Very relevant story - addressing self-image, anxiety, overcoming adversity and standing up against sexual exploitation (think #metoo movement).

Josie is a high school student journalist, who has already begun her career, writing for Essence. Then she wins a contest with a mainstream magazine and gets to cover a film premier and write a cover profile of the film's young star, Marius, who is one of two Black members of the cast. Marius, like Josie, is queer, as is his character, a boy who endures conversion therapy. The film's director and headliners are straight white guys, and right away Josie, along with some other Black critics have questions the press junket organizers didn't expect.

It turns out there's a bigger story, though, an abusive director of another film who has assaulted or otherwise harassed an untold number of actors and film staff. Reporting on the abuse is scary for Josie, who herself has survived assault, not that she recognized it as assault at the time. Josie is on the tour with her older sister, Alice, who Josie doesn't get along with as well as her oldest sister, but the experience brings them closer.

Each chapter is headed by a sharp, funny, or vulnerable tweet. There's also a love story and Josie working through feelings of anxiety and concerns about her size. She's fat, unlike her sisters and all the movie stars she finds herself among.

I really loved this book and hated for it to end.

From the looks of it, Josie Wright has already found her voice. At 17, she is already a freelance journalist broaching topics of race and equity in the film industry. But when Josie is selected as the teenage journalist to profile an up-and-coming actor, her sense of self as a women and a journalist is challenged. Like Josie the journalist, Off the Record doesn't shy away from addressing sensitive topics. Josie's story tackles pressing issues like body positivity, anxiety, sexuality, consent, ethics, assault, and power dynamics. Would definitely recommend.

Part romance, part #MeToo social commentary, part coming-of-age for a talented teen journalist waiting to come out of her shell, OFF THE RECORD is an engaging YA novel from author Camryn Garrett. Readers will be completely enamored with protagonist Josie, cheering on her triumphs along the way, feeling their hearts burst open as her dreams come true. Fast-paced, true to life, and sure to be a hit.

I want to protect Camryn Garrett at all costs - they are so good at writing characters that cut deep to your heart, whether it is through discussing sexual assault or the highs and lows of teenage romance. OFF THE RECORD is great for a thoughtful read that makes you want to go on a justice crusade afterwards.

This book was received as an ARC from Random House Children's - Knopf Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I love the language and structure of Off the Record. It went with the flow of the story and just made sense as I read along. You don't know how much of a treat that was to read especially in YA Fiction. I hear stories all of the time of new reporters that get the A-List jobs and have the opportunities to be the next Mario Lopez, Hilara Baldwin, Nancy O'Dell, or Kevin Frazier and Josie had that opportunity of a lifetime. Being in that field though comes with a price and Josie found out the hard way when her secret leaked by another man paid by one of the most famous actresses on the market. After reading this book, I started to count my blessings of not being involved in that industry and how much I loved being a librarian in how I get to read books on people who got unlucky.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Trigger warning: sexual assault and sexual harassment.

I. Love. This. Book.

I was so surprised when I picked up this book. I got into it pretty quickly, and I fell in love with Josie quickly. She's a 17-year-old fat, queer, black girl. There is so much representation in this book, and I am so glad it will be out there for young people to read.

Josie is a high schooler who is also a journalist. She write movie reviews for magazines and freelances articles in her spare time when she is not working on school. Josie wins a contest to write a profile on Marius, a 19-year-old actor in movie about teens in a conversion camp. She quickly becomes friends with both Marius and Penny whoa are cast members of the movie. The three of them spend a lot of time together and become friends. In the course of writing the profile on Marius, Josie learns some disturbing things about the movie industry. She and Penny dig up some information that leads to a separate piece and embark on some investigative journalism.

This contest ends up changing Josie's life in so many ways. She blooms as a writer and as a person. Josie is a certified bad***, and I can't wait for more people to meet her!

The first half of this book was a 5 star read. It was so poignant and honest about anxiety, race, and young adulthood. The second half of this book ignored that wonderful foundation and turned a multi-year investigation into a 2 week school project with no substance. I understand suspension of disbelief is required for YA stories, and I actually love the idea of a 17 year old bringing down a Harvey Weinstein type character, but the earlier character development absolutely up and disappeared. The story became very stilted and rushed, forced a romance subplot between characters with zero chemistry, and ignored the fact that the sister was incredibly problematic and emotionally abusive. A story that focused on mental health and tearing down the MC's family's behavior would have kept this a 5 star book. Unfortunately, the second half really hurt the story.

