Review by Booklist Review
Teenage dancer Shea Davison is a TikTok sensation, with hundreds of thousands of followers regularly tuning in to watch her videos. Nora is Shea's number-one fan, an OG subscriber . . . and Shea's kidnapper. After obsessively watching Shea's videos for over a year, Nora knows everything about her and knows that for Shea's dancing to truly thrive, she needs a collaborator. When she drugs Shea and spirits her off to an isolated cabin in the foothills of Mount Rainier, she's positive that it's only a matter of time before Shea realizes that the two of them are destined to be best friends and creative partners, making viral TikTok dance videos together. But the internet isn't the same as reality, and Shea isn't quite as cooperative as Nora imagined. Alternating between Nora's and Shea's points of view and partially told through social-media notifications, Corrigan's latest thriller is a terrifyingly realistic close-up of fandom, obsession, technology, and an internet culture where viewers think they own content creators.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Making TikTok videos has never been more dangerous. Nora Monahan is an introspective teen living in her father's bunker in rural Washington state, following his strict rules as he prepares for "a new apocalypse." Nora's only solace is Shea Davison's TikTok channel; along with over 900,000 other followers, Nora watches Shea dance and share videos about her life. But Shea, who radiates positivity online, faces challenges that she doesn't post to TikTok, including trying to salvage a rocky relationship with best friend turned future stepsibling Delancey Renard, who uses they/them pronouns. Nora's obvious obsession with Shea's channel escalates, and when she learns that Shea will be making an appearance at the Washington State Fair, she hatches a plan that culminates in a kidnapping, which Nora frames as a "partnership" that will help her "learn from an expert--my idol" while offering the influencer "something fresh" for her channel. The only person able to save Shea is the one she's been most afraid of losing. Delancey, with help from Shea's dance friends, will need to convince the authorities that Shea's life is really at stake. This suspenseful page-turner is narrated in turns by Nora, Shea, and Delancey, who are minimally described and racially ambiguous. Fans of Natasha Preston will enjoy the twisty plot. Some use of ableist terms hints at possible mental illness that is not explored in the story. A high-stakes thriller exploring the dark depths of online obsession. (Thriller. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
