Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Followers

Followers is a dual timeline book. In 2015 we have Orla, who moves to NYC because she dreams of becoming a novelist and impressing her high school crush by becoming famous, but ends up spending her career making other people famous, most notably Floss. In 2051 Floss’s daughter Marlow is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with her life, which has almost always been led on screen in the community of Constellation where lives are scripted but the ‘talent’ must pretend to be living their lives without knowing they are on camera. Marlow herself has had a unique experience as the face of antidepressant drug Hysteryl for all problem children in the U.S.

This book had some really effectively disturbing parts where we see the aftereffects of a generation obsessed with their phones, and then eventually in present day the big event that led to the government taking over the internet. The fog that affects the elderly in the future seems so eerily possible. However, I feel the author could have focussed on different effects on different generations, not just millennials. I guessed the twist very early on, which was unusual for me, but didn’t necessarily hurt my expórtenle. The pacing was what was pretty bad because the first half felt so slow, even though it hinted at some interesting things. Then, we actually start to get to those things and it is pretty cool, but the ending was god-awful to me. Because of what happens, I really think we could have done with some Floss chapters in both 2015 and 2051. Finally, I found it really weird that Marlow commented on racism several times but the book never actually went anywhere with it.

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aargot1's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

cursedepub's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A much, much richer and more emotionally hard-hitting book than I expected, with a very relevant exploration of the issues of commodified self-image, age of aesthetics, and the culture of internet celebrity and social panopticon. I thought I knew exactly how this book would go - how many times can we do "internet age celebrity dystopia," right? But while I wouldn't say Followers is full of plot twists, I was pleasantly surprised more and more as I kept on reading and found that I couldn't predict what would happen next, what characters would do, or what connections would be revealed. This isn't just cookie-cutter or trend-following; there's real depth.

The story balances the large-scale movements of past and future (connecting two settings, 35 years apart, with events in one directly causing events in the other) very well with the personal journeys of the main characters. Everyone in this book is very real. Most of the time they aren't likeable - many times they are petty and small-minded, hypocritical, self-centered, and ruthless (in ugly, unglamorous ways), but I found myself rooting for them all the same.

The book isn't perfect - some of it is over-the-top, sensational, or overwrought, and the ending is a little too sentimental for my taste. I'm not sure I agree with how things were resolved. But I got way more than I bargained for in this, which I was very happy to discover.

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