Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

This book sounded a little more innocuous by the summary blurb but wow, basically from chapter one the main character Billie is a sexist, gaslighting, possessive, self-absorbed little jerk and aside from the last few pages where we're supposed to accept that she's suddenly seen the error of her ways and has "grown," she remains the same through the entire story. The most interesting character is her best friend Rex, who deserves so much better than Billie and for the life of me I can't figure why they're even friends with her at all. From the start, Billie decides she needs to get back together with her ex-girlfriend June, who had caught Billie emotionally cheating online and called it quits. Billie essentially stalks June, refuses to hear the word "no" and joins the school play as a way to force June to spend time with her. Yes, you read that correctly--force. This kid absolutely sucks. Along the way, she stumbles into Internet fame, continues to be a terrible person (but in this world it's apparently ok because she's also "hot") who finally only starts feeling the consequences of being terrible far too late. Billie is not the type of person you'd root for and even when she makes amends for her behavior, you get the feeling that it's temporary and in another week or two she'll be back to her toxic ways.

Not for me unfortunately. I couldn't get into it and therefore never picked it up again and unfortunately can't say much about it

I feel like they have just took the most stereotypical hated male character and made it female to try and create some sort of statement. I didn’t get it. It didn’t work. I was bored. I didn’t connect to any of the characters. They all felt quite flat.

The main character Billie is very self absorbed and only really thinks about herself and even her ‘redemption’ at the end was only to get the love interests attention.
There was a lot of unsupervised teenaged drinking. Like every other chapter there was drinking mentioned and like binge drinking too.

𝗚𝗶𝗿𝗹-𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘇𝘆.

This is a book with only one main character and I really dislike her. Billie is a complete mess and some things she does raises red flags with me. For example, she's still hung up over her ex and in her attempts to win June back, she refuses to take no for an answer. And while she says she loves June and is doing all sorts of things to get her attention, she's also spending time with all these girls at the side. One of these girls is Lois, who plays the female lead in a high school play that has Billie in the male lead and who would eventually become Billie's love interest. But the problem is, she isn't the only one in the equation even though it's clear to us that she's the right one. Billie is a chronic flirt and is girl-crazy and this is an important point to make because flirting with someone else was the cause of her break up with June in the first place, but the character development is weak, in my opinion. On top of that, it irks me how bad Billie's attitude is when it comes to actual work like showing up for rehearsals or rehearsing lines.

Lois however, is nice and sweet and Billie is attracted to her. But Billie also actively avoids any situation that could advance their relationship for a variety of reasons, hence this book becomes a slow burn. And trust me when I say it burns incredibly slowly.

The play that the characters are in is what led to Billie becoming internet-famous (read the blurb to find out why) and part of the story is about Billie trying to deal with her newfound fame. There are upsides and downsides to being famous and this story captures that part well.

When Billie tries out and doesn't get the part of Danny in the high school's production of Grease, she gets upset and posts her rant to TikTok. Sure, the part is usually given to a male, but her audition was better and she doesn't really want to be Rizzo on stage. Why can't Danny be played by a lesbian? She wants that male lead. When her video rant goes viral, Billie finds herself "internet famous" and has to deal with the spotlight of attention that is thrust her way. I didn't like Billie at all (she's pretty much a dude bro and an asshat). And she doesn't change, no matter what happens in the book, which is frustrating.

I found this book to be an interesting read, it was well paced and had an interesting storyline and really showcased the perils on internet stardom and how easy it is to fake it to make it. I found the characters quite unlikeable especially the protagonist but I also think that this may have been the pooint in order to layer out the story.
Overall it was an enjoyable read but one that I think would be limited to a young adult audience rather than being a young adult book that appeals to young and adult alike. I loved the front cover as well and think it would be very eye catching.

I enjoy reading YA books and have read three others this past week. I started off easily buying into the premise of this book. Billie Alvarez is a punked, pierced, dress in black senior, who wants her girlfriend back. Billie auditions for the lead role of Danny in Grease because it means spending time with her ex. Even though she's the best, she doesn't get the part because it is traditionally a male. When her online rant claiming homophobia attracts media attention she gets the role. But in addition, her rant goes viral and she becomes internet famous.

I was enjoying reading along till about the fifty percent part when I realized Billie isn't likable. The book does take on the vapidness of internet stardom and the fake-ness involved, but Billie is a hot mess. She doesn't want to work at the role that got her famous and blames everyone else for her mistakes. She wallows being drunk, saying she f''d up and is an asshole. Even at the ninety percent mark she is still pursuing the wrong person. The best character is Lois, the nerd theater girl, who is playing the Sandy. The story needs more of the two of them together and not Billie avoiding her.

Sadly I am not the audience for this book. As a mature reader I was waiting for character growth or comeuppance or even an adult to step in and help. There is some of that at the very, very end, but not enough to make me think that Billie really changes. Even epilogue left me wondering what Lois sees in Billie. Probably the target audience of young/new adults will enjoy this more. Kudos for the dedication. It gave me the biggest smile. Thank you to NetGalley and Bella Books for eARC in exchange for an honest review.