17693452Title: Life By Committee

Author: Corey Ann Haydu

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publication Date: May 2014

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Contemporary

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

 

 

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review:

Tabitha finds Life By Committee – a website that  has some seemingly simple rules. Tell  secret. In order to keep that secret safe, dares must be performed and proof must be shown. Or the secret will be released. Tabitha is in love with Joe, a popular boy at her school who also has a very artsy and popular girlfriend. And once Tabitha spills the beans to LBC, she can’t take it back.

The tone of the book is fun, a layer of dark play wrapping itself over the characters and their unnatural obsession with the Internet game. Tabitha has only one friend so it’s easy to see why she seeks solace in an online game/chat room such as Life By Committee.
Honestly, I can’t imagine what craziness teens have to deal with today. With Twitter, Facebook, The Internet, cyber bullying, there is so much more danger out there than when I was young. (And I’m not even that old!)
Anyway, I liked the overall idea of Life By Committee. Teen reaches out to a group of strangers for understanding and sense of community, something she is failing to get in her everyday school life. And of course, just like in real life, the Internet is dangerous. Being anonymous is dangerous, allowing people to say anything they wish without any repercussions. And of course that is what happens here.

I wish Tabitha was a more likeable character. I feel like you have to be really likeable in order for me to root for you to steal someone else’s boyfriend. I feel like you should have this really amazing connection to this boy and he should be exceptional and awesome. Sadly, Joe is none of these things and halfway through I was ready to slap Tabitha silly for not only being selfish and immature (I know, I know. Teenager, I know. But seriously, not all teenagers are that immature) I was also really not impressed with Joe. For the record, I don’t think I was supposed to be. But in the end, I didn’t care about either of the main characters.
Even Joe’s very special girlfriend is “artistic” and popular and awesome. But I didn’t really feel any of these things about her. I found myself being told she was all these things, and I never really saw this for myself.

While Life By Committee had some great ideas, overall I think the story lacked heart. I wanted the characters to be more interesting, more full of life, more something. But I wound up not liking any of them.

 

Rating 4 Not My Cup of Tea