Jilly Gagnon’s #famous tells the story of two teenagers, Kyle, who becomes suddenly famous after a picture of him goes viral, and Rachel, the girl who took the picture. This book brought back memories of how terrible teenagers can be but also reminded me that, sometimes, they could be cool. Nevertheless, this was another book that reminded me that I am so glad that high school is over and that I never want to go back there.
The book is based on real events, namely the Alex from Target internet phenomenon. While the characters and specifics of the story are fabricated, I felt like Gagnon stuck too much to the real world and events at time. Her talk show host, Laura of The Laura Show, is exactly Ellen only with a different name. Details like this made it hard for me to relax into the story. Instead, I kept finding myself drifting off and wondering about the actual people involved in the real events.
That said, this book is adorable and, as I have said with other books I have read this year, I enjoyed her writing. Talking to Gagnon at her book launch about this book, she told me about other books she is working on and I am excited for those. I believe that she will be more successful in the future when she is able to craft the world on her own and not try to adapt real events. I think she let reality get in her way sometimes with this book.
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