Well Written But Falls Into Damaging Tropes
In Do You Follow ?, Alexa's life is sheltered, contained within the home she shares with her father after the death of her mother and sister. She makes few moves to get out from under his watchful eye, but when her dream job comes knocking as a social media marketer at a firm in New York, she knows that it's time for her to find a way to have a life of her own... on her own.
But her plans of being on her own are short-lived when her sister, Beth, shows up on her doorstep after a long stay at the Weinstein Center, a psychiatric hospital she’d been placed in after their mother’s death.
Alexa loves her sister too much to turn her away, no matter how small her apartment is. But when she starts to date a client looking to grow his Youtube following, keeping her sister and boyfriend separate becomes a burden she didn’t expect, especially when Beth starts trying to give her crazy warnings about her new beau.
Things are a little more complicated than they seem and the train that’s put on a collision course with Alexa’s life is heading full speed on a collision course that no one can stop.
Life isn’t what it seems with Alexa and Beth.
But at least they have each other… right?
Everything about this book screamed at me for attention. The cover is eye-catching and absolutely gorgeous. That alone would have been enough for me to want to pick up the book and give it a chance. I was also intrigued by the relationship between Alexa and Beth.
I’m the oldest of three with a younger sister that I don’t always get along with. So, for a moment, I connected to Alexa, knowing that if my sister showed up on my doorstep, I would be a little annoyed but I would never deny her a couch to crash on if I had the space.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the story, I found a lot wrong with the main twist.
From early on, we know that mental illness is going to play some part in the narrative. I always get nervous when this happens as it’s often used to scare the reader or it perpetuates stereotypes about the mentally ill that are damaging.
I wish I could say that Do You Follow ? is different.
Not by much. It has a really great story and the twist is really interesting. But reading another story where mental illness is demonized is just frustrating. There’s minor redemption at the end, but not enough to keep me from giving a bit of an annoyed sigh at the thought of it.
The writing was great and I’d love to read more of Bidonde’s work. The story was interesting and well told. I just hate that it fell into such a damaging trope.
But her plans of being on her own are short-lived when her sister, Beth, shows up on her doorstep after a long stay at the Weinstein Center, a psychiatric hospital she’d been placed in after their mother’s death.
Alexa loves her sister too much to turn her away, no matter how small her apartment is. But when she starts to date a client looking to grow his Youtube following, keeping her sister and boyfriend separate becomes a burden she didn’t expect, especially when Beth starts trying to give her crazy warnings about her new beau.
Things are a little more complicated than they seem and the train that’s put on a collision course with Alexa’s life is heading full speed on a collision course that no one can stop.
Life isn’t what it seems with Alexa and Beth.
But at least they have each other… right?
Everything about this book screamed at me for attention. The cover is eye-catching and absolutely gorgeous. That alone would have been enough for me to want to pick up the book and give it a chance. I was also intrigued by the relationship between Alexa and Beth.
I’m the oldest of three with a younger sister that I don’t always get along with. So, for a moment, I connected to Alexa, knowing that if my sister showed up on my doorstep, I would be a little annoyed but I would never deny her a couch to crash on if I had the space.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the story, I found a lot wrong with the main twist.
From early on, we know that mental illness is going to play some part in the narrative. I always get nervous when this happens as it’s often used to scare the reader or it perpetuates stereotypes about the mentally ill that are damaging.
I wish I could say that Do You Follow ? is different.
Not by much. It has a really great story and the twist is really interesting. But reading another story where mental illness is demonized is just frustrating. There’s minor redemption at the end, but not enough to keep me from giving a bit of an annoyed sigh at the thought of it.
The writing was great and I’d love to read more of Bidonde’s work. The story was interesting and well told. I just hate that it fell into such a damaging trope.