Amanda Wakes Up

May 22, 2017
Camerota, an anchor at CNN, mines familiar territory for her entertaining debut, which chronicles how idealistic and ambitious Amanda Gallo navigates her divisive job at the ratings-hungry FAIR News network. After reporting a local story that catches the eye of network owner Benji Diggs, Amanda lands a plum job hosting a national morning show. While she buys the company line of presenting both sides of every story, she is concerned about some moves that strike her as irresponsible: giving loads of air time to unqualified presidential candidate Victor Fluke, going on air with flimsy research, and using kid gloves with viewer favorite Fluke—even ignoring a scandal that other networks have reported—to ensure his return to the show. Amanda tries to use her position for good, trying to bring people to the center for dialogue, while attempting to convince her college-professor boyfriend that conservatives aren’t all that bad. When she gets into hot water after grilling Fluke on air, she tries to redeem herself by landing a questionable interview that jeopardizes her relationship with her best friend and fellow reporter, Laurie Prodder. Camerota doesn’t have a light touch when it comes to presenting what seem like obvious points in a story that pits integrity against ratings, but everything manages to come together in a satisfying conclusion.

May 15, 2017
Journalism and entertainment blur in this story of a rising cable news star who lands her dream job only to see her life unravel around her.Camerota, co-host of CNN's morning show New Day offers an inside look at TV news, where entertainment value takes priority over almost all else. Amanda Gallo has a midlevel reporting job at a local station when she's poached by FAIR News, a new network started by a media mogul with dreams of overcoming the partisan divide. He quickly promotes her from field reporter to host of a morning show, a role for which she is carefully made over to fit the now-ubiquitous cable news anchor image. But from the very first show she co-hosts with her prickly partner, Gallo is set back on her heels during segments that put shock value and high ratings over true reporting. The ethical dilemma is heightened as a divisive presidential campaign--pitting an accomplished Democratic candidate against a Republican reality TV star with a grudge against the media--begins to heat up. Amanda has echoes of Bridget Jones as she walks a confounding line between ambition and bewilderment. Given the current debate about cable news and how it handles divisive topics, this novel feels overly sympathetic to the plight of the anchors without meaningfully questioning their own roles in perpetuating "fake news." Despite this, it does provide a fascinating glimpse at a highly curated world driven by viewer data and advertising revenue and will likely sit well with those already leery of the way we get our information. Though it lacks a heavy-hitting sense of purpose, this surface look at how news is made offers food for thought.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2017
Amanda Gallo gets her dream job coanchoring the morning show at FAIR News but also insane ratings pressure, a condescending coanchor, and, as she's about to break a big story, important questions about ethics in journalism. A debut from the coanchor of CNN'S morning show New Day.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.