitting once you've read the whole thing, and reminds me of a couple episodes of Black Mirror ("Nosedive" and "San Junipero") which were not called "Women's television". The storytelling is reminiscent of Mike Chen or Blake Crouch, male sci fi authors who tell compelling speculative stories with deeply emotional cores, yet those are not labeled as "women's fiction" even though the core of several of their stories are ROMANCE and LOVE and father's relationships with their DAUGHTERS.
This book kept me up late reading but also kept me up late thinking about sharing online, how much privacy I'm willing to give up in what circumstances, and how our country as a whole deals with a society-changing catastrophe that results in the deaths of millions of people. (While there is no virus in the story, there is a pandemic of a more sinister nature, and the parallels that can be drawn between the fictional disaster and our current public health crisis might be a bit too real for some people to read at the moment.)
4+. i was into this! super original. switches between 2015 and 2051, and angelo was good at leaving each chapter with a little cliffhanger so you wanted to return to it (a peril when you're trying to get to bed!). floss and orla are terrrrrriiiiibbbblllleeee but in a way i understand (sadly?). the premise is almost too hard to succinctly type, but let's say there's a cataclysmic event that splits the world into a before and after, and while the book is about that, it's also not reliant on it. aka, it's not all world building and then a plot just magically poofs out--there's a lot going on even without the "event," some good character studies i'd be interested in regardless. i wanted a little more in some places--the book is called followers but we actually don't learn too much about what being a follower means (in the marlow context, specifically...i get that the followers moniker can apply to O+F)...the ending was a little rushed, pacing wise, although i didn't mind it as much as others. definitely pictured a jake paul/machine gun kelly type for aston, and audrina patridge for floss.