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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
It took me SO LONG to read this book, ugh. If I enjoy a book I'll pick it up at any opportunity, otherwise it'll be relegated to being picked up for a few minutes before I conk out at night, and thus it'll take me weeks to get through. That said, the second half of this book was much better, plot-wise. And the overall premise is good, too. Ultimately I just found the writing style didn't really "click" for me (not that it's bad, just not my cup of tea) and I found the main characters of each timeline (Orla and Marlow) pretty dull. Floss was a more complex and interesting character, if entirely unlikeable!
Alternating in time between now and thirty-five years into the future, Followers revolves around three women navigating what it means to live a life publicly. In the present day, Orla and her roommate Floss set out to make Floss a star through social media. Their plan ends up making both girls famous, leading them to try to hold onto that fame at any cost. In the future Marlow lives in the town of Constellation where all residents are filmed and their lives' are manipulated through decisions made by writers, sponsors, and follower comments. As the women's stories intertwine, Followers questions just how much privacy we should be protecting and the dangers of living our lives on social media.
This novel is ambitious, particularly in imaging a future where the U.S. is a surveillance state and devices allow us to have complete knowledge at all times, within our heads. The premise is interesting but I found myself wanting to know more about Constellation and "the spill" (which is referred to often but not explained until later in the novel) rather than the 3 main characters.
Orla and Floss are both unlikable and so single minded in their focus that it makes it difficult to sympathize when things go wrong for them. Floss is a vapid fame-seeker and at no point are we supposed to like her but Orla is supposed to counteract that. Instead, I found Orla just as bad. Her dreams of being a famous author in NYC is in part to impress a boy from high school, who also happens to be the boyfriend of her childhood best friend. Since high school she has not made a single friend and even though she is presented as a very normal, average girl in her 20's this seems extreme.
The most fascinating part is the glimpses we get of the future. Devices are put into our wrists so that we can search for information or get notifications in our mind. This includes the people of Constellation who are immediately notified about their likes and comments from the viewers who follow their every move on social media. Marlow has grown up fully in the public eye, with everything from her marriage and possibly having a baby being decided by the writers. She starts on a mission to find out some information about her past and through this we get a broader view of how much has changed in those thirty-five years, as well as how the country go to this point. This backstory becomes the most fascinating parts of the book and made me wish that Floss and Orla were just minor characters within a larger story.
The dangers of technology and the possibility of what could happen in the future are an important theme but this novel misses the mark by spending too much time on Orla's and Floss' messy friendship.
This novel is ambitious, particularly in imaging a future where the U.S. is a surveillance state and devices allow us to have complete knowledge at all times, within our heads. The premise is interesting but I found myself wanting to know more about Constellation and "the spill" (which is referred to often but not explained until later in the novel) rather than the 3 main characters.
Orla and Floss are both unlikable and so single minded in their focus that it makes it difficult to sympathize when things go wrong for them. Floss is a vapid fame-seeker and at no point are we supposed to like her but Orla is supposed to counteract that. Instead, I found Orla just as bad. Her dreams of being a famous author in NYC is in part to impress a boy from high school, who also happens to be the boyfriend of her childhood best friend. Since high school she has not made a single friend and even though she is presented as a very normal, average girl in her 20's this seems extreme.
The most fascinating part is the glimpses we get of the future. Devices are put into our wrists so that we can search for information or get notifications in our mind. This includes the people of Constellation who are immediately notified about their likes and comments from the viewers who follow their every move on social media. Marlow has grown up fully in the public eye, with everything from her marriage and possibly having a baby being decided by the writers. She starts on a mission to find out some information about her past and through this we get a broader view of how much has changed in those thirty-five years, as well as how the country go to this point. This backstory becomes the most fascinating parts of the book and made me wish that Floss and Orla were just minor characters within a larger story.
The dangers of technology and the possibility of what could happen in the future are an important theme but this novel misses the mark by spending too much time on Orla's and Floss' messy friendship.
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This book started off strong and promised a lot that it did not deliver. The premise is a possible future after reality TV and social media-based celebrity become bigger and more outrageous than they already are. The story starts off fairly taut and original but the plot becomes bloated and tedious, kind of like the contrived storylines in the spoofed reality show. There is a valuable warning against the shallow culture that makes social media god, but it becomes a lost in the desultory plot.
Good concept; weak execution.
Good concept; weak execution.
I have never read anything quite like this (...is my favorite thing to say in a book review). This novel is a ride, and every guess you make as the plot progresses is delightfully wrong. If you like books about complex relationships, about the potential best and worst that technology can become, stories with vision of a very different future, or stories that are just plain fascinating, this is the book for you.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Abortion, Fire/Fire injury
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First half had 5-star potential but the superfluous characters and recurrent suicide subplots creakily strewn in to deepen the stakes ruined the book for me.
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In 2015 two young women desperate for fame and followers help break the internet. Orla wants to be an author, but in order to survive in NYC she works at a TMZ-like site writing clickbait about celebrities. Her roommate is Floss, a pretty girl with a beautiful voice, but getting into the music business takes too much work so she’s going the social media route. In 2051 a portion of California is the home to a government run community, Constellation, where ‘celebrities’ are filmed every minute of every day for the rest of America to watch. Marlow has lived there for as long as she can remember, but starts to realize she wants out. This is the eerily realistic dystopia of Megan Angelo’s Followers.
Life in 2051 is an uber-heightened version of life in 2020. In 2016 the internet was hacked globally, causing The Spill, laying bare every byte of information loaded on loaded on personal or corporate servers and especially social media. The havoc wreaked was so devastating that the government stepped in, promising connectivity with security. The device was born. A small chip affixed to the wrist that removed the need for electronic equipment. Everything in life is handled by simply thinking it—no phones, iPads, no screens. What is not made clear is that every thought is a piece of data and now, rather than corporations, the government is mining it. Feeling depressed? You’ll soon see an ad suggesting you take Hysteryl, an anti-depressant that Marlow has been on since she was a teenager. Because, of course, corporations are tied into this—the government needs ad revenue to keep the project going. Even better, Marlow’s husband is a Hysteryl executive and the more the drug sells the bigger the perks. It’s only when Marlow learns that her next life event is to get pregnant that she begins to think about leaving. Except it’s not allowed.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/01/followers-a-novel/
Life in 2051 is an uber-heightened version of life in 2020. In 2016 the internet was hacked globally, causing The Spill, laying bare every byte of information loaded on loaded on personal or corporate servers and especially social media. The havoc wreaked was so devastating that the government stepped in, promising connectivity with security. The device was born. A small chip affixed to the wrist that removed the need for electronic equipment. Everything in life is handled by simply thinking it—no phones, iPads, no screens. What is not made clear is that every thought is a piece of data and now, rather than corporations, the government is mining it. Feeling depressed? You’ll soon see an ad suggesting you take Hysteryl, an anti-depressant that Marlow has been on since she was a teenager. Because, of course, corporations are tied into this—the government needs ad revenue to keep the project going. Even better, Marlow’s husband is a Hysteryl executive and the more the drug sells the bigger the perks. It’s only when Marlow learns that her next life event is to get pregnant that she begins to think about leaving. Except it’s not allowed.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2020/01/followers-a-novel/