The Bright Side of Going Dark is a book about two women, Mia and Paige, who are living totally different lives. Mia is an influencer on this book’s social media equivalent of Instagram, and Paige is works for the social media company behind the scenes in a quality control role. Their worlds collide when Mia suddenly goes dark and Paige begins to take over her social media feed and pretends to be Mia.

This book was a pleasant surprise. I ought to mention that if topics such as suicide are triggering to you, this may not be the book to read.. I don’t want to spoil things in saying this, but I think it’s an important heads up. That being said, I really appreciate the way this book tackle such issues as suicide and mental health.

I also really appreciate that while the book focuses quite a bit on the downsides of social media, it does also show how social media can bring people together. Maybe that’s the unintended side effect of the book, but these two girls would have never met if it wasn’t for Mia being a famous influencer.

I do think that this book does show how social media can consume our lives so that we end up missing the beauty around us. We get so caught up in likes and followers and filters that we forget what it’s like to eat a meal without taking a picture of our food, or checking the weather. We forget how to communicate. I appreciate that this book that, on the surface seemed like just a fun book with some romance thrown in, had some serious societal commentary.

For all the deep discussion we can have about this book, it really was a fun read, and I loved every moment of it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book as an eARC.

First of all, thank you to @netgalley for the complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest review! This book publishes on May 12 and I think it’ll be a big one.
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I went into this book expecting something light, funny, maybe touching on technology over-usage. What I got was a look at “influencer” culture, depression, suicidal ideation, loneliness, and the disconnection of such a connected world.
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This book is a fast, easy read - but that doesn’t take away from the power of the message. In fact, I think it makes it even more powerful because it is so accessible.
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This book is not a light read, but it was worthwhile and I have been hit with a bit of a book hangover. There are some cliches or overused tropes, but they feel intentional and I appreciated the social commentary.
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Now, am I going to go throw my phone off a mountain? No. But I will be thinking twice about how “social” social media can be.

"The Overdue Life of Amy Byler" was my introduction to Kelly Harms, and I loved that book so much that when I saw Kelly Harms had a new book out I was excited to get an ARC of her new story! This story revolved around how social media and growing up with social media as part of our lives can impact our mental health. I feel that this is such an important topic and I am so happy that this book explores how social media and constantly looking at how "perfect" the lives of our "friends" are can affect how we feel about our own lives. I so appreciated how the book treated talking about anxiety, depression, and mental health, so many books that touch on mental health issues feed into the stereotype that people that have mental health issues are "crazy" and add to the stigma making people with mental health issues continue to want to hide instead of come forward. Though this book touched on some heavy topics, it was a fast delightful read with relatable characters, that I didn't want to put down once I started it! I loved Mia, Paige, and Jessica, and all the other characters and how they grew as the story progressed. Kelly Harms writes books about topics that matter, and I can't wait to see what story she comes up with next!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. From the same author as The Overdue Life of Amy Byler. Mia is an influencer in the platform Pictey. Paige is a consultant on the Pictey site. Mia has a follower that is claiming suicide and Paige is the one that should have caught the flag. Mia decides that her device was ruling her life as Paige found her site to ruin other lives. Mia goes dark and throws her phone off a cliff. What does Paige do about it? This book hit home outlining how much social media and devices run our life (this post’s irony isn’t lost on me). What if everyone went dark for a day, a week, a month??? #thebrightsideofgoingdark #kellyharms #may2020

I absolutely adored this book. I loved The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, so I was really excited to receive an e-ARC of this book - and it did not disappoint.

This book is very accessible and would be readable by a YA audience, but also entertaining as contemporary fiction. The book is told by two voices, Mia and Paige. Mia is a social media star (of an app similar to Instagram) and Paige works as a regulator for the app (deleting negative comments, etc). Their lives entwine unexpectedly and introduce a whole host of interesting and sympathetic characters.

This book would be great to use with high school or Comp 1 students as it would serve as a basis for discussion about social media, mental health, the responsibility we have for others, and the interconnectedness of human beings. The story does not come down on either side, which amplifies its readability - you don't feel like you're being sold a particular point-of-view. What you come away with is some thoughts about why we look for validation online, what we can find in the real world, and maybe the urge to consider our own social media use a little more closely. This book mixes the light and the serious, all in an enjoyable read.

I loved this book and I am a huge fan of this author. Kelly Harms is not your typical "chick lit" writer; it seems like there is always some little twist or something unexpected and unpredictable about her stories. They are never predicatable!

