Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I originally chose this book due to a quick read of the synopsis, as well as my love for silly stories about celebrities falling in love with a fan in strange ways. Especially when they have a mystery twist.
Follow Me Back
By A. V. Geiger
Published Date: June 2017
Format: ebook ARC
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Romance
Rating: 
4/5 Moose
Synopsis
Synopsis taken from Netgalley:
Told through tweets, direct messages, and police transcripts Follow Me Back is the first book of a new duology. Written for the online generation this thriller will keep you guessing right up to the shocking end.
Tessa Hart’s world feels very small. Confined to her bedroom with agoraphobia, her one escape is the online fandom for pop sensation Eric Thorn. When he tweets to his fans, it’s like his speaking directly to her…
Eric Thorn is frightened by his obsessive fans. They take their devotion way too far. It doesn’t help that his PR team keeps posting to encourage their fantasies.
When a fellow pop star is murder at the hands of a fan, Eric knows he has to do something to shatter his online image fast—like take down one of his top Twitter followers. But Eric’s plan to troll @TessaHeartsEric unexpectedly evolves into an online relationship deeper than either could have imagined. And when the two arrange to meet IRL, what should have made for the world’s best episode of Catfish takes a deadly turn…
Characters
Tessa Hart: An agoraphobic 18 year old, whoose lif has become all about her twitter world.
Eric Thorn: A famous singer who has become paranoid since another singer has been killed by an obsessed fan.
Rants, Raves, and General Thoughts
I'll admit, I submitted for this advanced reader copy because I might have been watching It Follows on Netflix. I was a little disappointed that this isn't a weird ghost/demon story, but it still was right up my alley. I secretly kind of love books where celebrities genuinely fall in love with one of their fans in some way.
I also tend to really love epistolary novels....which this isn't entirely. It's a good combination of pros and documents. I found Tessa to be incredibly relatable, even without not knowing what caused her paranoia until much later in the book. The author also doesn't try to sell her as a drop dead gorgeous girl who is just slightly flawed — she feels real.
This book also makes me as a Twitter user feel wonderfully uncomfortable. I have never randomly confessed my love to a celebrity....I honestly am more likely to yell at a corporation I feel has wronged me. But still, I do see the people that respond, saying anything to see if they'll get a reaction. And I will like/retweet things people say....especially authors.
This book is well written and fairly straight forward, though it has a nice twist. I found I related with Tessa's anxieties, and that they were written with just enough tension but not over the top at all.
Final Thoughts
I don't find too many young adult thrillers that are great — Harlan Coben has a great miniseries worth checking out ahem — and I would also recommend A.V. Geiger. I have started following her on Wattpad too! Though I doubt the sequel to this book will be published there. And be advised — this book has a cliffhanger ending. I cannot wait to see what happens next!
....oh I have to wait a year? REALLY? Sigh.
This book certainly was different from anything I've read before and it kept me reading to find out what would happen next, but I was not expecting that ending at all. Is there another book bc it can't just end like that and not tell us what happens next!!!
This book was a lot of fun to read. Not only does it use one of my favorite tropes (famous person + normal person), but it went a step further and made that normal person a fangirl. Not just a fan, but a fangirl. It also explored the darker side of fandom. Maybe it went to the extreme by including the murder of another popstar, but everything else you can find online at any time. Weird, borderline inappropriate photoshopping? Check. Rampant exclamation points, caps lock, and confessions of eternal love? Check. Forgetting that famous people are actual real people? Double, triple quadruple check.
This was also a page-turner. I was so curious about what happened to Tessa in New Orleans. The reveal wasn't what I expected, and oh my goodness, it was chilling.
I know some people think Eric Thorn was a dickhead, and I totally agree, but I think that helped make him more of a real character. He's a spoiled popstar living in a bubble. He's definitely got real issues that help him relate to Tessa, but still. It'd be more surprising if he wasn't a little full of himself.
So I really enjoyed this. A lot of fun. Great payoff in the last chunk of the book.
Then, the final few pages.
I'll read the next one. I definitely need to know what really happened. Hopefully, the next one will be just as fun.
I absolutely LOVED Follow Me Back because of what it offers its readers. It gives a credible and highly relevant romance, considering how many couples meet online, a thrilling mystery, an action packed conclusion, and, most importantly, a realistic portrayal of various mental illnesses and the role the Internet can play.
Whenever people speak about the Internet the inevitable conversation of anonymity and its dangers surfaces. It’s easy to pretend to be someone else on the Internet, but there are multiple reasons for pretending to be someone else. Whether it be to escape, role-play, or for something nefarious the option is always available. But you can also use the Internet to be yourself. To be the you that you hide in public or at home. Both Tessa and Eric use anonymity to escape their realities. Tessa uses it as a tool to engage with others in a safe environment and Eric uses it as a mechanism to escape his stressful and demanding life.
