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averyskipp's review against another edition
4.0
Solid y/a book. Shows how fickle relationships and friendships can be.
lala_tour's review against another edition
2.0
This story of a teenager's life being destroyed by her father's bad deed seems lacking. The author addresses issues of racism and misogyny but they are glossed over and not fully examined. If this book wasn't about a teenager and categorized as young adult fiction I would have thought it was meant for younger readers. The fact that the author brings up these weighty issues but then never truly examines them through the character's introspection leaves me wanting a more solid resolution. Overall, In Case You Missed It is well written with good pacing and an empathetic main character... But felt a bit hollow.
ghoulizabeth's review against another edition
2.0
i originally gave this book 3 stars, but i’m bumping it down to two. there are just too many issues in this book that are just brushed over or completely ignored.
in case you missed it is about sammy, a girl who’s father is the ceo of a major banking corporation. a group of hacktivists gets a hold of all of her family’s information and yikes!! her diary, which she keeps on her computer, is exposed to the world.
at first, this sounded like an interesting read about what happens when you can’t hide your secrets any longer. but i was vERY quickly turned off by the writing style, the characters, and the modern issues that instead of being addressed, are easily forgiven.
let’s begin with the big question: why the ever-loving hell is this classified as a young adult book? sammy’s first person narrative reads like middle grade, which is one reason why i sped through it and didn’t connect with the characters very well. of course, there are some amazing middle grade books out there (i’ll take percy jackson for 100) but the writing style felt lazy overall. i wouldn’t be shocked if this showed up at a middle school scholastic book fair (no hate to the book fair i loved those chocolate calculators)!!
the characters were also a combination of stereotypes. we have nerdy, attractive girl Sammy who’s so quirky but also so beautiful! then we have the asshole jock who is terrible but oh my GoD he’s hot! the horrible mother and father! the annoying little brother! the cute geeky guy who is obviously the book’s love interest from the moment he first appears! oh, and in a book that’s supposed to be about racism, we have the token non-white friend, who is lovable and funny and forgiving. i’m not kidding. the main family is jewish, but they’re written as a white family- they definitely have white privileges, so the one best friend is the only main character that is clearly depicted as non-white.
also, about the whole race thing, sammy’s family is jewish, and her dad is the ceo of a banking corporation. even though he makes a lot of money, sammy goes to public school and the only indication of the family having any wealth is the mom owning a designer sweater. that’s it. sound familiar?
i am not jewish, so i cant determine if these issues are truly offensive or not, but they rubbed me the wrong way. i felt uncomfortable when it was revealed that the family is jewish... it was just an odd choice that didn’t contribute to the plot whatsoever, so i don’t know why the author went through with it and sprinkled some stereotypes in in the meantime.
furthermore! the hacktivists that steal the family’s information are actually doing the lord’s work. why? because the father is a racist, misogynistic piece of shit. and when sammy finally confronted him about his transgressions and his horrible self, he just cries. and that’s it. the author says nothing else about it. he doesn’t even really apologize!! he just says “that’s the way the business world is.” if that doesn’t bother you..
you know what i said earlier about this book reading like it’s middle grade? yeah, maybe don’t give this book to anyone who is still in their formative years. they might be given the impression that racism and sexism can be excused with tears, and that these issues are just because of the way the world is, and therefore they can’t be fixed!
in conclusion: this is fluffy with a side of awful.
~ i read this as “a book about or involving social media” for the 2020 popsugar reading challenge. ~
in case you missed it is about sammy, a girl who’s father is the ceo of a major banking corporation. a group of hacktivists gets a hold of all of her family’s information and yikes!! her diary, which she keeps on her computer, is exposed to the world.
at first, this sounded like an interesting read about what happens when you can’t hide your secrets any longer. but i was vERY quickly turned off by the writing style, the characters, and the modern issues that instead of being addressed, are easily forgiven.
