Just for Clicks

by Kara McDowell

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 4.5 Stars

In this day and age, when social media plays such a big role in our lives, Claire wanted to escape it all and be "just Claire", but after playing her role for so long, she first needed to figure out who "just Claire" really was.

• Pro: I have a love/hate relationship with social media, and I really appreciated all the different sides of internet fame McDowell presented. She showed the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all, as well as the perceptions of both fans and the internet stars. Lots of interesting commentary in there without being judgmental.

• Pro: This book was a LOT deeper than I expected. There were some pretty major issues touched upon with respect to family, loyalty, grief, and self fulfillment, among others, and it was done in a thoughtful way without making the book too heavy.

• Pro: The friendship and romance between Claire and Raphael was really fun and cute. She was living her life online, while he insisted on in person meetings and eye contact. They were seemingly different yet so good together. These two definitely supplied me with some of my favorite scenes.

• Pro: The inclusion of the different media - emails, texts, posts, was a lot of fun and nice touch for a book centered around the use of electronic media.

• Pro: Claire was the star of this story, and I adored her. From her awkward attempts at romance to her fantastically nerdy coding t-shirts, she was a girl after my own heart. She was grappling with so many different things in this book - feeling like the odd man out, worrying about her safety, her sense of being less than, and her waning desire to partake in the family business. Her struggle with what she wanted and what her family wanted came across well, and I felt for her as she tried to come to terms with her emotions regarding her online life PLUS all the other things, which precipitated over the course of this story.

• Pro: The family dynamic was a big driving force in this story, and it was interesting to observe. I know I formed a lot of instant opinions, which I then had to nullify as I learned more of the details, and also as other characters gave their two cents on the situations.

Overall: An compelling look at life online, which was thoughtful, fun, sweet, and adorable.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

BLOG | INSTAGRAM |TWITTER | BLOGLOVIN | FRIEND ME ON GOODREADS