Followers by Megan Angelo is a sci-fi book that will give the reader pause. The concept is shocking and addresses many issues in today’s society. It also contains characters that are spellbinding and interesting, yet all have something to hide. It really questions the way we live our lives attached to our online personas.

The story is set in alternating timelines and is told in multiple perspectives. Followers takes a look at our world today and then imagines how the US would react after a technological “Spill.” As the timelines of 2015 and 2055 overlap and converge Orla, Marlow, and Floss discover each other and themselves in worlds that value its reality stars.

❀ BELIEVABLE NIGHTMARE

During the 2015 and onward timeline, Orla and Floss create online personalities that become famous overnight. Although, the price they pay for attracting their followers affects their lives and relationships. It is a very believable nightmare that turns uglier after the Spill. Then, in 2055, we find Floss and her daughter Marlow living in a so-called utopia called Constellation. This fictitious world created by writers and producers is similar to the film, The Truman Show. It is a life that continues to be measured by followers, even in this new age.

❀ CAPTIVATING

So many issues are brought to light in this novel, such as privacy, patriarchy, and technology. What would happen to a world that is so dependent on technology to have it suddenly yanked away from them? Is a hand held device really something to not live without? Megan Angelo will have readers captivated by the possibility with Followers.

❀ THOUGHT-PROVOKING

Fans of the genre and those that question our dependency on technology will be intrigued by Followers. It is an engaging and thought-provoking read that will keep you turning pages.

This is an absolutely fascinating (and creepily plausible) book. At first, I preferred the 2016 timeline (with Orla and Floss) but it didn't take long for me to love Marlowe and want to stay with her timeline. 

You're going to want to be patient because it takes a while for things to make sense (especially the parts in the future) but this is a great and thought-provoking story. If you've ever thought, "Hey, social media may be becoming too addictive/prevalent/whatever," you need to read this book. (Or maybe you don't; it could push you over the edge.)

But more than that, this is just a really fun read. Think about the implications of this book or don't, but definitely don't miss this one.

Highly recommended.

I cannot stress enough how fascinating and terrifying this novel is! I loved ever second of it, and could not put it down! I read the second half in two sittings while feeling under the weather. And when it was over, I wanted more, which is rare for me!

This novel alternates between two timelines, one current and one futuristic. Eventually the two begin to overlap and that's where things get really intense. This whole book is a painful to read exploration of what our future of social media and constant exposure to technology may look like. Sometimes I was so freaked out, I had to pause to take a breath and remind myself this isn't real!

I guess this is technically a science fiction novel, but it doesn't feel that way at all! This didn't feel any different from the majority of contemporary fiction I read from authors like Celeste Ng and Liane Moriatry. While technology is at the core of the stories here, there's so much more going on. It's about personal relationships, and what we're willing to sacrifice to get what we really want. There's drama and romance, as well as national political and social issues. It's unlike anything I've read before that questions what the consequences of our technology use may be.

I highly recommend this novel for just about any reader. It has a sci-fi base and reads like literary fiction, it also has components of mystery/thrillers and even a hint at dystopian fiction. It's a must read for anyone!

Wow what a fascinating and interesting book this was. It has a believable plot and three dimensional characters. It immerses you so completely it'll be hard to put down. Happy reading!

Thank you to Harlequin Enterprises Limited (Graydon House Books) and NetGalley for granting me access to a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very quick and engaging read. Marlow was perhaps the only likable character in this book, and though not particularly likable, Orla was at least relatable. Some timely and interesting, if somewhat superficial, ruminations on technology and fame in the 21st century. Alternating chapters between present and future was a highly effective structure for the book that moved both story lines forward while also creating anticipation and building tension for the seemingly inevitable intersect. And while I highly enjoyed reading this book, it did start to feel like it was losing steam as it neared its conclusion. It's not that I was necessarily disappointed with where the characters ended up or that I felt there should/could have been a different ending; it's more that I felt like I was losing the connection to the characters, that I wasn't as engaged with the story. At the risk of sounding like a high school English teacher, I think it slipped into the "telling not showing" pitfall.

