Lefty's Lowdown: Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger

Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger

(Follow Me Back #1)

Published: June 6, 2017 by Sourcebooks Fire

Source: I received an eARC of this book for review from the publisher via Netgalley, but that had no influence on my review or opinions. 

Summary from Goodreads: 
Tessa Hart’s world feels very small. Confined to her bedroom with agoraphobia, her one escape is the online fandom for pop sensation Eric Thorn. When he tweets to his fans, it’s like his speaking directly to her…

Eric Thorn is frightened by his obsessive fans. They take their devotion way too far. It doesn’t help that his PR team keeps posting to encourage their fantasies.

When a fellow pop star is murdered at the hands of a fan, Eric knows he has to do something to shatter his online image fast—like take down one of his top Twitter followers. But Eric’s plan to troll @TessaHeartsEric unexpectedly evolves into an online relationship deeper than either could have imagined. And when the two arrange to meet IRL, what should have made for the world’s best episode of Catfish takes a deadly turn…

Told through tweets, direct messages, and police transcripts.

 Here we go again with a celebrity book. I'll admit, I was skeptical about this one. Partially because it was originally a Wattpad book and partially because it just seemed a bit like the "I'm not a regular mom, I'm a COOL mom" kind of book with the hashtag on the cover and "IRL" and "troll" in the synopsis. Now I have some really mixed feelings about this book, but I did end up enjoying it!

Okay, so this book has two points of view. Tessa, who is agoraphobic after a mysterious traumatic event and wrote a famous fanfiction about our other narrator, pop star Eric Thorn. Eric took me a long ass time to warm up to. He got famous after posting singing videos on Youtube for 2 years and now all he does it whine about how famous he is and how his fans are obsessed with him. Like, do I think he has a point that his fans are more in love with his abs than his music? Yes. But honestly WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM BEING FAMOUS????? This is actually one of my pet peeves, not only in books but in life as well. You worked so hard to be famous, okay? Don't complain about how hard life is once you're there. You poor thing, people think you're attractive.

Anyway.

Once he and Tessa started to get closer and he cut down on all the woe is me crap, he grew on me more and more. But one of the problems I had with this book was that I couldn't suspend disbelief for some of the characters' logic and decisions. Like, did Eric really think that creating a fake Twitter account and calling himself rude names would make his fans see him in a different light? That's ridiculous. I guess that's how I could sum up parts of this book: ridiculous.

HOWEVER. As the end approached, I found myself reading with increasing ferocity to figure everything out. Was it a mind boggling thriller? Absolutely not. It was fairly predictable and bit drawn out, if you ask me, but I still wanted needed to know what happened to the characters in the past, present, and future. They both experienced a lot of change over he course of the novel and I was rooting for them and their relationship more and more as the final page grew nearer.

And then the final page happened. And my jaw dropped. I wasn't ready for the ending, and now I'm desperately waiting to see what comes next. Also, I just need to mention that this is another mixed media book, which, as you may or may not know, I am a complete sucker for. There are police transcripts and tweets and DMs and it was all good fun.

So, no, this isn't the best book I've ever read, but it is an addicting read. A quick read. An exciting read. And honestly, it stuck with me. I can't wait to see where this story goes next, though I do have an idea.

My rating: 

3.5/5

Lefty's Lowdown: A Series of Unfortunate Events #1-3 by Lemony Snicket

Dear Reader,

I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.

In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.

It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.

With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

 I started re-reading this series in preparation of the Netflix series releasing in this month! I read these books when I was a wee lil lassie, but I didn't actually remember anything about them, so I knew I needed to give them another go. Turns out. I don't regret that decision at all!

Middle grade is usually hard for me to read, but not this series! The first three books have been a delightful experience. The narrative style of these books is so fun. The very definition of unique and engaging. One thing I loved is that the narrative style didn't feel too childish. Like yes, there were obvious nods to the fact it's a children's book, but I didn't feel as if it were too simplistic or even dumbed down. It was just fun and quick and 100% entertaining.

But what really makes these books are the charming Baudelaire siblings. They've each got their distinctive personally traits--Violet loves to invent things, Klaus loves to read, and little Sunny loves to bite everything. They are intelligent children and they use their different passions to escape each horrible scrape with Count Olaf. I really just love them and of course I'm rooting for them throughout every book, and I feel horrible for them because nobody ever listens to them when THEY'RE SMARTER THAN ALL THE ADULTS. Ugh. That, I think, is the one thing that annoyed me in these books. The adults never ever listened to them. It got a bit old and repetitive and it was FRUSTRATING. I will also say that, while I tried to shut off the analytical part of my brain, I definitely spotted some plot holes. But, of course, this is a children's book, so it's not hard to overlook.

All in all, I've really enjoyed my re-read of this series so far, and I can't wait to get my hands on the remaining books, and I can't wait for the Netflix series to premiere. I do hope that the future books kind of mix up the pacing and what have you, or else this series ill get mighty redundant.