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3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
Okay, look, I have no idea how to describe this book to anyone, or any idea how to convey how much I adore it. But I love this book. It is weird, and hilarious, and probably a metaphor for our internet-obsessed existences, but most of all, it's cheese "sandwiches" and bronzer. Does that make sense to someone who hasn't read the book? Probably not. But if you have read it: oink oink. I will read and love anything Goldy writes that Barrett narrates and this wild ride is no exception.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An updated retelling that is one for this age. This story and characters were so dynamic. The plot evolved well keeping close to the original with the most modern twists. You truly believe this is how it would all go down.
Despite not ever reading Lord of the Flies (and having absolutely no interest in reading it), I actually really enjoyed this! I found every single character insufferable but that was definitely the point so kudos to the author for that. This story was super fast paced and easy to read. As a retelling I thought it was pretty good too! I watched a few videos about the source material and it was fun seeing the connections between the two stories. I continue to enjoy the books this author writes, and I'll be keeping an eye out for anything she writes in the future.
Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Henry Holt and Co., and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.
Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Henry Holt and Co., and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.
“Rafi Francisco really stepped in it this time.”
Here are reasons to read the YA Horror book:
- Island Festival - Rafi has paid to attend the Fly festival on an island with one purpose: follow River and interview him for her podcast
- Scam - but when she arrives, she finds it’s all a scam
- Lord of the Flies - in this retelling that is Lord of the Flies meets Fyre Festival, what happens when there is no rescue and people start disappearing?
I had this book on my shelf for a while and finally got around to reading it. And if you have read Lord of the Flies, there probably isn’t a lot of surprise here. There is an interesting focus on social media, and if you are actually someone if you aren’t big on it. I enjoyed most of it, but sometimes it got slow. I really wished there was more interaction with the characters that was deeper. Rafi is a fine detective, but I wanted to know more about her and not the mysteries of the island.
Realllllly sad I didn’t like this one. It’s by no fault of the author at all - I’ve loved the other two books of hers that I’ve read this one just didn’t scratch the itch of thrilling and horrific acts of teens. I think that when writing influencers you have to do it either perfectly, or not at all. And unfortunately, this wasn’t it. If I missed a huge chunk of why this book was good because I haven’t read Lord of the Flies, that’s on me. However, I LOVED her other books - I’d say read those instead.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand this book is actually pretty fun and I liked reading it. The problem is this book is hyper specific. You really need to know about Fyer Fest for this book to mean anything. It leans way to heavily on its parallel. This book can really only work for another year tops before the pop culture landscape completely shifts and suddenly everything is going to fall flat.
Also calling this Lord of the Fly Fest automatically makes it compared to Lord of the Flies and that is a terrible idea. Compared to a classic work of teen horror and social commentary this book doesn't even begin to measure up.
I guess as a whole this book just doesn't work. The idea was solid but its just been to long for this to be relevant. I can't see this book doing well with most people.
Also calling this Lord of the Fly Fest automatically makes it compared to Lord of the Flies and that is a terrible idea. Compared to a classic work of teen horror and social commentary this book doesn't even begin to measure up.
I guess as a whole this book just doesn't work. The idea was solid but its just been to long for this to be relevant. I can't see this book doing well with most people.
Ett bedrövligt försök till en retelling av Goldings klassiker från 1954. Upplägget med Fyre Festival goes Lord of the Flies är fenomenalt i teorin men usel i utförandet - det är en smörja på gränsen till buskis.
I början var jag obeskrivligt taggad på boken - jag älskar Lord of the Flies och har nyligen läst den igen tillsammans med mina elever. Ralphie, Peggy, Jack: att se alla karaktärer i ny tappning och 2020-talspersonligheter var jättekul! Men karaktärerna - och händelserna - är för spejsade, för överdrivna, att det inte går att ta någon del av boken på allvar. Istället för ett monster är det en supermodell som anas uppe bland klipporna. Ryktet börjar gå om att den riktiga festivalen kräver sin initiationsrit. Influencerna på ön går så långt att de börjar smeta in sig i bajs för att "det är bra för hyn" men vid det laget har Moldavsky tappar mitt förtroende och bokens värdighet för länge sedan.
Själva brottet, mordet, mysteriet eller vad du nu vill kalla det hamnar helt i bakgrunden och är heller inte speciellt spännande. Personer försvinner men det är varken blodigt eller brutalt. Att säga att jag är besviken är en underdrift.
Användaren Erin, med bloggen getawaybookreviews.blogspot.com skrev så spot on i sin recension: "Satire is supposed to be funny. Good satire will be funny on the surface, dark and disturbing underneath. If this book was meant to be satire, it drastically failed that initiative. It felt like somebody watched a TikTok and extrapolated from there. These characters aren't real, and they don't touch on anything real. They're the worst sort of caricatures. Satire deals in caricature, sure, but they also have to feel like real characters--you have to recognize them, understand them. These characters, every single one of them, was over-the-top and ridiculous (in a bad way)." (hämtat från https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7549690-erin).
I början var jag obeskrivligt taggad på boken - jag älskar Lord of the Flies och har nyligen läst den igen tillsammans med mina elever. Ralphie, Peggy, Jack: att se alla karaktärer i ny tappning och 2020-talspersonligheter var jättekul! Men karaktärerna - och händelserna - är för spejsade, för överdrivna, att det inte går att ta någon del av boken på allvar. Istället för ett monster är det en supermodell som anas uppe bland klipporna. Ryktet börjar gå om att den riktiga festivalen kräver sin initiationsrit. Influencerna på ön går så långt att de börjar smeta in sig i bajs för att "det är bra för hyn" men vid det laget har Moldavsky tappar mitt förtroende och bokens värdighet för länge sedan.
Själva brottet, mordet, mysteriet eller vad du nu vill kalla det hamnar helt i bakgrunden och är heller inte speciellt spännande. Personer försvinner men det är varken blodigt eller brutalt. Att säga att jag är besviken är en underdrift.
Användaren Erin, med bloggen getawaybookreviews.blogspot.com skrev så spot on i sin recension: "Satire is supposed to be funny. Good satire will be funny on the surface, dark and disturbing underneath. If this book was meant to be satire, it drastically failed that initiative. It felt like somebody watched a TikTok and extrapolated from there. These characters aren't real, and they don't touch on anything real. They're the worst sort of caricatures. Satire deals in caricature, sure, but they also have to feel like real characters--you have to recognize them, understand them. These characters, every single one of them, was over-the-top and ridiculous (in a bad way)." (hämtat från https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7549690-erin).
Overall I enjoyed this book. Admittedly I didn’t start to like Rafi until like the last 60 pages of the book. I found myself saying “this is your own fault” for most of the book. I get she was supposed to be an unreliable narrator so powered through. I found it hilarious and frightening how disconnected from reality these influencers were.. especially because there are actually people out in the real world like that right now.
This is like 80% concept (great) and 20% delivery (mishandled and poorly edited), and maybe I would have found it a little more effective if I had more detailed memories of Lord of the Flies, but it's been way too long for that. Anyway, I liked the idea a lot, but it was a little too enamored of itself to keep the snark and satire in check.
I would like to say for the record that the most offensive part of this book is the O-Town misquote.
I would like to say for the record that the most offensive part of this book is the O-Town misquote.