Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy, I just could not get into this book. It sounded good but it lost me early on and I gave up.

Emily Bleeker is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Her books are fantastic. While I really enjoyed "What it Seems" reading it in one day, there were a few parts of Angela's story that I found a bit unrealistic. Overall, another great book we will recommend. Thank you for the advanced copy.

For Tara, it should have been a new beginning, being adopted out of the foster care system by a loving mother. But her new mother is cruel and controlling, and now 8 years after her adoption, Tara is twenty and knows nothing of the outside world. Her only escape is watching online videos of the Feely family, to her they represent what a real family should be. When the Feely family offers her an internship, Tara believes her prayers have been answered and that she’ll finally have a life away from her controlling adoptive mother. But Tara will soon learn that the Feely’s are far from what they appear and she may have gone from the frying pan to the fire. Tense and creepy

Experimental Excellence. With this book, Bleeker does something she's never done before - writes a tale in first person. And for this particular tale, that was likely the only way to make this story as good as it is. This story involves some pretty heavy abuse, but that actually drives the reader to want to find some resolution... and drove me to complete the 304 page book in less than 12 hrs, which is a rarity even for me. An excellent take on the not-what-it-seems side of a popular cultural phenomenon, while also an excellent tale of survival and what a person will do just to get to the next day. Truly great work from an author I've been following since her debut a few years ago now. Very much recommended.