Series: None
Author: Suzanne Park
Published June 1st 2021 by Sourcebooks Fire
Goodreads Synopsis
A social media influencer is shipped off to a digital detox summer camp in this funny coming-of-age story, perfect for fans of Jenny Han's The Summer I Turned Pretty and Love and Gelato.
Sunny Song's Big Summer Goals:
1) Make Rafael Kim my boyfriend (finally!)
2) Hit 100K followers (almost there…)
3) Have the best last summer of high school ever
Not on Sunny's list: accidentally filming a PG-13 cooking video that goes viral (#browniegate). Extremely not on her list: being shipped off to a digital detox farm camp in Iowa (IOWA??) for a whole month. She's traded in her WiFi connection for a butter churn, and if she wants any shot at growing her social media platform this summer, she'll need to find a way back online.
But between some unexpected friendships and an alarmingly cute farm boy, Sunny might be surprised by the connections she makes when she's forced to disconnect.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.
For Sunny Song, her first foray into social media fame was when a video of her as a child went viral, and she became known as Goggle Girl. Since then, she has cultivated a fair following, but her parents start to worry about her internet usage, and reliance on social media, especially after she accidentally live streams a video in her bra, and her school threatens to expel her if she doesn't sort it out. So, her parents - more her mother's really - plan is to send her to a digital detox camp in Iowa, on a rural farm, with no technology for at least a month, or else she has to delete all her socials, immediately. But, she is in with a shot of making it big, and gaining a lucrative collaboration with a big platform, so she needs to find a way to connect online, while also coming to terms with her growing feelings for the farm owner's cute son.
This was a lovely summer read, perfect for a rainy Sunday morning, and once I had started it, I couldn't put it down! Sunny was such a relatable teen, who liked being on her phone a lot, and fought with her parents over her screen time, but also cared about her friends, and only wanted to be good at what she did. Yes, she made some mistakes - like not checking the camera was off before taking off her dirty shirt, or referring to classmates in derogatory terms online - but she wasn't vindictive or really hurting anyone. So, being sent to what basically surmounted to prison in her eyes, was a bit too harsh, and she smuggled in a burner phone to try and keep up with her socials, with the help of best friend Maya autoposting content for her too. However, after a few days of no signal and being unplugged, Sunny started to see the positive side to not always being online, and even used her technical know how to help the residents of a nearby retirement home too. I loved seeing Sunny's growth, and the way she came to terms with her reliance on technology, but in a way that was suitable for her.
There's also the romantic aspect of the book which was really enjoyable too. The synopsis mentions Rafael, who is one of Sunny's friends from home, but he hardly appears in the book - seeing as it mainly takes place in Iowa, not LA, and it's Theo, the farm hand, and all around handyman, who makes Sunny's heart flutter, and helps her see things in a different way. Both she and Theo were very stubborn people, but they start to see life differently, and though their story isn't all smooth sailing - with an extremely cringe worthy piece of miscommunication that made me have to put my phone down for a few minutes with secondhand embarrassment - they find their places together, and I liked how open ended the book left their story. This was my first book by this author, but definitely won't be my last.
Dates Read:
June 27, 2021
Rating
4 Stars
