Followers: A Novel
Dystopian Fiction
Graydon House
January 14, 2020
Hardcover, Audiobook, Kindle
384
An electrifying story of two ambitious friends, the dark choices they make and the stunning moment that changes the world as we know it forever
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.
Followers: A Novel by Megan Angelo
I wanted to like Followers by Megan Angelo. I really did.
When I read the summary of the book, I immediately thought: Is this The Truman Show of the future? This sounds like Truman Show meets the Kardashians with a bit of Black Mirror sprinkled in. And I was right. This book is all that, and it’s just as all over the place as my description.
What’s Followers actually about?
Followers is the story of three women whose lives are connected.
Orla and Floss are two twenty-somethings living in New York City around 2015. Orla works for a celebrity-news online publication but dreams of writing a book. Floss, who’s more simple-minded, wants to be famous.
Fast forward to 2050, we meet Marlow from a town called Constellation, which is basically a gigantic and secluded movie set. In it, its inhabitants are all social media stars whose lives are livecasted 23/7 (they get one hour a day offline) and dictated by storylines that are decided by the production company that runs the town.
After growing up in the limelight, Marlow is assigned a story arch that puts her at a fork on the road. Does she want this? Will this make her happy? How does she feel about her life? As she confronts these questions, she learns some family secrets that force her to veer off her path and go in search of the truth.
But finding information that can lead to the truth seems impossible in the 2050 world Megan Angelo lays out for us. Smart devices have been replaced by some sort of chip device (think an Amazon Alexa or Google Home attached to the brain), and information is controlled by studio executives inside Constellation or by the government anywhere else. Why? Because there was some sort of disastrous event caused by the overuse of social media and the internet that caused chaos and calamity.
Sounds complicated, right?
Yeah. Complicated is a compliment. A good complicated story is sometimes chicken soup for the soul. It can take you through emotions and end in wisdom. Life is complicated, and that’s ok in a book too. But when you add way too many characters and just as many tragic subplots, it gets messy, convoluted, and it’s hard to follow.
And, just like an infomercial, that’s not all! The book is an obvious social commentary. A critique of our era of smart devices and digital isolation. Followers also tries to address the complexity of motherhood, and sometimes it nails it, but unfortunately, in an effort to cover all the bases, some of the situations feel forced and come off as an afterthought.
That said, Megan Angelo’s descriptions of feelings and spaces are masterful. The way she laid out the story alternating between 2015 and 2050 rarely failed to leave me curious to read more. Some of the characters she brought to life grew up in the 90s just like me, and I loved how she brought me back to my childhood with references that included the video request channel The Box and stalking somebody over instant messenger or MySpace.
Followers should be adapted for TV
Orla, Floss, and Marlow are complex and interesting. I really liked meeting these characters and would’ve loved for this story to have played out at a slower pace, and a bit more streamlined. I think this would make a fantastic TV series! (Pay attention, Netflix & Hulu!) But the bottom line is Followers, as a book, was overambitious.
Darienne was 15 when her aunt gave her a copy of Princess by Jean Sasson, and she has been hooked on books ever since. Originally from Puerto Rico and now living in Maryland, she’s always looking to visit new coffee shops and bookstores. Her favorite genres include YA, spicy romcoms, and women’s fiction. Thanks to the Bees, she’s also now obsessed with romantasy series. Other loves include lavender lattes, sassy coffee mugs, sunrises, sleeping in, small-town charm, and big city lights. One day, she’ll write that book that lives in her head.
