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Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger Review

Good Morning Bookish Friends :)

I hope you're week is off to a great start, and I want to thank you for joining me today on the Preppy Book Princess.


As I've previously mentioned, last month my hubby and I were lucky enough to get to go to Disney World for almost two weeks. We always tend to fly out of the city that has my favorite Chapters bookstore in it, and so before we headed home I splurged and treated myself with a visit to my favorite bookstore.


I decided to give a book a chance that I'd never heard of either the book or the author before, and looked forward to getting the chance to read it.


Now that I've done so, I'd like to share my thoughts and opinions about it with you all.


Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger:



Source: Bought for Myself

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: June 6th, 2017

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Thriller

Series: Follow Me Back


Synopsis

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.


(synopsis from goodreads)


My Review:

I'm not quite sure what led me to picking up Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger from the bookstore, but for some reason I was in the mood for a YA thriller, and I'm always on the hunt for one that will compare to Natalie D Richards' Six Months Later. I really found that this debut novel by A.V. Geiger had its ups and downs, and while it didn't compare to my all time favorite YA thriller, I still found myself enjoying this story for the most part.

Follow Me Back focuses around a teen girl named Tessa Hart who's been struggling with agoraphobia for the past few months. Since she struggles to leave her room, Twitter has become her constant companion, and she's become a tad obsessed with tweeting with the rest of the fandom for her favorite singer, Eric Thorn. Eric Thorn is not comfortable with the obsessive nature of his fans, especially after a fellow pop singer was murdered at the hands of one. He's especially annoyed with the new #ericthornobsessed hashtag that's been circulating Twitter. He plans to troll the fan who started it all, @TessaHeartsEric, by creating a fake twitter account to highlight the fact that Eric Thorn is not the amazing guy everyone thinks he is. However, his plan backfires when he realizes that Tessa is actually pretty amazing, and now he's dug himself into a hole that he can't really get back out of.

A.V. Geiger has written a thriller that's full of twists and turns, and has the added bonus of being partially told in police transcripts, and twitter conversations. In a day and age where the new trend seems to be revealing way too much about one's self on social media, I applaud this author for tackling the darker side of it, and showcasing the fact that sometimes you never truly know the type of situation you can get yourself into. I hadn't personally read too many back before where agoraphobia was highlighted, but I felt the author did a really decent job in this one of showcasing just how brutal it can be for anyone who's suffering under it.

With how many books I read in a year, I'm always impressed when an author can take me by surprise with how they wrap up their books, and I have to say I didn't see the big plot twist coming in this one. I thought I had it figured out, but alas I definitely did not. Similarly, the huge cliffhanger at the end actually surprised me, and I didn't see that one coming at all.

I did enjoy Follow Me Back. I liked that it kept me guessing, I enjoyed Tessa as a main character, I liked the way it was told partially in epistolary style, I liked its focus on the dangerous sides of social media, and I also really enjoyed the way she highlighted how crazy fandoms can sometimes become, and how too much of a good thing is not necessarily good. However, this one was still a tad problematic for me in the sense that it took me quite awhile to become invested in the story, and also, to be perfectly honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. It really reminded me of Sara Shepard's writing in the Pretty Little Liars series, and I was not a fan of those books in the slightest. 

Overall, my final rating is three out of five stars. I had a few issues with it, but I did still enjoy it. 

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day!


This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners. 

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