Follow Me Back

May 1, 2017
Battling agoraphobia triggered by an event she refuses to discuss, Tessa Hart defers her freshman year of college and spends her days locked away; social media is her primary connection to the outside world. On Twitter, Tessa finds sanctuary in the online fandom surrounding Eric Thorn, where devotees of this onetime YouTube hopeful turned pop music star follow his every move. Eric himself is jaded, constricted by his celebrity and afraid of his often rabid and obsessive fans. After creating an alternate persona to troll his own fans on Twitter, Eric—under the pseudonym Taylor—begins a friendship and flirtation with seemingly genuine Tessa. As their relationship deepens, identities become less clear and things turn deadly. Debut author Geiger’s social-media-saturated thriller (which fittingly got its start on Wattpad) should transfix teens for whom online relationships (romantic and otherwise) are integral parts of daily life, and catfishing and hacking are genuine fears. Tweets, direct messages, and police interrogation transcripts are incorporated throughout, throwing the reliability of both narrators into question and hinting at the sinister thread underlying this boy-meets-girl story. Ages 14–up. Agent: Lydia Shamah, Carol Mann Agency.

April 1, 2017
Two teens develop a Twitter relationship.White teen Tessa Hart's life has been put on hold. After a terrible incident at an arts camp, Tessa has developed agoraphobia, and her condition confines her to her bedroom. Her window to the outside world is her Twitter profile, @TessaHeartsEric, where she fixates on white teen heartthrob Eric Thorn. Eric is tired of the way his official Twitter handle, @EricThorn, is swamped with adoration from his fans, so he creates @EricThornSucks to have a bit of fun. Eventually Tessa and Eric meet online, and as they send direct messages back and forth, a peculiar friendship starts to form. But not everything is as it seems. This mystery element ends up being the novel's undoing. The author hints at Tessa's dark past here and there, eventually revealing the terrible happening, but understanding her condition is key to readers' empathizing with her, so withholding that information cripples the narrative. On the other end, Eric comes across as a self-obsessed goon. These two teens feed into their own isolation complexes, crafting a truly unhealthy relationship that generates no heat or investment. The cherry on top is a last-minute reveal that will have readers scratching their heads and questioning everything that came before, but not in a good way. A dysfunctional romance about a dysfunctional romance. (Thriller. 12-16)

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July 1, 2017

Gr 10 Up-Tessa Hart (@TessaHeartsEric) is 18, severely agoraphobic, and an Eric Thorn fan-some may call her #obsessed. Most of Tessa's human interaction comes through sessions with her therapist, who makes house calls, and Twitter. The teen doesn't leave her bedroom. Mystery surrounds the circumstances that got her there and her new Twitter friend, Taylor (@EricThornSucks). Eric Thorn is a popular, adored, and somewhat narcissistic pop star recently made leery of the adoration since a fellow pop star was killed by a fervent fan. In a moment of resentment, Eric creates @EricThornSucks under his middle name, Taylor, and ends up striking up a friendship with Tessa, which unfolds via direct message on Twitter. A nonlinear account of Tessa and Eric's relationship develops, jumping back and forth from past to present, and readers are privy to both characters' perspectives and to the transcript from Eric's police interview. This is a moderately paced, character-focused story in which familiarity with Twitter is helpful but not necessary. Fuzzy details cloud the tale as pieces are revealed one at a time until they all come together at the end-right before everything falls apart before a final, dark twist. VERDICT A page-turner for young adults invested in social media, fandoms, and mysteries.-Sara Jurek, Children's English Library, Stuttgart, Germany

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017
Grades 7-10 Tessa Hart hasn't left her bedroom in months, not since the thing she can't talk about happened and she deferred college for a year. Her mother and boyfriend are impatient, and Tessa's only connections to the outside world are her therapist and her Twitter account, where she follows pop star Eric Thorn. Eric has some issues of his own: a fellow musician was murdered by an obsessed fan, and Eric's been paranoid of his own fans ever since (yes, it might be a one-in-a-million incident, but he has 14 million followers). When Eric Thorn fan fiction catapults Tessa into the fandom's spotlight, a frustrated Eric creates a fake profile to troll her and ends up starting a real conversation. But this is the Internet, and no one is who they seem. This tends toward melodrama, and the characters are thinly drawnTessa's agoraphobia could have been better researched and better handled. But celebrity culture and Twitter wars will catch the attention of many teens, and for them, this thriller will be addictive.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)