I was part of a team leading a buddy read for FOLLOWERS by Megan Angelo earlier this month. As it turns out, this was a great discussion book!
FOLLOWERS follows two timelines. In a contemporary setting, we follow Orla who is an aspiring author who is making ends meet working to write clickbait, sucking people in with celebrity gossip. Floss is woman with high ambitions to reach celebrity status. With Orla’s help, Floss gets the attention she needs.
Thirty-five years in the future, Marlow has been raised in a government sponsored California community where nearly everything is done on film. Everything is scripted from relationships to the decision to design a baby. Marlow is beginning to question the only lifestyle she has ever known. When she realizes that her own life story is not all that she thinks it is, she sets out to uncover the truth.
I really enjoyed reading this one. I was number one on the library waiting list for a physical book when the libraries shut down, so I wound up reading this entirely on audio. It took me a bit to figure out the different timelines without seeing it on the page and having the ability to flip back and forth a bit, but I thought it overall translated well to audio.
This is a fantastic discussion book, especially in a community where making content and being branded as an “influencer” is a factor. I am generally not a big fan of reality TV, but this book did provide an interesting perspective on the extremes a scripted “reality” program can go to. Do I really see the government ever stepping in to sanction and sponsor such a program, no, but it did make for good reading.
I did feel like I maybe wanted a bit more from the story. The shift over only thirty-five years from what we know of as the internet to what exists in Marlow’s present is very abrupt. The story does attempt to explain this with a cataclysmic event “The Spill”, but I think this maybe could have been developed a bit more.
In all, this is one that I definitely recommend as an interesting read, well worth an addition to your TBR!
FOLLOWERS follows two timelines. In a contemporary setting, we follow Orla who is an aspiring author who is making ends meet working to write clickbait, sucking people in with celebrity gossip. Floss is woman with high ambitions to reach celebrity status. With Orla’s help, Floss gets the attention she needs.
Thirty-five years in the future, Marlow has been raised in a government sponsored California community where nearly everything is done on film. Everything is scripted from relationships to the decision to design a baby. Marlow is beginning to question the only lifestyle she has ever known. When she realizes that her own life story is not all that she thinks it is, she sets out to uncover the truth.
I really enjoyed reading this one. I was number one on the library waiting list for a physical book when the libraries shut down, so I wound up reading this entirely on audio. It took me a bit to figure out the different timelines without seeing it on the page and having the ability to flip back and forth a bit, but I thought it overall translated well to audio.
This is a fantastic discussion book, especially in a community where making content and being branded as an “influencer” is a factor. I am generally not a big fan of reality TV, but this book did provide an interesting perspective on the extremes a scripted “reality” program can go to. Do I really see the government ever stepping in to sanction and sponsor such a program, no, but it did make for good reading.
I did feel like I maybe wanted a bit more from the story. The shift over only thirty-five years from what we know of as the internet to what exists in Marlow’s present is very abrupt. The story does attempt to explain this with a cataclysmic event “The Spill”, but I think this maybe could have been developed a bit more.
In all, this is one that I definitely recommend as an interesting read, well worth an addition to your TBR!