let’s begin with the big question: why the ever-loving hell is this classified as a young adult book? sammy’s first person narrative reads like middle grade, which is one reason why i sped through it and didn’t connect with the characters very well. of course, there are some amazing middle grade books out there (i’ll take percy jackson for 100) but the writing style felt lazy overall. i wouldn’t be shocked if this showed up at a middle school scholastic book fair (no hate to the book fair i loved those chocolate calculators)!!
the characters were also a combination of stereotypes. we have nerdy, attractive girl Sammy who’s so quirky but also so beautiful! then we have the asshole jock who is terrible but oh my GoD he’s hot! the horrible mother and father! the annoying little brother! the cute geeky guy who is obviously the book’s love interest from the moment he first appears! oh, and in a book that’s supposed to be about racism, we have the token non-white friend, who is lovable and funny and forgiving. i’m not kidding. the main family is jewish, but they’re written as a white family- they definitely have white privileges, so the one best friend is the only main character that is clearly depicted as non-white.
also, about the whole race thing, sammy’s family is jewish, and her dad is the ceo of a banking corporation. even though he makes a lot of money, sammy goes to public school and the only indication of the family having any wealth is the mom owning a designer sweater. that’s it. sound familiar?
i am not jewish, so i cant determine if these issues are truly offensive or not, but they rubbed me the wrong way. i felt uncomfortable when it was revealed that the family is jewish... it was just an odd choice that didn’t contribute to the plot whatsoever, so i don’t know why the author went through with it and sprinkled some stereotypes in in the meantime.
furthermore! the hacktivists that steal the family’s information are actually doing the lord’s work. why? because the father is a racist, misogynistic piece of shit. and when sammy finally confronted him about his transgressions and his horrible self, he just cries. and that’s it. the author says nothing else about it. he doesn’t even really apologize!! he just says “that’s the way the business world is.” if that doesn’t bother you..
you know what i said earlier about this book reading like it’s middle grade? yeah, maybe don’t give this book to anyone who is still in their formative years. they might be given the impression that racism and sexism can be excused with tears, and that these issues are just because of the way the world is, and therefore they can’t be fixed!
in conclusion: this is fluffy with a side of awful.
~ i read this as “a book about or involving social media” for the 2020 popsugar reading challenge. ~
gabrielleried's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
jilljemmett's review against another edition
5.0
This was a powerful story about the negative effects of technology.
In this story, Sammy’s father’s company gets hacked. It leads to their family’s “cloud” storage also getting hacked and all of their documents get posted online, including Sammy’s online diary. This would be mortifying for anyone, but especially a sixteen-year-old girl, who made private comments about her friends in her diary.
One thing I liked about this book is that the adults had to face consequences for the actions as well as the kids. Sammy ended up losing some friends over comments she made in her journal, but her parents’ secrets were also exposed in the hack. They were keeping a big secret from Sammy, which they had to discuss with her once the world found out before her. This shows that adults can be affected by the same consequences as their children.
I really enjoyed this story.
In this story, Sammy’s father’s company gets hacked. It leads to their family’s “cloud” storage also getting hacked and all of their documents get posted online, including Sammy’s online diary. This would be mortifying for anyone, but especially a sixteen-year-old girl, who made private comments about her friends in her diary.
One thing I liked about this book is that the adults had to face consequences for the actions as well as the kids. Sammy ended up losing some friends over comments she made in her journal, but her parents’ secrets were also exposed in the hack. They were keeping a big secret from Sammy, which they had to discuss with her once the world found out before her. This shows that adults can be affected by the same consequences as their children.
I really enjoyed this story.
adrxc's review against another edition
2.0
... Well. I guess this type of book just isn't mine anymore. I'm sure I would've liked it two or three years ago, but right now? I can't say I did. This book is about a girl, Sammy, who wakes up one day and find that all of her thoughts are online, due to her family's computer's hacking.
The plot wasn't bad, let's be honest. I even think it was quite good. But the way Sarah Darer Littman wrote about it... I don't know, it was just childish and unrealistic. The characters didn't have any personality, I didn't feel anything while reading the book, and the beginning was really, really slow.
