ARC Review: How To Disappear by Sharon Huss Roat

Vicky Decker has perfected the art of hiding in plain sight, quietly navigating the halls of her high school undetected except by her best (and only) friend, Jenna. But when Jenna moves away, Vicky’s isolation becomes unbearable.

So she decides to invent a social life by Photoshopping herself into other people’s pictures, posting them on Instagram under the screen name Vicurious. Instantly, she begins to get followers, so she adds herself to more photos from all over the world with all types of people. And as Vicurious’s online followers multiply, Vicky realizes she can make a whole life for herself without ever leaving her bedroom. But the more followers she finds online, the clearer it becomes that there are a lot of people out there who feel like her— #alone and #ignored in real life.

To help them, and herself, Vicky must find the courage to face her fear of being “seen,” because only then can she stop living vicariously and truly bring the magic of Vicurious to life.

In this beautiful and illuminating narrative, Sharon Huss Roat shines a light on our love of social media and how sometimes being the person you think you want to be isn’t as great as being the person you truly are.

Disclaimer: A huge thanks to Harper Collins India for the review copy; though the thoughts, feelings and opinions expressed in my review are my own.

I have been part of the #Bookstagram community for more than two years now – and in case you don’t know; it’s an online community where all of us readers band together and talk about our favourite thing – books!

And like the entire social media outlets; this community has its own share of “celebrities” the accounts that we budding bloggers tend to emulate – and sometimes we become jealous off!

And How To Disappear makes certain that we understand the reasons and the reality behind the “stars” on social media – and this one actually hits a bit close to home as well.

The MC, Vicky Decker is a shy, introvert, almost invisible girl who has exactly one friend in real life and when that one friend moves away, her life implodes, especially when she realizes the one friend she had is now having fun away from her!

So she decides to use the one skill she has (or so she believes) to become an overnight sensation on Instagram; to the point of becoming a movement online.

Here’s the catch though; there is every way that should resonate with the young crowd/generation today, and it actually does but to an extent – the feelings and thoughts of the MC are pretty much a reminder of our own feelings of insecurity written in black and white.

But like the rest of contemporary YA novels, it does become a little predictable – predictable in the sense that there is a HEA for our MC and somehow there is closure in even in a book whose characters do have the rest of their life to live in; but I am glad that it ended on a positive note for that’s exactly why I was happy when I was done with the book.