Oof, I feel pulled in a lot of directions right now, and hope I manage to do an okay job at explaining my thoughts with this one. But I think, not unlike another contemporary I've read this year (likely more than one, actually..) the main issues I had with Off The Record is that I think it's just trying to do too many things.

While reading this book I had actually forgotten what the main plot point was going to be because I felt like it just took too long to get there. Which naturally made the catch-up, the acceleration of it all, that much more.. frantic. Balancing this whirlwind adventure after having won a write-in contest to interview an upcoming actor, catching feels, making friends, battling anxiety, body issues, slowly realizing said friends had experienced something terrible, being convinced to write about it in addition to the profile on the actor, have a romance, bond with a sister.. there are a lot of spinning plates.

In addition to all that, there's also some good discourse over separating art from artists, which is something I know we all struggle with; more and more each day.

I don't necessarily think anything beyond the romance really suffered for being rushed (Marius was such a soft lovely human but to be honest I wasn't really convinced by the connection) but there's also the suspension of disbelief over how quickly all the pieces fell into place for the big climax.

Sadly I also don't think I liked any of the characters. No one was awful beyond the villain of the piece (though the main sister dynamic was tough for the majority of the story) but I was reading for the story, even oddly paced as it was, more than the characters. I'm not sure why I didn't like anyone; not even Marcus, despite his soft loveliness -- but I definitely felt for them. Josie's anxiety overwhelming her, the mixed feelings about her weight and acceptance of her body, I could connect so well to both. But there was just.. something. I can't put my finger on it.

The subject matter of this story is very relevant and important -- and, of course, trigger warnings surround the whole issue so please be conscious of that -- and despite my mixed overall feelings I definitely recommend people still pick this up.

Also, as always, you should take my review and my rating with a grain of salt. Though none of my criticisms touch on anything non-plot specific, please prioritize #ownvoice reviews over my own.

I loved this book! The almost famous-esque plot with a young black journalist. The #metoo style reckoning. The casual bisexuality. The body positivity. After reading, I looked the author up and am so excited and impressed that she is only 21 years old and this isn't even her first novel. The protagonist, Josie, is also a writing wunderkind, winning a journalism contest and getting the chance to profile a young, up and coming actor. Along the way she starts uncovering some of the dark underbelly of the entertainment industry. This novel dealt with some heavy issues with sexual assault being the main backdrop of the story and Josie suffering from severe anxiety. But it was able to be cathartic and triumphant as well. I think this will be an important addition to classroom and school libraries.

I have to start off by saying that while I do suffer from anxiety and I am fat like the mc I am not own voices in the other aspects of this book. I Of course encourage all of you to please seek out own voices reviews first and foremost. That being said let's get started.
There is a lot in this book to like but also a lot to unpack. This books tries to touch on and discuss quite a few heavy issues such as race, sexuality, body image and harassment. Normally when I book trys to take on to many heavy subjects things tend to get muddled and then none of the subjects get the attention they deserve. Garret did manage to avoid that. They made sure that while each subject didn't all get talked about the same amount they did all feel as if they were addressed in the best way possible. I felt as of their approach to many of these discussions felt very natural while still making sure the subject was discussed and handled properly.
That all being said I did feel as if the romance dragged this book down. I make it no secret I am not a huge fan of romances in books they don't belong but in this case I felt as if it made other parts of this story feel cheap. This story was covering a very hard hitting and difficult thing to talk about and the romance just seemed to distract from what should have been the focus. For me I really think Garrett either should have just wrote a romance or what a book that focused on sexual assault. Adding the romances actually felt a bit disrespectful in some places. This may just be something that will only bother me but it really bothered me. It felt like a cheap distraction and I wanted to go through and take it all out.
I did enjoy the female characters though. The mc was relatable in many ways mainly her anxiety and how it effected her really resonated with me. I felt like the way she experienced her anxiety was so similar to how I do. That being said I should give a little warning that if reading about anxiety makes your spike you may want to treat carefully with this book.
This was honestly a solid read. I enjoyed most of it and really appreciated the way it took the time to try and duscus so many things. If this book didn't have the romance this book would definitely have mad it to my top five of all time. I definitely plan on recommending this book and hyping it at work.
Thank you to Netgalley for a early review copy.

