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A review by emilyrainsford
Last Seen Online by Lauren James
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
4.25
I thoroughly enjoyed this YA mystery novel about fandom and obsession!
It is structured to capture that feeling of going on an internet deep dive down a wild fandom rabbit hole, with blog posts, comments and text messages amongst the prose. I feel that it captured this side of humanity really well.
Main character Delilah (and her mum) felt very ADHD/neurodivergent coded to me, which ~same~ so I found her character very relatable. I've seen a couple of reviews call the MC immature but I just don't see it at all, given I'm a 41 year old woman and I related to her a lot. Unfortunately neurodivergent people can often be perceived as immature so I wonder if that's the case here. Feeling like you don't quite know how to do relationships, questioning yourself and being "too much" for people were all very relatable experiences for me as an AuDHD adult that I saw reflected on the page in the main character, and I personally liked that a lot.
Sawyer was also a sweet lil cinnamon roll, I liked him a lot, and he and Delilah's fledgling connection.
Even though it's a YA novel, I wonder if maybe it'll feel more relatable to those who grew up in the livejournal/Tumblr/blogging era honestly.
I must admit, I didn't see the very last twist coming and I wasn't really a fan of Delilah keeping it a secret, but it was a good surprise!
It's funny, as I was nearing the end of the book, I felt like it could easily be a series and that I'd love to read more about the characters, so I was pleased to log in to Goodreads and see the series link! I really enjoyed this and would definitely read another.
It is structured to capture that feeling of going on an internet deep dive down a wild fandom rabbit hole, with blog posts, comments and text messages amongst the prose. I feel that it captured this side of humanity really well.
Main character Delilah (and her mum) felt very ADHD/neurodivergent coded to me, which ~same~ so I found her character very relatable. I've seen a couple of reviews call the MC immature but I just don't see it at all, given I'm a 41 year old woman and I related to her a lot. Unfortunately neurodivergent people can often be perceived as immature so I wonder if that's the case here. Feeling like you don't quite know how to do relationships, questioning yourself and being "too much" for people were all very relatable experiences for me as an AuDHD adult that I saw reflected on the page in the main character, and I personally liked that a lot.
Sawyer was also a sweet lil cinnamon roll, I liked him a lot, and he and Delilah's fledgling connection.
Even though it's a YA novel, I wonder if maybe it'll feel more relatable to those who grew up in the livejournal/Tumblr/blogging era honestly.
I must admit, I didn't see the very last twist coming and I wasn't really a fan of Delilah keeping it a secret, but it was a good surprise!
It's funny, as I was nearing the end of the book, I felt like it could easily be a series and that I'd love to read more about the characters, so I was pleased to log in to Goodreads and see the series link! I really enjoyed this and would definitely read another.