On the surface, "The Bright Side of Going Dark" would appear to simply be a tale centered about social media and the Influencers that use the medium for their gain, but there is much more to this story. We follow two main characters and then meet a few other significant characters as they navigate the social media world from both in front of and behind the camera -- the good, the bad, and the ugly, if you will. Mia is a successful Influencer on Picty (think Instagram) while Paige works behind the scenes at Picty in the Safety and Standards department. Naturally their paths will cross, but I will leave that for you to discover.

Harms has a delicious knack with dialogue and character development. In all of her novels you always get the sense that these are real people, not just ink on a page.

This book will be released May 12 by Lake Union Publishing. I was provided an ARC via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. I truly love this author's work and highly recommend every single one of her novels! Put this one on your radar.

I previously read The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by the same author (and loved it!) so when I had an opportunity to get an advanced copy of this book, I jumped at it. This book is refreshing and should probably be mandatory reading for anyone under the age of 30. The Bright Side of Going Dark is about an internet influencer named Mia who is planning on getting married using paid sponsorships, but who is then dumped before the wedding and has to deal with the fallout. It is also about Paige, a content screener who works for the internet company Mia is associated with. Both of their stories are parallel and intersecting at the same time. I loved the flow of this book. The characters are not one dimensional and you easily drift between one story and the other. This book makes you stop and think about our addiction to social media and having to always feel our phone touching our skin. As a woman of a certain age, I am lucky that I was able to be the last generation to play outside and use my imagination and just get 'bored' but I also am guilty of having multiple social media account and feeling a sense of dread when I can't find my phone in my purse after I have left the house. I'm thinking this summer I'm going to have to go dark myself and bring my children down with me...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a light, fun read that flowed very well despite alternating chapters between the two characters (Mia and Paige). Both characters were authentic and relatable. Anxiety, cyberbullying, young suicide, pressure to be perfect, phone/internet addiction, dysfunctional mother/daughter relationships and the fact that a large percentage of what is put out on social media is fake are all issues touched on in this story. This book made me think about how I’m truly spending my ‘quality’ time.

This is the first book I have read by Kelly Harms. I will definitely be checking out her other books. I love her writing style.

Fun read and really interesting to think about the impact of social media, both good and bad, on all of our lives. This book definitely made me want to get rid of my apps, so there's that! I think this would be excellent for book clubs.

I sat down to read this thinking it would be a light, fun read. I was right! Mostly. I loved this book. Loved the way the two stories ran together without knowing. I loved the way they collided. And I loved the way, when all parts came together it was a logical and natural conclusion.

“Bright Side of Going Dark” tells the story of social media influencer, Mia Bell. We all know those people, right? They post pictures of every morsel of food they have eaten, every workout, and every single movie and television show they are watching. But Mia takes it a step further, turning it into a career where she hopes to get sponsorship, using her wedding planning as a bandwagon to garner attention. (“Pretty Things” by Janelle Brown includes a character who is an influencer. I was not even aware this was a thing before reading these two novels!) But when the wedding is called off, Mia is tasked with keeping up appearances, which becomes too much too handle. Hence, she returns to her mother in Colorado and vows to stay off social media all together. What kind of a life can you lead when your moments are not spun to post onto the screen?

Paige works for the social media website that Mia posts on. Her job is to flag problematic posts, but the post she misses in the one from her estranged half-sister who voices whether her life is worth living on one of Mia’s threads. Feeling guilty as Paige also wrestled with depression and suicide at a similar age, Paige visits her sister while becoming consumed with Mia and why she is no longer posting. She partially blames Mia for creating an ideal that her sister could not live up to.

As previous reviews have mentioned, this novel is not just about the dangers (and benefits?) of social media, but also finding oneself and going through the growing pains (which never stop) of life. As I was reading this book, I could not help but notice how many times a day I scroll through Facebook or need to check my phone for updates.

The novel is told in the alternating viewpoints of Mia and Paige, and Harms has a solid sense of the voice of each narrator. She also does not hesitate to point out the quirkiness that makes us human. Parts of this book were painful to read, simply because of how awkward people can sometimes be. Harms managed to address the topic of mental illness and suicide without coming across as preachy. But it’s not all serious—humor and laugh out loud moments are peppered throughout the book.

This is the first novel I have read by Kelly Harms, but plan to now read The Overdue Life of Amy Byler so that I can spend more time with this author.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. My thanks also to the publisher and the author, Kelly Harms.

This was a fun read! Very apropos for this modern age. The main character’s struggle with her job as an internet influencer brings into focus the average person’s addiction to a whole lot of nothing. Mia makes a lot of money at it, but as it takes over her real life, she realizes something has to give. It didn’t surprise me that she held on as long as she did. What did surprise me were Paige’s choices in the book’s other POV. I loved the contrast between the voices - Paige struck me as borderline Ausbergers and kept her word choice in line with that mind frame. Paige was very entertaining and unintentionally funny. There was nothing new morality wise in this story but it’s an entertaining read about a subject so many people struggle with today.