It’s incredibly difficult to talk and write about sexual assault, and I think this book communicates that difficulty well. It’s messy and painful and there’s no right way to do it. Josie struggles to know what to say and do when interviewing assault survivors. Certain parts of this book are hard to read when the women are talking about their experience with assault but it’s such an important conversation and I’m glad this book does not shy away from those conversations. I do not, by any means, think the book handles these matters in a bad way but there are several things that I did take issue with:
• Women were asked by the main character to relive personal traumatic experiences in very public settings, one in particular in a hallway at an industry event where there were other people around
• Josie inviting her sister to sit in on interviews with survivors
• Josie surprising someone at a public function after forcing them to out themselves as a sexual assault survivor. She did not receive any sort of indication that this individual wanted to see her again.

I think including a romance and a sexual assault story line in this book was too much for either of them to be done well. The assault story felt like an afterthought in a lot of places and both storylines felt rushed in an attempt to give the other enough page time. I don’t think any of it was done badly per se, but I think it could have been better if not so much was crammed into one book.

What I did really love about this book was the anxiety and body image representation. Josie is painfully awkward sometimes due to her anxiety but I generally didn’t have an issue with that because it’s incredibly realistic. She is also fat and struggles with loving her body which I think was discussed very well. I found myself highlighting a lot of sentences that really resonated with me in those ways.

This book wrecked me. It is so beautifully written that my heart broke and healed alongside the characters. Camryn Garrett takes tough topics and writes about them in a way that builds understanding and empathy, and I truly think every student should get their hands on her books.

"do you ever look back on things that happen to you and realize they weren't okay and then, like, have an existential crisis"

[4.5 stars!] I read this one in two days-- Garrett is a force to be reckoned with, much like her young writer protagonist in Off the Record . Some of the lines in here made me feel so *seen*, especially my high school self. This book sparks great discussion around problematic faves, abusers, fat acceptance, and more. Though I loved Garrett's first novel, Full Disclosure , even more, this is a solid sophomore effort and I can say that Garrett has sold me as a fan for life. Looking forward to whatever she writes next.

Favorite line from the book (on problematic idols):

"I can accept whatever happened with MLK and Frederick Douglass because they were freedom fighters. They did so much good that I can deal with the bad. But I don't know if I can do the same with someone like Woody Allen. And why should I? MLK was MLK. Woody Allen only makes movies with white people in them." LMAOOO

content warnings for: talk of sexual assault, abuse

Camryn Garrett's novel about a young journalist interning with her favorite magazine was great for several reasons. While on the surface the focus of the story was the scoop that Josie stumbled upon and how she dealt with that, for me, the winning part of the story was the realistic portrayal of Josie's anxiety. I often have students ask for books with a mental health aspect, and I'm glad to be able to add this title to my list of recommendations.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This book was everything I want in a YA novel - a strong main character, heavy and timely issues, and a non-cheesy happy ending. I cannot recommend this one enough and can’t wait to Garrett’s other book.

What if a teenager broke the Harvey Weinstein story?⁣
⁣
That’s the premise of OFF THE RECORD, in which high school senior Josie wins a contest to write a profile about the star of an upcoming movie. As she follows the cast and crew around the press junket, she starts hearing whispers that she can’t ignore. ⁣
⁣
I wanted to love this so much but couldn’t get there. The pacing of the first and second halves were wildly off balance, and after reading both SHE SAID and CATCH & KILL, it was hard to believe a story of such magnitude could come together in less than two weeks. The strength of this novel is Josie’s coming of age and the very real portray of anxiety, and part of me wished the author had dropped the #metoo storyline and just focused on Josie. ⁣
⁣
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing an eARC in exchange for this review!⁣

5 stars

Sometimes, you have to kick your NetGalley spreadsheet aside and bump a newly approved ARC straight to the top. This was one of those times!

I really liked _Full Disclosure_ and popped _Off the Record_ onto a preorder list as soon as it was available, and this was a good move; I loved this book. Garrett's style is direct and authentically youthful without sounding unfocused or extraneous. Her main characters are people I want to know, and that is especially true for Josie, who exists at the center of so much writerly skill and talent along with a series of anxieties that shape many of her interactions. It is impossible not to root for her.

This is a quick read, and I felt engaged the entire time. Current fans of Garrett's and newcomers alike will enjoy this.