Also, there were themes like racism, misogyny, the danger of Internet... that weren't well talked about. It wasn't deep, it wasn't touching. These issues were just tackled, not dealt with in depths. And that disappointed me.
All in all, I think this is a book for people around 12-15 years old mostly, and I think it missed some really good scenes while focusing on boring ones.
The plot wasn't bad, let's be honest. I even think it was quite good. But the way Sarah Darer Littman wrote about it... I don't know, it was just childish and unrealistic. The characters didn't have any personality, I didn't feel anything while reading the book, and the beginning was really, really slow.
Also, there were themes like racism, misogyny, the danger of Internet... that weren't well talked about. It wasn't deep, it wasn't touching. These issues were just tackled, not dealt with in depths. And that disappointed me.
All in all, I think this is a book for people around 12-15 years old mostly, and I think it missed some really good scenes while focusing on boring ones.
bookswithlou's review against another edition
3.0
This was my last read (or well listen) of 2016 and it was alright but I didn't love it. It was similar to a few books that I've read but like I found some of the plot points a bit weird (eg. The Hackers leaking everything even the kids stuff and everyone suddenly having read it all writhing like 24hours) ALSO I feel like it kind of just ended. But like the main character had realistic feelings and I was able to understand her point of view on the situation even if her action weren't always the best.
glangley's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book as a bit of light reading while on holiday and I did enjoy it. It would suit younger readers and I liked the topics touched upon such as racism, equality and social networking as they are very relevant in todays society. I also loved the references to other books and media. However, I felt as though there wasn’t enough character development beyond the events that occurred to the characters and the book failed to fully captivate me at times.
kinglee's review against another edition
1.0
TW: misogyny, racism
Sammy is in her junior year. She's worried about her drivers and AP exams while also being worried about who, if anyone, is going to ask her to prom. But, when her family's private lives are put online for everyone to see, her life is turned upside down and her life feels over.
This book is supposed to be young adult, but it didn't read like it. The way Sammy thought about her family felt more middle-grade than it did for a sixteen year old. Her mom was always the worst person no matter what and it got old really fast. In all, Sammy wasn't a likable character at all. She said horrible things and then blamed other people for hating her when it all came out.
There are a number of hard topics brought up in this, but none of them are properly dealt with. Sammy's father refuses to talk about everything that comes out about him and when he does it's very basic. Even with Sammy has a conversation with a friend she said something racist about, it gets glossed over far too easy. I'd say that it's middle grade in how the author deals with things, but I've read middle grade books that deal with this topic better.
The ending tried to make everything seem like a happy ending, but to me it felt as if the author brought in another plot point simply to make people forget about the heavy topics and ignore the fact that they were being glossed over.
I didn't go into this expecting a lot, but I still walked away annoyed and extremely disappointed.
Sammy is in her junior year. She's worried about her drivers and AP exams while also being worried about who, if anyone, is going to ask her to prom. But, when her family's private lives are put online for everyone to see, her life is turned upside down and her life feels over.
This book is supposed to be young adult, but it didn't read like it. The way Sammy thought about her family felt more middle-grade than it did for a sixteen year old. Her mom was always the worst person no matter what and it got old really fast. In all, Sammy wasn't a likable character at all. She said horrible things and then blamed other people for hating her when it all came out.
There are a number of hard topics brought up in this, but none of them are properly dealt with. Sammy's father refuses to talk about everything that comes out about him and when he does it's very basic. Even with Sammy has a conversation with a friend she said something racist about, it gets glossed over far too easy. I'd say that it's middle grade in how the author deals with things, but I've read middle grade books that deal with this topic better.
The ending tried to make everything seem like a happy ending, but to me it felt as if the author brought in another plot point simply to make people forget about the heavy topics and ignore the fact that they were being glossed over.
I didn't go into this expecting a lot, but I still walked away annoyed and extremely disappointed.
stevie1216's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I really enjoyed reading this even though it was just a random read