Miri Tan loved the book Undertow like it was a living being. So when she and her friends went to a book signing to meet the author, Fatima Ro, they concocted a plan to get close to her, even if her friends won’t admit it now. As for Jonah, well—Miri knows none of that was Fatima’s fault.
Soleil Johnston wanted to be a writer herself one day. When she and her friends started hanging out with her favorite author, Fatima Ro, she couldn’t believe their luck—especially when Jonah Nicholls started hanging out with them, too. Now, looking back, Soleil can’t believe she let Fatima manipulate her and Jonah like that. She can’t believe that she got used for a book.
Penny Panzarella was more than the materialistic party girl everyone at the Graham School thought she was. She desperately wanted Fatima Ro to see that, and she saw her chance when Fatima asked the girls to be transparent with her. If only she’d known what would happen when Fatima learned Jonah’s secret. If only she’d known that the line between fiction and truth was more complicated than any of them imagined. . . . (Pub Date: May 15, 2018)
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Edelweiss. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
What was up with this book?
3.5, because the ending was worth it but rounding down to 3 since the rest wasn't.
Okay, this is told describing a documentary on how a famous author used four teenagers to write a book, causing one to be attacked and put in a coma. Miri is the main character here, she still believes in Fatima even though she has been ignored ever since. Penny is not happy at all at how her friends don't recognize her value and still tries to understand her feelings about the whole case. Soleil feels betrayed and hurt, plus her boyfriend is the one lying on the hospital bed and she's ready to show to the whole world how that was Fatima's fault.
This idea was great and I was so excited I kept saving this book for later—I tend to leave the best for last. So it's partly my fault for creating so many expectations. Still, all the meta, the teenage scandal, the famous author... This book had too many elements to feed them. Unfortunately, I can't say they were met.
And the major problem was that the true point of the plot wasn't clear from the beginning, and there was nothing else there to keep us waiting for the reveals. Also, the reveals weren't even that surprising, I didn't even know the big secret was a secret—not a case of "I guessed right" but of "I understood right and the characters didn't". To sum it up, the book was mostly boring and the characters not that relatable. Did this plot have to become this crazy? A writer writing about a writer writing about teenagers becoming her friends? I'll put it straight, I only understood what the author wanted by the end but until then it all made me uncomfortable.
I think this author put a lot of time creating this plot, a lot of energy controlling these characters but she needed even more to make it all interesting enough. This was a very well written book, if the characters were so shallow and childish most of the times, all the rest had material go beyond the YA genre. But it took patience to get into it. To make things worse, it's long and it tends to go rounds.
Still, as we get near the ending and the true story finally becomes clear, I was finally cheering for those silly characters. Also, this style of writing is still interesting.
I'm not sure to whom I'd recommend this book but it's still one I mildly enjoyed. Also it has its perks; it's definitely not one more YA. But I know many people will instantly drop the read, it took effort to enjoy it and that's not what we look for in YA's, I'd say.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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