Hi everyone! Emma and Kristy here. Are you finally ready for the February book club discussion? So glad we can all reconnect after a busy month and chat about books. :)
The book we selected for February is, Followers by Megan Angelo. While many of you were excited to read this book at first — many of you mentioned you didn’t love the book// many of you even told me you stopped reading it halfway through. :/ We are so disappointed! It’s never our goal to choose a book others don’t like. We hope that March’s book choices are better!
This month we also included, The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller! We’ll discuss that book in our Facebook Group. If you haven’t joined, please do so by clicking here! The Facebook group is a space where we share books and info about when the discussion posts & announcements will be going live.
Now let’s move on to the February Book Club Discussion! Please leave all of your opinions, thoughts, questions as well as answers to our questions in the comment section below. Feel free to answer other people’s questions in the comments as well.
Book Recap
Synopsis: 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. – Graydon House
End of the book:
Our Opinion
Okay.. so once again we had similar opinions about this book. It was REALLY slow at times. Honestly, the first chapter we both kept asking ourselves if we made a huge mistake in selecting this book. It didn’t seem like us. And that’s the magic behind picking books we haven’t read before – you never know what you’re going to get. We pick books based on the reviews & the synopsis just like everyone else and hope for the best! So if the book I choose isn’t a favorite at times.. that can happen. I’m always happy I at least gave it a try. Have you seen the Netflix series, Black Mirror? This book reminded me of a few of the episodes… quite alarmingly similar at times!
Our rating: 3/5
Things We Liked:
- The Dystopian Future – I personally enjoyed the Marlow timeline and the town of ‘Constellation’. I thought it was unique and something I hadn’t read about before.
- Celebrity Culture – It was interesting to read about the lengths people will go to to become famous. Even in a fiction novel.
- Deep Themes – I found it interesting that a book about gaining followers made us look at things in an introspective way. For example, when Marlow felt lost and alone, she realized that she can never escape the image of what others had of her.. a hard pill to swallow at times.
Things We Didn’t Like:
- How the book began with a chapter from the middle of the book – This first chapter was so out of left field and confusing that it made me put the book down from the start. An odd choice of direction for the beginning of a book.
- The ending – SO unbelievable. I really doubted that Orla could instantly forgive Floss for taking Marlow away from her. That was a HUGE reach for me and I just didn’t believe it OR like it at all. I could have done without the last 30 pages in the book if I’m being perfectly honest.
- Lack of characters we liked – I liked Marlow but that’s about it. I found the ‘current day’ characters of Orla & Floss extremely irritating, although I did still want to find out what happened to them.
Discussion Questions
- Did you enjoy the overall theme of ‘celebrity culture’ and ‘social media followings’? Do you think this book was more fact or fiction in that regard?
- What were your separate opinions of the books 3 characters? Was there one you liked more than the others?
- There were many dark themes in this book – sexual assault, feeling lost and alone, abusive men, and emotional distress. Did you find it triggering to read the book or did you feel like you were reading a fiction book and never fell deeply into the themes?
- Did you feel like you were going to not finish the book at any given time? Many of you in our Facebook group discussed this possibility – why did you not like the book?
- What were your thoughts about the ending? Did you feel like Orla could have forgiven Floss for what she did?
Overall, we didn’t LOVE Followers but we didn’t HATE it either. It was a miss for the most part. I’d say, don’t go running out to purchase this book unless you’re a huge fan of dystopian future novels. The book itself wasn’t one I couldn’t put down and I did find myself getting extremely annoyed with some of the characters. I didn’t hate it though and aside from the storyline, I loved the cover art – so pretty! I’ll definitely keep it displayed on my book shelf for that reason alone – haha!
We hope you enjoyed the February book club discussion – check back for the March book announcement here on the blog.
xo,
Emma and Kristy
Book Club Posts:
Didn’t love it and didn’t hate it either. Was a slow read and a bit confusing at times. I liked the story behind it…social media, the spill, the government run internet. I would have liked more action? Maybe, not sure. Oh well I probably wouldn’t have read it on my own so i enjoyed a change in genre.
I think the 3/5 is probably fair. Even though I was happy to read it to the end I would have been happy for it to be shorter, it dragged at times and like you I did not enjoy the end of the book, there could have been far better endings – it was like she suddenly thought that’s enough let’s wrap this up !
I found constellation an interesting concept, believable in some areas but quite ridiculous in others. As to the the characters I found Floss the most irritating and dislikeable and I can never imagine forgiving her like Orla did .
At times the ideas were real , everyone walking looking at their phones etc, at other times it was like life with the Jetsons!
Not a read again, but I’m not unhappy I read it
Never finished the book. Couldn’t keep enough interest to push through. Looking forward to March!!
I would agree with Kristy and Emma. It started out slow and jumped around from one time era to another. It did really make me think where we are headed with technology AI/AR and personal information security.
I sent the book to my daughter. It did keep me intrigued when Marlo came into the storyline.
Ok, I’m happy it wasn’t just me. I struggled with this book right from the beginning but I’m not a quitter so a muscled through. For me it was hard to follow at times and was slow at times too. I think 3/5 is fair.
Overall, this was a tough one. Indeed, it was slow moving for most of the book in which I found hard in keeping my interest. However, the bones of the book were good and could’ve have made for a really good book in my opinion. The author had very interesting takes on the future and at times kinda scary, because I believe, on a social media level we are very close to achieving this version of reality. I feel that the book lost me in the storyline. I wish that the storyline utilized the “spill” and how it evolved social media, it needed more depth in that area for me to appreciate it more. Not good, not great.
I liked the book. It is not a typical book I would read or even choose. I found it very interesting and entertaining. The characters weren’t confusing and I loved how the story evolved into one with Orla and Marlow. I had no idea where it was going until that part. I gave it 3.5 stars.
I had a very hard time getting into the book (first third of it), but then I got into it. Although the story line was about social media, to me it was really about human nature and the lines in the sand people draw. How far are we willing to go to get what we want. How do we obscure our true inner feelings with those of a material nature. Not my favorite, but entertaining overall.