The Bright Side of Going Dark – Book Review

Author: Kelly Harms

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Publication Date: May 12, 2020

Book Description: From the bestselling author of The Overdue Life of Amy Byler comes a fresh, funny, and thoughtful story about going off the grid in order to truly live.

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.

Rating: 2 stars

Review: OK, I feel like we are on a trend for books about social media, which totally makes sense given the years it takes to publish these novels. This is at least the 4th one I have read in 2020. Unfortunately, they seem to be getting rated lower and lower as they are released. This book is boring and I just do not care about the two protagonists of this story.

Mia is an influencer on a platform similar to Instagram. She is about to get married, which everyone appears to be following. There is only one problem her fiancé has dumped her and if she does not have her wedding you could be in financial ruin. Meet Paige, who works for this social media platform, in safety and security handling flagged posts. Paige is mandated to take off after an incident involving her family. Mia also takes off and goes off social media to contemplate her break up and what is next for her.

All in all that sounds ok, right? However what ensues is pure silliness and while I think Harms was trying to write a novel of morals, it did not work. These characters are immensely unlikeable for my taste, and how their stories intertwined just seemed like a cop-out of a story.

I do not like writing these types of reviews, but I feel I need to be honest. I am sure people will enjoy this book, but this did not work for me at all. I want readers to go in having an idea of what to expect. If you love Social Media, you might enjoy this book, but I will leave that for you to decide.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.