Faking Faith

October 1, 2011
When a sexting scandal destroys her social life, her home life and her self-esteem, 17-year-old Dylan decides to reinvent herself as Faith, a devout Christian with radically conservative values. After stumbling upon a blog featuring homeschooled Christians, Dylan starts her own blog, posing as Faith, a fellow devotee to the righteous lifestyle. Dylan (Faith) strikes up a cyber-friendship with Abigail, an expert at living as a Virtuous Maiden. She secures an invitation to visit Abigail, where she gets an insider's view of this nontraditional lifestyle. Faith rebels against the subservience that is expected of her. She is further challenged when she meets Asher, Abigail's intriguing brother. Torn between wanting to live a more simple life and wanting to reveal who she really is, Faith finds that faking it is harder than she thought. Alas, what could have been an interesting portrait of a teen wrestling with personal values and faith ends up being a story filled with negative stereotypes and cliché. Populated by overbearing men, insipid women and a skewed vision of Christianity, Abigail's world is portrayed as unenlightened. Dylan's real life, while flawed, is obviously preferable. Readers are left with the message that Dylan's experiment as a Christian was at best educational and at worst bizarre. A disappointingly uneven handling of faith. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-Junior year has not been kind to Dylan. After a series of bad decisions-making out with a "bad boy" while drunk, some "private" emailed nude photos to him, a very public freak-out-she moves through the halls of her school with her head down, trying to ignore the taunts and insults of her classmates. Looking to escape the realities of her circumstances, Dylan follows a link that promises "[t]he most effed up people on the internets," and falls into the world of fundamentalist Christian homeschooled bloggers, girls whose lives are the polar opposite of Dylan's fast, privileged, and secular lifestyle. Dylan is fascinated by their view of the world and envies their seemingly worry-free existence. She even creates a persona, Faith, and begins to join in the conversation, quickly building an online friendship with popular blogger Abigail. When she invites Dylan to stay with her family over the summer, Dylan accepts but goes as Faith. Things start out well but get complicated when "Faith" meets Abigail's cute and conflicted older brother and learns about Abigail's impending marriage to a sleezy older man. Though this is Dylan's story, Bloss portrays all parties with a sympathetic eye, showing the strengths and weaknesses of both lifestyles and perspectives. At home Dylan is a social pariah, but in Abigail's world, as Faith, she is helpful, brave, and strong. This is a satisfying read for teens who dream of a context in which what they have to offer will seem important and valuable.-Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.