A review by homulucy
Going Viral: A Socially Distant Love Story by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc

funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Reading this about 3 years after the Covid pandemic & subsequent lockdown, it still hits fairly close to home. Going Viral was a relatively accurate portrayal of living in lockdown and not being able to go outside. The way the chapters were half real life and half online posts was an effective way of showing how the lines between Claire’s real life and story start to blur. At times, I even forgot that the blog posts were not real.
But, for all of the good parts of this book, there are just as many, if not more, flaws. Claire is a pretty unlikeable character throughout the story and she doesn’t seem to really improve herself even at the end of the book.
Her and Vanessa (Claire’s girlfriend)’s constant fights over text and/or video call never have a proper resolution in the moment, with the argument just getting swept under the rug.  They never address the problems on their relationship

The dynamic between Sadie and Claire is never really present throughout the book, they talk a few times, but besides that there was nothing there in terms of relationship.
The eventual blowup between Claire and Sadie felt like it was long time coming and should have happened chapters earlier. Every bad thing that happened to Claire wouldn’t of happened if she had been honest with Vanessa and Claire about the posts
 
Overall, Going Viral was not bad, but not good either. The basic structure and plot of the book is interesting, but the execution wasn’t the best I’ve seen. Hopefully some better books set during Covid will be published, because it’s important to cover events we all went through.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings