Friday YA: Just for Clicks by Kara McDowell

Claire and Poppy grew up in the social media limelight. Their mother blogging about their lives until the three of them became household names. Now in high school Claire discovers her history isn’t all as it was blogged and as she researches past facts she realizes her life’s ambitions may not be the same as her sister’s. When she meets Rafael and learns his story he helps her realize that her definition of family may not be as pretty as the blog posts but her feelings and ties to her sister are real.

Even though Claire and Poppy were internet stars they had the drama and emotions of normal high school teenagers. Claire was the more introverted of the two sisters and so felt each emotion and comment cut deeper. That sensitivity made her afraid to speak her feelings until they grew so large in her own head they overwhelmed her. I’ll admit I grew frustrated with most of the characters in this novel because a little communication would have allayed so many of their fears, but then I guess we wouldn’t have had much of a novel to read!

Rafael ended up being my favorite character, yet, he too was not 3D. Having lived all over the world with his father with Doctors without Borders should have given him a broader frame to draw his experiences from, yet he never got past the drama and his own teenage insecurities. My expectations may have been set a little high, but I was really looking for a reason to love this novel and instead never got past like.

As a blogger myself, I thought I should have found this plot more interesting. Their life as bloggers was actually kind of fun and I’d have liked to see more of that. Part of the problem was that some of the subject matter, while deep, was written with a lighter touch that seemed to de-emphasize the importance of what was happening in that scene, so the tone of the novel was too light for the drama it was trying to represent. It kept me from connecting with these characters in a way that I needed to do to enjoy their journey. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

I received a free copy of the ARC for my honest review and it was honest.

Opinions from around the Blogosphere

” …read this in a day and enjoyed it SO much. It feels really timely, with how many mommy bloggers and instagrammers there are in the world- it makes you think about their kids and how they might grow up to view everything (including invasion of their privacy).” the bookish beagle

“Overall, this was a fascinating read with an insightful look into the private lives of social influencers and I think it’ll be quite enjoyable to younger readers. I think it’s a great debut attempt which could have done with better execution.” My World of Books

Click this link to purchase!* Just for Clicks

Copyright 2019 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate

4 thoughts on “Friday YA: Just for Clicks by Kara McDowell”

  1. It is interesting to see more and more books embracing the modern world of internet influencers, bloggers and social media, some time ago it was still unusual to see mobiles or other devices used in books because authors were worried their books will get outdated too soon.

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    1. Now if you don’t include devices it looks weird doesn’t it? Technology is moving so fast that at some point it may date the book but authors need to stay relevant. This book did a good job of doing that, I wish she had worked as hard on the tone matching the depth of feeling… I’ll admit that I read it because it was about bloggers. I was curious!

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