DNF
Orla found out Sage Sterling had died . She was found in a poolside chaise chair at the L A hotel she had been living in for a year. Sgae had been erratic, filthy, and sporadically mean. Orla had seen the news while ordering her salad. Sage was dead at twenty seven. Back at the Lady-ish offices, Orla’s intern would be looking over the Orbit Orla had written eighteen months ago. Sage had been Orla’s beat ,most of the time she’d work at Lady-ish. Ingrid- Orla’s boss said Sage was a source of “ bonkers” traffic early on. Every move Sage made, every boy or girl Sage kissed, every gown Sage put on Orla wrote up. Orla received small bonuses for stories that cloaked over five million views in a day. The night Orla wrote three hundred ninety six words of her novel. She had been aiming for six hundred words but the episode of a dating competition she was also watching became to engrossing. The frustrating part of writing a book she wasn’t really writing was she’d been good - at this once, when she was younger. She had been blogging at Lady-ish for six years and trying to do something bigger- writing a book- just as long. And now at twenty eight she was looking for a shortcut. A way to be somebody who had done something without actually doing it. It had been three weeks since Florence moved in. Orla had barely caught a glimpse of her CraigsList roommate since the day she had moved in. She found a literary agents card by the elevator and that’s what she needed to get an agent. Orla had always been the kind of person who let brazen classmates borrow her clothes, the sort of person who said “sorry, sorry.” when someone ran into her on the street. The sort of person who could not speak up at Lady-ish team building tapas, who let her colleagues order awful things than failed to secure any carbs for herself.
Just couldn’t get into this book. I laid it down and came back to it but still couldn’t force myself to read it. It just didn’t hold my attention. I am sure others will love it just wasn’t for me.

What an inventive and compulsively readable book - consistently fun and dark the whole way through. The world Angelo creates in Followers is brilliant: a Black Mirror-esque (note: now we can just take this to mean a future-tech world with some kind of moral lesson, okay?) semi-dystopia, told in in our present-day world of influencers, social media, and internet fame, as well as the distant but completely plausible world of 2050, where there exists an entire constructed town where 24/7 live feeds of celebrities garner the viewership of millions of Americans across the country.

Enter our three heroines (or are they anti-heroines?). In 2016: Orla Cadden, one of many aspiring writers from the Midwest who moves to New York to chase her dream of literary renown, only to end up with a blogging gig at a celebrity gossip rag called Lady-ish, where she writes about what the latest trashy, new money female celebs are eating in their salads and feuding about on Twitter. And then, Orla’s roommate: Floss Natuzzi, a complete mystery to Orla until she sees Floss step out onto a C-list red carpet and they both have an a-ha moment together. Here’s Floss, who desperately wants to be famous but hasn’t quite stirred up the drama or publicity to skyrocket. Here’s Orla, with the perfect online platform and following to start writing articles about Floss and jumping them both to influencer status in no time. What could go wrong?

In 2051: Marlow Clipp, thirty-five years old, a veritable star on the Constellation Network with 12.5 million followers and counting. She lives in Constellation, California, a town built by the eponymous network specifically to film and broadcast every minute of its denizens’ lives for the world to see. Each resident was hand-picked for their star potential, whether they’re drama-prone, musically talented, elegant, or had a special sponsor opportunity. Marlow herself is sponsored by Hysteryl, a prescription medication designed to regulate and perfect your emotions. Marlow wakes up every day, takes her Hysteryl live on her feed, then goes about her routine while viewers watch and chime in with their opinions. She hates her life. When an opportunity comes up for Marlow to investigate her past and ditch her life, Marlow takes it with gusto - and this adventure brings her face-to-face with Orla and Floss from three decades prior.

Angelo not only invents a spectacularly believable and somehow chilling new world, but she executes the plot with near perfection. She peppers in secrets, small reveals, little mysteries that make you want to keep reading. She alludes to disastrous-sounding events like “The Spill” in such a way that you can’t help but read on to find out what happened. Each of the three leads has such a fascinating backstory, full of relatable shames, desires, and sins that really round out who they are. Angelo doesn’t give all of this to you as soon as you meet them - she paces out how you learn about these three in a marvelously disciplined clip. Orla, Marlow, and Floss are fallible and mean and smart all at once, interesting and readable heroines. The only reason I’m giving it four stars instead of five is for the ending, which left me the slightest bit unsatisfied given how brilliant the lead-up is. Angelo stirs so many questions in the first two acts of the book, I was amazed that she answered as many as she did - but there are still some things that left me scratching my head.