The depth of this book shocked me. I was not expecting to read such a strong depiction of the importance of mental health and how social media affects it. The Bright Side of Going Dark does a remarkable job at shining a light on social media influencers and how their lives are filtered depictions of what they want you to see. Mia is a popular social media influencer who decides to step awake from her fake world and live in the real world. Paige is someone who avoids interactions outside of her normal day; when Mia walks away from her social media life, Paige takes over. She realizes how nice it is to have such an influence over so many people. This book has so much heart and made me cry a few times.

This was a great book that I had a great time reading. The characters were well drawn, and the storyline flowed seamlessly. Would like to read more books by this author.

I thought that this one was ok but I did prefer this authors previous book. I enjoyed the story line and I liked the main characters although I did find myself becoming a little disinterested in some parts of the book.

This book pictured so perfectly how our society is behaving towards internet and social media nowadays... and I confess, it was scary. It was scary for me to think of how dependent we are of such things and how our interactions with each other are dictated by what we post and who we are online.

Kelly Harms did an amazing job telling the stories of Mia Bell, one of the most popular influencers of her time in a top brand new app, and Paige Miller, a very bright workaholic woman, whose job is to monitor this app, but who in reality, wants nothing to do with social media/internet whatsoever. It was a very intelligent move from the author, to create a story with such an intense premise, but opting to show both sides, with parallel stories.

Mia and Paige couldn't be more opposites from each other, however, they are forced to each experience the other side, having in the end, both worlds colliding with such an incredible plot twist.

The characters are so captivating, and not only the main characters, but all the support ones as well. A big shout out to Mia's mom, whose hippie life style brought so much joy to the book and to Mike the dog, who was such a presence and so significant throughout the story.

This thought-provoking book made me reflect upon so many things in life, and from time to time, I would ask myself if I was like that, or if I had the habit of doing certain things. Highly recommended it!!

As someone who does not have any social media accounts, I found this book fascinating. Kelly Harms highlighted how easy it is to become obsessed with social media and demonstrated its addictive quality without being heavy handed. The ending was maybe a bit neatly tied up but isn't that what we all love about chick lit? And yes, I hate that term...

I thought this was a very nice and relevant novel about the bad side of social media influencers and just life/connection with others in general. I related to parts of it deeply, as I experience a lot of my career through social media. And I found myself thinking often while reading this, about what I want my future to look like. I loved that where this novel takes place is a place I’ve called home and I liked that all of the characters had massive flaws. This book is upbeat and easy to sit and read all afternoon.

“𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆,
𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒃𝒆?

This book was such a quick, delightful read! I am a multiple-books-at-a-time-reader, and this was my designated bedside book. And when I find myself reaching for my bedside book throughout the day, I know it’s a good one!

Influencer star Mia’s seemingly perfect, online-presence-heavy life takes a few left turns, and here she is, throwing her phone off the side of a mountain.
Paige, an IT whiz who works at the social media platform Mia has made her career on, is forced to go on leave when her estranged half sister leaves a concerning comment on Mia’s page — a comment Paige blames herself for missing. In search of answers, Paige finds herself hacking into and impersonating Mia’s now abandoned social media handle.

With alternating viewpoint storytelling, Harms has written a fun, contemporary story that follows the lives of these women as they are forced to face the question of their 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲. I was quite impressed with how distinct the different women’s voices were as they all came to life off the page.

Don’t let the 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆, 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗲 deceive you (or do, as is intended)— this book deals with deep, timeless themes of 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳 and loss, 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀and will have you rethinking about what it means to be grounded and find significance of life and self in the present day where so much of ‘reality’ seems to happen in virtual spaces.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this book and would recommend it to folks who:
- Have often felt attacked by their iPhone screen time
- Follow more doggo instagram accounts than that of hoomans
- Daydream about quitting their jobs, cold turkey
- Want to explore mental health conversations through a fictional narrative
- Are often overwhelmed by all the different social media platforms
- Didn’t know they needed chickens in the narratives they read, but maybe do <- it me 🐓

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𝘛𝘞: 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦, 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All views and opinions are my own.

Finished the Bright Side of Going Dark and let me say.... it is a book everyone needs to read!! It is so relative to the time of phone addiction we are living in. I feel hypocritical even posting about it because after reading it I want to throw my phone out and take a walk! The book has so many truth bombs in it and so many wake up calls for the reader. It is a beautiful story that focuses on what is real and what truly matters in our busy, noisy world. I cried, laughed and even felt myself cringe in knowing I am guilty of so many social media pitfalls. All I can say is wow!!!! Go get this book for yourself and every teenager you know. It is so so good and life changing.