The Bright Side of Going Dark by Kelly Harms
As one of the most popular influencers on social media, Mia Bell has lived her life online for years. With her celebrity dog and gorgeous fiancé, she is planning the ultimate virtual wedding—expensive, elaborate, and entirely paid for by sponsors. But off-camera, her world is far from picture perfect. After being jilted by her fiancé and faking her nuptials to please her sponsors, Mia finally has had enough. She heaves her phone off a cliff, ready to live—and maybe find love—offline for a change.
Mia’s sudden absence doesn’t go unnoticed, especially by techie loner Paige Miller, who hacks Mia’s account and begins impersonating the internet celebrity. Paige has her reasons. Her half-sister, Jessica, idolizes Mia and desperately needs something to believe in. If taking over Mia’s online persona is Paige’s only means of connecting to her sister, so be it.
Creating a like-worthy life is more fun than Paige expected. But when she grows too bold and is caught in the act, a fiasco ensues that could forever change Mia, Paige, and the people who love them. Because somewhere amid the chaos is an invaluable lesson—one that only real life can teach.
Review: Mia Bell is one of the most popular social media influencers on social media. She has built her life and her brand through meticulous, full-time documentation of her life, including building up to her virtual wedding, which is all paid for by sponsors. But off-camera, her life is far from perfect. When her fiancé breaks it off mere days before the wedding, Mia winds up throwing her phone off a cliff and tries life offline. But online, her absence isn't noticed. Techie Paige Miller hacks her account and begins posting, impersonating Mia, while connecting to her half-sister, who happens to be a follower and huge fan of the real Mia. When the two cross paths and must confront the reality of the social media account, they both also confront an invaluable lesson that only in real life can true connection be found.
I had a hard time with this book. The whole premise is basically that social media is awful and fake and that anyone who works fulltime as influencers have no integrity. And I don't think its necessarily that black or white. By the end, the book did walk it back somewhat and seemed to suggest that some time on social media was ok, but it mostly treated social media as an evil. I do think Mia had an addiction to posting and documenting her life to the exclusion of her true happiness and living her real life. But I also think abandoning her responsibilities and livelihood in one fell swoop was a bit extreme. I also thought the whole storyline about Paige hacking into Mia's account was insane. It was hard to justify her actions in an otherwise responsible and levelheaded character to commit a crime like that. I understand that the author was trying to draw a parallel between an overly online character with one that lives virtually untethered and then they slowly swap places but what a crazy plot.
I really enjoyed the other novel I read by Kelly Harms but this one fell flat for me. It dragged a good bit and seemed to just mostly be people hassling Mia about how her career was no good and she was wrong for posting online. Just the same message over and over ad nauseum until she finally fell in line. While I agree and am glad Mia found more meaning and more balance over the course of the novel, it just felt dull.
I did love how much Mia loves her dog Mike, who we learn early on has passed away shortly before the novel opens. This felt one of the only true and sincere aspects of Mia's online presence and much of her relationship and wedding planning is a reaction to the hole left after he dies. However, having just recently lost my own dog, reading a detailed description of her dog's decline and death left me sobbing on the way home from work while listening to the audio version of this. I just wasn't ready, but those scenes also felt very well done and captured the love we have for our pets.
This reminded me a lot of Famous for a Living by Melissa Ferguson, which also tells the story of a social media influencer when she decides to go offline and choose a different lifestyle.
Stars: 3
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