I, like some others here, had this sitting on my TBR pile for a long time, and I couldn’t really get into it at first. But within a few chapters, I was hooked - I stayed up almost all night finishing this one. Don’t be like me - pick up this book and give it a read. Thank you to Graydon House for the ARC via Netgalley!

2015 meet 2051. As social media and the Internet have taken over so much of our lives where will it lead in the future? Angelo shares how she looks at what it could be through the characters of Orla and Floss (2015) and Marlow (2051) In the dual timeline you follow the lives of Orla and Floss from their start as roommates working together as the writer and shaker (a Khardashian type shaker) and the direction their lives take over the years. At the same time the story of Marlow's life is shared along with her unhappiness as a member of the government owned town where her life is always on camera to entertain her followers. As she seeks relief from her bonds of governmental control she finds her story is a lie and moves to find out what the truth is. The characters move towards each other as the negative aspects of social media play out across the years.

Followers tracks two women, one in 2015, one in 2051 and the role social media and the internet plays in their lives. It's bleak and it's hard not to wonder if this is where we're headed. This is a book that made me think and while it's uncomfortable to face the truth of how technology and social media might affect us, I highly recommend it. It's not all bleak, though. There's humor and light-heartedness threaded throughout. There's a lot of ridiculous in this book, but the darkness comes in how that ridiculousness mirrors our current and possibly future world.

This is a very clever dual time line novel set in 2016 and 2051 about three women- Orla, Floss, and Marlowe. Orla always wanted to be a writer but found herself in 2015 working as a blogger until she realized that she could market her room mate Floss. Floss and her boyfriend Auston turned into the biggest thing in reality tv but there was darkness waiting. Marlowe, in 2051, is in a sort of Truman Show existence where everything she does is filmed and rated by her followers. And then she goes off the rails...no spoilers! This has wonderful characters (I also loved Orla's mom) and a cautionary yet fresh plot. There's a bit of political commentary (look for the name of the mayor of NYC and the characteristics of one of the Presidents as well as, in opposite, another President's comments about walls etc.) but it doesn't take up much space. It's our collective obsession with the internet and screens that is evil not politicians. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Angelo has a good storytelling style and has crafted a genre jumping novel I read through and enjoyed in a day.

Followers. Once a derogatory term for people who simply do what others do and don't think for themselves. Somehow "followers" has become a sought after currency in our world. This books is about the new meaning of the word, but it reminded me of the old one in a way I haven't thought of in a long time.

We spring back and forth between 2015 and 2051 for most of the book. In 2015 Orla and Floss are roommates who work the internet fame system for all it is worth. Floss is the face but Orla is more than a sidekick. They are outrageous. Somehow coming back from every scandal. You keep wondering how far they can really push this.

In 1951 the world is very different. The Spill is referenced. All we know is that everything changed with The Spill and the fact that screens seem to have been driving us mad. The government took over the internet and Constellation was created to get people to trust it again.

Constellation, CA. A collection of stars. People who live their lives on camera. Devices send and receive everything straight through you. No screens needed. The residents of Constellation are valued by the number of followers they have hanging on their every move. The goal is to stay popular. Marlow has spent most of her life here. She doesn't know anything about how the rest of the world lives. She doesn't really even know how she lives. Does she make any decisions herself? Or are they all fed to her through her "device"?

We know that Marlow is connected to Orla and Floss. The 30+ span of the book shows how everything came to be and how everyone is connected. The three women are connected. Megan Angelo starts with all of these separate threads and eventually brings their stories all together in a surprisingly touching way.

Thanks to Megan Angelo, Graydon House Books, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Orla Cadden is like so many of us hopeful writers out here—she wants a literary agent and wants best seller fame, but for now, she had to settle for writing for a very popular blog, Lady-Ish, where she spilled the deets on celebrities and the happenings in 2016. However, truth be told, Orla wasn’t satisfied with her status in life. Having to watch celebrities make boss moves and seemingly having it all together, her life was more or less at a standstill. So, what was Orla to do?

