Enjoyed the plot but found it hard to get into the story. Didn't like the TV script style and the "comment section" style of characters giving their opinions

2.5

I came across this book at YALC, and after seeing a panel that Keren was on, I was really interested in the narrative of this story. Although, I got the main plotline completely wrong.

I thought it was going to be about an actor with anxiety who was confined to his own bedroom and he had to be coaxed out slowly by those who cared about him. But it's about a boy whose character is 'sent' to his bedroom and effectively his acting job/career is in the balance, and all the events that transpire as a result of the show runner's decision to halt his character.

And I don't mind that I misunderstood the point of the story, because it works so well, it's in depth and thoughtful but doesn't hand hold. The format might be a little off-putting to some - it's done like youtube videos and mainly in speech narrative, with occasional gestures for emphasis - but I thought it complimented the point of the story, the bitesize chunks of life that soap operas give and the way people interact with 'celebrity'. It was still so easy to visualise the scenes. The 'comments' at the end of the chapters served the purpose of being true-to-life, gave great in-story references to help with youth homelessness and anxiety/depression/autism, and also gave a sense of foreshadowing what will come in the narrative.

It's a hard story to pull off, but I think that Keren did a great job. Loved this book :)

This book was super average. It's not very memorable.

The main character was very dramatic and at some points I was just like, "Dude. Go home."

I didn't connect with any of the characters, the storyline was cliché and predictable, and the ending was very unrealistic.

However, it was a very easy, non-challenging book, and was very quick to finish.

I read this entire book in the time it took between boarding my plane in Dublin and landing in Birmingham: it was a short, easy read with virtually no description. The entire novel is told through transcripts of YouTube videos and the comments on each one, which wasn't what I was expecting based on the blurb, so it was a bit of a surprise but after a bit of confusion, it became easy to distinguish what was going on.

I have to give credit where credit's due as despite this essentially being a dialogue novel, I had pretty clear images of every setting and what was going on at all times, from a few words or the occasional scene-setting sentence at the start of a chapter. However, that's where my praise for this book ends.

The story follows Jake, a teen actor who was cut from the show he was on (in the likes of Eastenders / Corrie / Emmerdale). After finding himself homeless and jobless, he starts making videos with his friends to tell the story of what happened - why he had to leave the show and how he ended up on the streets.

I felt as though I was supposed to sympathise with Jake, but I just couldn't. He came off as a rude, senseless, arrogant brat. He left a perfectly decent living situation with his parents and brother in order to couch surf and live homelessly instead, refusing to see them and abandoning his severely autistic brother. He was a jerk of a character and there was no redemption.

The entire book felt like some sort of celebrity apology that manages to do everything but apologise. Based on the comments on the videos from Jake's family and former friends, he's a lying arsehole, so I didn't care for his situation or his story, and he gave me no reason to.

Loved how it was written and how different it was - thought it got better and better as you got through it

Sorry I haven't been writing any reviews for a while. Life's a little all over the place right now.

This was one of the books I picked up from the library without knowing anything about it, so I was pretty excited to read it. It was definitely different to what I expected; it's written in "episodes" but not quite like a script. It's more detailed and less firmly structured, but is from the point of view of the audience of the episodes (not any of the characters in the actual scene). The episodes are also acted by different people, who aren't necessarily the actual characters. This was really interesting; it made it more like a 'show' that Jake was putting on, but did get a bit confusing.

It was definitely a good book. I enjoyed reading it and was interested to discover what happened next. I quite liked Jake as a character, although he did come across as a little overdramatic. (Maybe I'm being harsh by saying this, but did he really need to run away from home and cause such a fuss?) I understand how the author is perhaps trying to convey the message that even actors and "successful" people have problems, but I just wasn't feeling it. I don't know. Maybe a different issue should have been explored.

The story is basically Jake's web-series after the soap "Market Square" is cancelled. After losing his job and income, his family is forced to move into a small flat. Jake can't cope, especially with his disabled brother and his father who's going through a bit of a mental breakdown, and so hops from one friends' house to another. Somehow this leads to his best friend hating him, and he continues to be bitter through the comments of the web-series.

Quick side note: The comments are a good touch, but felt really fake. I liked having the 'real-time' dialogue, but the messages didn't sound genuine/authentic at all to me.

Anyway, Jake ends up in some old woman's house, who turns out to have been a director. He helps bring her out of her extreme dementia, and in return she allows him to live with her.

It all seemed a bit too much, too extreme, for what it was. Jake ends up homeless at one point, and his friend is still being all grumpy at him and it just seemed a bit off to me. But I don't know, I might just be being way too harsh. Despite that, I did enjoy reading it. 3.5 stars.

This is unusual, but it really works. Jake is a young actor, a household name due to his part in a soap opera, but then his life derails...