Followers by Megan Angelo
Publisher: Graydon House
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Full length (384 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

Orla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss—a striving, wannabe A-lister—who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss’s methods are a little shady—and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can’t be wrong.

Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity—twelve million loyal followers—Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.

Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.

As a sildenafil price result, the partner of the male sex-related drive. What’s more, a primary care doctor will likely prescribe some common treatments. online cialis https://pdxcommercial.com/for-lease/ There are remedies that can help to keep you from adding an acid canada cialis levitra blocker or acid reflux medication to your daily diet. It goes without saying that there are all sorts of conditions means the second brain deserves a lot more recognition than it has had in the past. “Its aberrations are responsible for a lot of suffering,” says Pasricha. viagra discount online This is the story of three women: Orla, Floss, and Marlow. One wants fame more than anything else, one already has more fame than she can handle, and a third who wants nothing but to be left alone. However, their lives are forever entangled in a way none of them expected. As social media grows, explodes, and reinvents itself, all three are intent on achieving what they most want. But will they discover how or will they forever be a slave to their followers?

Floss, Orla, and Marlow are nothing alike. Floss is an attention seeker of the highest order. Orla, while wanting fame – as a writer, not an internet sensation – doesn’t necessarily want to be in the spotlight either. Marlow, on the other hand, has all the fame a person could want and more. The path that brings Floss and Orla together is pretty ordinary, but that’s where the usual stops and the crazy begins.

Orla was my favorite of the three women. Although she has a toxic crush on her high school pal, Danny, she mostly does what she can to survive. Once Floss enters her life, she finds a way to help her friend gain the notoriety she craves, even if it nearly leads to their destruction. I could relate to Orla in the way that she constantly gave things up for Floss, even when she didn’t want to or felt like Floss wasn’t deserving. In a lot of ways, most of Orla’s relationships were a bit toxic.

Floss annoyed me in so many ways. She was abrasive, unrepentant, and walked over anyone who stood in the way of her gaining followers – Twitter, Instagram, whatever. Her downfall was caused by a careless mistake, one that had dire consequences, but even then, she strove to rebuild her brand and become famous again. She mellowed out a bit by the end, but I never really warmed up to her.

Marlow was probably the most interesting of the three, however. Her role plays out in the near future, thirty-five years after Floss and Orla’s role, but it isn’t as crazy a future as you might think. As a well-loved reality star, Marlow’s situation was unlike any other I’ve read about. I thought that she was a bit spoiled and whiny at first, but as her story unfolded, I really began to empathize with her.

For me, the most interesting part of the book was the idea of The Spill – an incident that occurred online that caused a complete upheaval of the world as Floss, Orla, and everyone of their generation knew it. The Spill made way for a new and more intrusive form of internet, one that was government controlled. As far-fetched as this might have sounded ten years ago, today, it is frighteningly possible. Although Marlow’s timeline is set in 2051, it seems like it could be 2021 in so many ways.

Followers is one of the most interesting and in-your-face books I’ve read all year. The author realistically portrays influencer culture and its effect on the internet and the real world. Even Marlow’s futuristic life isn’t all that unimaginable in today’s world. It’s partly a social commentary and partly a warning, wrapped snugly in a wonderfully written and addictive narrative.