Well lo and behold the answer was right under her nose, literally. Her roommate, Floss, who, like Orla, had big dreams and the drive to execute them, but her problem was, nothing seemed to be happening. That was ok because Floss was a boss lady and she had a plan. Her plan worked out tremendously because Floss became one of the hottest reality TV stars America had seen in a long, long time. Real Housewives, who? Love and Hip Hop, what? And what was even more strange, Orla wasn’t supposed to be a part of this plan, but by total accident got thrown in the mix right along with Floss.

Unfortunately, for Orla, she ended up losing her job with Lady-Ish and became an overnight reality TV star right alongside Floss. Fast forward to the year 2051, thirty-five years later, and Marlow is living in a real-life Jetson-ish America. Celebrities and entertainers lived forever in front of the camera thanks to the reality TV that started years prior. Cell phones were replaced by chips embedded in humans’ brains. There were new designer drugs created to keep you in a haze so that you weren’t aware of your surroundings. (Sound familiar?) The Internet was no longer since the Spill occurred, and due to the fact that we shared too much of our lives on social media, the government had access to every American’s deepest intricate parts of their lives, and Marlow was here for it! In fact, it was all she knew.

Marlow grew up in front of the camera and lived for social media. She influenced her followers, as well as they influenced the network to make major decisions for Marlow’s life. If she did anything that pissed off her followers, there were consequences she had to face. She was totally empowered by her followers and they controlled her well-being. She did everything in her power to please them because they were her survival, literally. Hell, the followers were her family’s boss. Her mother, Floss, was the reality TV queen, and her famous father, Aston, was the king of the television. The followers penned them Flosston. Marlow was the princess and had to do what the followers wanted her to do, in which she did, until…

Marlow stopped taking Hysteryl, a designer drug that kept her happy. (More like kept her under control). When it began to wear off, Marlow had a new clear vision as to the world she was actually living in. She took matters into her own hands and learns of a secret in her past that changes everything she thought she knew about her parents and her followers. And that, readers, is where this story skyrockets!

Holy Sh*t, Batman and Robin! When I tell you I could not get enough of this story, that is truly an understatement! Angelo wrote the hell out of this book! Do! You! Hear! Me! Yasss! She touched on so many things that we do wrong in our society, and then have the nerve to question when others get involved. I, too, bought into the “followers” charade and feeling powerful with my own blog, and at the end of the day, for what? Like why do we care about these so-called “followers” and what they bring to your table? What do they really bring? Well, you’ll have to read this novel to find out exactly what followers can do for you!

This book is terrifying on so many levels because we are here already. I started my review by stating that many of my own followers get tired of my rants about over-sharing, but perhaps when you read this book, you’ll understand why I take this over-sharing so seriously. The times we live in aren’t good ones, that’s for sure. It seems to be getting worse as we advance.

Followers by Megan Angelo is a unique take on how the internet and screen addictions are going to take a toll on the citizens so addicted to using them. The story swivels between 2015/16 and 2051. In 2051 there's a California city that airs non-stop on the new government-run internet. Citizens wear devices on their wrists and can view their statistics within their minds. They live their lives based on what they need to do for sponsorships and likes. Flashback to the 2015/16 time and see how this all began. Read and enjoy!

This dystopian novel is like Brave New World on steroids! There are so many social issues addressed here that my head was constantly spinning! Alternating chapters tell the story of Orla and Marlow in a futuristic world where The Spill caused technology to crash due to a worldwide hacking attempt. After that the world is never the same; social media is revered as "celebrities" stream 23 hours a day even though their lives are largely scripted by corporations that vie for attention and seek to influence followers. As the chapters vacillate between the years 2015 and 2051, we don't know what the connection between Orla and Marlow is until later in the book--but it's a good twist! I was fascinated by this novel as Angelo paints a picture of the world that could become reality if we don't curb our obsession with social media and forget that true humanity lies in the actual human connection we must forge with our families and loved ones instead of relying on "likes" and followers to endow us with self-esteem. Oh, and turn off your phone while you read this!

Based on the candy-colored cover and the first few chapters, I thought maybe this was would be be a fun, breezy read, if maybe salacious and occasionally scathing in looking at online personas and people living for being watched. But it turned out to be so much more!

