Followers: A Novel
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Description
A TIME AND NPR BEST BOOK OF 2020
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY PEOPLE MAGAZINE · THESKIMM · KATIE COURIC’S “WAKE UP CALL” · ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY · VOGUE.COM · MARIE CLAIRE · PARADE.COM · BITCH MEDIA · HELLO GIGGLES · BUSTLE · BOOKLIST
An electrifying story of two ambitious friends and the dark choices they make to become internet famous.
Orla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss—a striving, wannabe A-lister—who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss’s methods are a little shady—and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can’t be wrong.
Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity—twelve million loyal followers—Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.
Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.
Book Information
Posts
best book i've read in a long time. might become my 2020 favorite. it was fascinating as well as entertaining, eerie and dark but also fun. i can see that it might not be for everyone but i personally loved every second of it. the vision of the future it presents seems logical. so logical that it's a little frightening, even! while reading/listening to this (yes i listened to the audiobook and loved it so much that i had to buy a copy) i could connect our current social media landscape with the images megan angelo paints of the future. i'm a bit too into social media myself, following many people i've never met, feeling connected to them in a way that's hard to describe - and i guess many others feel the same way. this book...it just hit me. something else i absolutely loved was the way female friendship and mother-daughter relationships were depicted. it's something i enjoy in general (of course) but it was a little different in this one. there were a few more grey areas that the characters inhabited, a few more twists, but, ultimately, so much love and... i guess realness? also, this novel has such a clever structure. the two connected stories and the connections between the characters, the way it all tied up, the slower introductory parts and the ending just wow!! so great! i loved the ending especially. i guessed that orla was marlow's mother all along but it didn't change my enjoyment of this story at all. in general, this novel just felt so fresh. it was unlike anything i'd read before even though some ideas about fame or apocalyptic scenarios or character journeys are similar in other pieces of media, the combination of them in this book is very special to me. all those worlds that we get to see, as scary as they might be, are so well written. i love this book and can also really recommend the audiobook!
Description
A TIME AND NPR BEST BOOK OF 2020
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY PEOPLE MAGAZINE · THESKIMM · KATIE COURIC’S “WAKE UP CALL” · ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY · VOGUE.COM · MARIE CLAIRE · PARADE.COM · BITCH MEDIA · HELLO GIGGLES · BUSTLE · BOOKLIST
An electrifying story of two ambitious friends and the dark choices they make to become internet famous.
Orla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a dead-end job, writing clickbait about movie-star hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss—a striving, wannabe A-lister—who comes up with a plan for launching them both into the high-profile lives they dream about. So what if Orla and Floss’s methods are a little shady—and sometimes people get hurt? Their legions of followers can’t be wrong.
Thirty-five years later, in a closed California village where government-appointed celebrities live every moment of the day on camera, a woman named Marlow discovers a shattering secret about her past. Despite her massive popularity—twelve million loyal followers—Marlow dreams of fleeing the corporate sponsors who would do anything to keep her on-screen. When she learns that her whole family history is based on a lie, Marlow finally summons the courage to run in search of the truth, no matter the risks.
Followers traces the paths of Orla, Floss and Marlow as they wind through time toward each other, and toward a cataclysmic event that sends America into lasting upheaval. At turns wry and tender, bleak and hopeful, this darkly funny story reminds us that even if we obsess over famous people we’ll never meet, what we really crave is genuine human connection.
Book Information
Posts
best book i've read in a long time. might become my 2020 favorite. it was fascinating as well as entertaining, eerie and dark but also fun. i can see that it might not be for everyone but i personally loved every second of it. the vision of the future it presents seems logical. so logical that it's a little frightening, even! while reading/listening to this (yes i listened to the audiobook and loved it so much that i had to buy a copy) i could connect our current social media landscape with the images megan angelo paints of the future. i'm a bit too into social media myself, following many people i've never met, feeling connected to them in a way that's hard to describe - and i guess many others feel the same way. this book...it just hit me. something else i absolutely loved was the way female friendship and mother-daughter relationships were depicted. it's something i enjoy in general (of course) but it was a little different in this one. there were a few more grey areas that the characters inhabited, a few more twists, but, ultimately, so much love and... i guess realness? also, this novel has such a clever structure. the two connected stories and the connections between the characters, the way it all tied up, the slower introductory parts and the ending just wow!! so great! i loved the ending especially. i guessed that orla was marlow's mother all along but it didn't change my enjoyment of this story at all. in general, this novel just felt so fresh. it was unlike anything i'd read before even though some ideas about fame or apocalyptic scenarios or character journeys are similar in other pieces of media, the combination of them in this book is very special to me. all those worlds that we get to see, as scary as they might be, are so well written. i love this book and can also really recommend the audiobook!