Scan barcode
A review by pbailey14
Like Me by Hayley Phelan
5.0
“For all that talk about selling one’s soul, no one seems to be in the market. It’s the body that everybody wants. The body is a currency everyone can understand.”
I saw the bad reviews- and I downloaded the book anyhow. I can see how people unfamiliar with social media, or who don’t like an unreliable narrator wouldn’t vibe right. But personally as a 22 year old girl I was right there with Mickey and could sympathize with her even when I was angry with her. “Like Me” was a disturbing look into the mind of a 19 year old aspiring model with an unsettling obsession- mostly of herself and how she is perceived. We see Mickey shell out pieces of herself (sanity included) more and more with every turning page. Mickey is unlike the normal heroine depicted in Womens fiction and domestic thrillers, she is never fully redeemed, and doesn’t feel “whole”, but this didn’t make her any less real through the book.
The “wokeness” others describe doesn’t come across as the author making a point but as simply integrating pieces of the world into the characters “performances” as human beings.
I enjoyed reading this book and I am not saying it is without flaws, but I haven’t been that genuinely unsettled from a story in a while, and found it to be a very interesting character study that shows a young woman’s descent into madness and the way social media could cripple the mind and esteem of a person.
I saw the bad reviews- and I downloaded the book anyhow. I can see how people unfamiliar with social media, or who don’t like an unreliable narrator wouldn’t vibe right. But personally as a 22 year old girl I was right there with Mickey and could sympathize with her even when I was angry with her. “Like Me” was a disturbing look into the mind of a 19 year old aspiring model with an unsettling obsession- mostly of herself and how she is perceived. We see Mickey shell out pieces of herself (sanity included) more and more with every turning page. Mickey is unlike the normal heroine depicted in Womens fiction and domestic thrillers, she is never fully redeemed, and doesn’t feel “whole”, but this didn’t make her any less real through the book.
The “wokeness” others describe doesn’t come across as the author making a point but as simply integrating pieces of the world into the characters “performances” as human beings.
I enjoyed reading this book and I am not saying it is without flaws, but I haven’t been that genuinely unsettled from a story in a while, and found it to be a very interesting character study that shows a young woman’s descent into madness and the way social media could cripple the mind and esteem of a person.