This is one of those rare books where I found myself thinking about it even when I wasn't reading it- thinking about the implications of our current lack of privacy and social media culture, my own dependency on public platforms, how feasible something like choosing to live akin to the Truman Show might really be in the future. And then there's also a few mysteries, both small and large that are teased out throughout the story. Some are easier to guess than others, and some don't reveal their full horror until just the right moment.

I found this story to be compelling enough that despite it's mid-January release I feel like I have to feature it as the February new title pick for my shop's book club because I really want to talk about the content of this book with other people.

Followers is a creepy and skillfully executed half-satirical, half-speculative "what does the future of social media look like?" I'm delighted with Angelo's ability to write characters with a range of perspectives/desires/relationships to social media, and make me care enough about them to want to keep reading, even while I'm horrified by them. Followers is notable as well as for a terrifying view of what a world-changing cataclysmic social media event might look like. I went back and reread, before sending this review, because a month after my first read, I still found myself thinking about moments from the book.

I received the boom I exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

Love me a dystopian future. The Followers alternates between present day and 2051, and tackles themes of privacy, and what would happen if the internet was run completely by the government, and privacy was a thing of the past. I enjoyed the characters in this book - none of them were perfect or even entirely likable, but they were well developed. I was fascinated by the world Marlow lived in, and I admire the author for being so creative with her character’s backstories and creating this world for them to love in. Definitely recommend.

2015: Orla moved to NYC to be a serious writer, but she's trapped churning out clickbait. Her roommate Floss dreams of becoming an influencer. Their combined talents unleash a force neither could have predicted. 2051: Marlow is the face of Hysteryl, so every second of her glossy life in Constellation is honed to appeal to her 12,000,000 followers. Then the producers decree it's time for her to have a baby and her drug-numbed facade cracks. Between the two lies the Spill, a cataclysm that changed society forever. Merges chick lit with an examination of the power and dangers of technology.

This story is a powerful mix of a dystopian future and the equally chilling story of present day society. The title refers to the drive to become an influencer as measured by the number of followers in your social networks. The reader is tossed into chapters alternating between 2015 and 2051. We follow two young women in the earlier time period driven to be successful in the frenetic world of instagram and other social phenomena. The steps Orla and Floss take to become popular is a manual in social networking. The process is cynical, manipulative and destructive, but I don’t doubt that it works.
The chapters describing life in the United States in 2051 also focus on Orla and Floss but also include a young woman named Marlow who is Floss’s daughter. The world has changed significantly. The internet of the earlier days has crashed and failed. It has been replaced by a government-run network which operates through a device inserted internally and controls your thoughts seamlessly. No longer do people stare at their screens. In fact, it appears that too much screen time in the past has resulted in a form of dementia.
The book is a sly commentary on influence and relationships. It manages to get in wicked digs at current politicians and the potential for future disaster if we continue on the path we are on now.
The characters as they are introduced are almost without exception self-serving and without redeeming qualities. However as the story unfolds we are led to a passage that gives us great insight into the potential for growth. “ They pull back and look at each other. They take the same shuddering. There is a sudden possibility, if only a small one, that none of them are all bad.” it is this possibility that makes this book not only worth reading, but also thinking about after the story ends.

In 2016, Orla and Floss are launching their careers, with Orla using her social media skills to build fame for Floss and a future for both of them. In 2051, Marlow lives in a town built for social influencers, her entire life broadcast to her followers.(It's just like The Truman Show, except Marlow has always known that she was on camera.) Between those two points in time, something called "the spill" happened, destroying the internet which was then replaced by a version that the government closely controls and the public doesn't trust.



Giving up your privacy by sharing things online is bad. That seems to be the main message of the book. But your private information is out there in the cloud and on servers if you've ever spent a second online or not, so I'm not sure how that premise works if even the people who don't use the internet are still at risk. Then how do you shift the blame to people who post too much? I found myself more interested in finding out what the Spill was than in what would eventually happen to the main characters. Marlow's discover about her family history isn't all that shocking. Kind of like the previews for a reality television show that promise much more excitement than the actual episode delivers. I wasn't a fan of this one.