The Revenge by Hannah Jayne
Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair review.
*** Disclaimer I requested this book months ago and was unaware of any controversy surrounding it until I logged into to do this review. So I am just going to address what I saw from some of the reviews. First off I didn't know what doxing was until reading other reviews, but having just literally read this book, the author is making light of this she is shining light on it and how potentially dangerous as well as fame. She address stalking and obsession as well. Lastly I don't agree with the choices Tony made, but given that he is a teen and he was humiliated and that is the way current young people address thing it's actually a really plausible scenario.***
Tony has recently broken up with Holly the star of the school. He did it privately and he thought everything was good until he goes back to school and she reads all his private emails and letters to her. In a moment of anger Tony decides to sign her up for everything from Tinder to whatever, and he makes her location and phone number known.
Then a day later he receives a call from Holly and he thinks she is being dramatic until she screams. In a panic he rushes over to her house and finds the phone, but he doesn't tell anyone because he is sure that she getting revenge on him. Then she is reported missing and everything blows up. Tony becomes suspect number one and things continue to spiral out of control. Another girl goes missing and her body is found the next day.
I am still pondering how I feel about the ending, because whew this was a ride. I have read almost everything Hannah Jayne has written so I knew this would be good and I loved it and hated it. I have seen some hate it because of the Gone Girl comparisons and I get where they are coming from. I loved Gone Girl, but I hated the characters. I liked Tony, I thought he was stupid and made stupid choices and he paid for them.
On the other hand I think Hannah brilliantly shines light on today's culture, by having Tony doxing Holly, she shows how people act today. I didn't agree with it or like any of it, but I see this constantly Twitter is a humiliation show these days with people dragging everyone into whatever current problem they have with something. I think it's gross which is why I am not on twitter very much these days which is also how I missed all the controversy surrounding this book.
I don't understand the need to publicly shame and humiliate people that is so prevalent these days. On top of it with social media controlling everyone's lives it has also allowed people to indulge their crazy. When I was a teen you had to stalk and humiliate people the old fashioned way now people stalk Facebooks, Twitters and everything else, locations are posted and it's actually pretty easy to know where a person is and what they are doing. So safety is out the window and in a twisted way Hannah shows that in The Revenge. I think what Tony did was crap, and what all the other characters did was crap too, but it is kind of the norm today despite what illusions we might cling too.
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