Social media allows us to connect with people we wouldn’t have otherwise connected with. It allows us to make friends, have debates, and connect with cultures we do not have access to. It also allows us to connect with celebrities/famous people who we would never have the opportunity to engage with. A simple like or retweet from someone famous can make someone’s day or the absence of that like or retweet can break someone’s day. Some may roll their eyes and accuse them of being pathetic. I would have counted myself among those had I not taken the time to think about my own presence on social media. I’ve found myself guilty of getting excited when an author or publisher likes or retweets me. This dynamic plays an important role in Eric’s life. Absently liking or retweeting something of a fan’s inevitably opens the door to the potential for further communication. However, when that door remains open but nothing continues things can quickly turn violent. Since our phones are always with us it means, by extension, that our social media account are as well. This is a fact of our lives now, so it’s easy to get lost or misunderstand someone’s online actions. This is exactly what happens to Eric and makes him grow more and more anxious.
Agoraphobia and anxiety are at the forefront of this novel. Tessa’s fear of leaving her bedroom causes her life to shift in a very different way. She becomes her online presence much more since it’s one of the only ways she’s able to forge connections with other people. Eric’s anxiety over his personal safety causes him insomnia and irritability. Geiger presents these mental illnesses in an unapologetic way. They aren’t used as plot devices and both characters work through their issues as best they can. The characters ring authentic and genuine, so I wasn’t surprised to read that Geiger studies women’s psychiatric health.
Overall, I really enjoyed Follow Me Back. It made me think about the role of social media in our daily lives and how it can affect the way with interact and think about others. It’s also interesting to think about the negative or positive role social media can have on our various coping mechanism. Social media cannot be classified as either a positive or negative because of its very polarizing effects and Follow Me Back is a perfect example of that effect.
________________
WHHHAATTTTT?!??
Next June is too far away!!!
What a fantastic book. My god.
The small but there RPF thing does squick me really, but the story does kinda deal with that, despite the fact that the author apparently started her writing career there (on Wattpad). Also with how extreme some parts of (RP)fandom can be.
But yeah, I'm still very curious about the last twist, and find myself speculating, so part two here I come I guess :P
The love interest, Eric Thorn, is incredibly problematic. He has unresolved anger issues that make him potentially dangerous. This is one pleasant look into his disturbed mind:
"Eric took a step closer, fighting the urge to grab his manager by the neck and shake the information loose."
How charming. Don't you want to be in a committed relationship with him?
Another thing that made me want to set this book on fire was the "not like other girls" trope. I thought that had ended. I thought we were done. Apparently not.
Eric sees Tessa as the only fangirl who doesn't only like him for his body. Even though she looks at smutty pictures of him all day long (there's nothing wrong with that, but Eric needs to learn that it's okay for her to be a fangirl).
Eric also says this about his fans, which made me want to scream:
He turned in a slow circle and ran his eyes across the faces of the girls in the front row - all completely interchangeable, aside from a few variations in hair color and skin tone."
Excuse me? WTF. How incredibly misogynistic and sexist. And a woman wrote this book. I'm disappointed.
Also, there was incredibly awful representation of therapists and mental illness. The therapist in this book, Dr. Regan, turns out to be flaky in the end. And she only teaches Tessa breathing techniques. Did A.V. Geiger do any research for this book? For an epidemiologist, I would think that she would try to make her book realistic. There are other ways to deal with anxiety than just breathing deeply. A.V. Geiger took the easy way out.
As the cherry on top of this problematic representation, Tessa has justified agoraphobia. A "phobia" is an irrational fear, and yet Tessa's fear is completely rational. This is not a spoiler because it is hinted at throughout the book, but there is a reason why Tessa shouldn't go outside. Now, an agoraphobic reader might read this and become worse. Plus, Tessa is always "projecting" her fear onto Eric Thorn, but she finds out that he is actually scared. So, I guess the moral of this is that projecting isn't a real thing? (I'm being sarcastic)
The writing style in this book is...annoying, to say the least. And the character relationships are so cheap. Tessa and Eric are supposed to develop this meaningful connection, yet there is no evidence of that. The story just skips ahead three months, and suddenly they're BFFs.
Speaking of unrealistic character relationships, the
This book was also the most boring thing ever. There was so much filler content, and setup for a sequel. I feel like this book and the sequel could have merged into a 200-page book, and I would have liked it so much more. Even though the fact that the sequel exists doesn't make sense, because
All in all, I want my money and my time back. Please don't waste yours on this book.