"The Overdue Life of Amy Byler" was my introduction to Kelly Harms, and I loved that book so much that when I saw Kelly Harms had a new book out I was excited to get an ARC of her new story! This story revolved around how social media and growing up with social media as part of our lives can impact our mental health. I feel that this is such an important topic and I am so happy that this book explores how social media and constantly looking at how "perfect" the lives of our "friends" are can affect how we feel about our own lives. I so appreciated how the book treated talking about anxiety, depression, and mental health, so many books that touch on mental health issues feed into the stereotype that people that have mental health issues are "crazy" and add to the stigma making people with mental health issues continue to want to hide instead of come forward. Though this book touched on some heavy topics, it was a fast delightful read with relatable characters, that I didn't want to put down once I started it! I loved Mia, Paige, and Jessica, and all the other characters and how they grew as the story progressed. Kelly Harms writes books about topics that matter, and I can't wait to see what story she comes up with next!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. From the same author as The Overdue Life of Amy Byler. Mia is an influencer in the platform Pictey. Paige is a consultant on the Pictey site. Mia has a follower that is claiming suicide and Paige is the one that should have caught the flag. Mia decides that her device was ruling her life as Paige found her site to ruin other lives. Mia goes dark and throws her phone off a cliff. What does Paige do about it? This book hit home outlining how much social media and devices run our life (this post’s irony isn’t lost on me). What if everyone went dark for a day, a week, a month??? #thebrightsideofgoingdark #kellyharms #may2020

I absolutely adored this book. I loved The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, so I was really excited to receive an e-ARC of this book - and it did not disappoint.

This book is very accessible and would be readable by a YA audience, but also entertaining as contemporary fiction. The book is told by two voices, Mia and Paige. Mia is a social media star (of an app similar to Instagram) and Paige works as a regulator for the app (deleting negative comments, etc). Their lives entwine unexpectedly and introduce a whole host of interesting and sympathetic characters.

This book would be great to use with high school or Comp 1 students as it would serve as a basis for discussion about social media, mental health, the responsibility we have for others, and the interconnectedness of human beings. The story does not come down on either side, which amplifies its readability - you don't feel like you're being sold a particular point-of-view. What you come away with is some thoughts about why we look for validation online, what we can find in the real world, and maybe the urge to consider our own social media use a little more closely. This book mixes the light and the serious, all in an enjoyable read.

I loved this book and I am a huge fan of this author. Kelly Harms is not your typical "chick lit" writer; it seems like there is always some little twist or something unexpected and unpredictable about her stories. They are never predicatable!

On the surface, "The Bright Side of Going Dark" would appear to simply be a tale centered about social media and the Influencers that use the medium for their gain, but there is much more to this story. We follow two main characters and then meet a few other significant characters as they navigate the social media world from both in front of and behind the camera -- the good, the bad, and the ugly, if you will. Mia is a successful Influencer on Picty (think Instagram) while Paige works behind the scenes at Picty in the Safety and Standards department. Naturally their paths will cross, but I will leave that for you to discover.

Harms has a delicious knack with dialogue and character development. In all of her novels you always get the sense that these are real people, not just ink on a page.

This book will be released May 12 by Lake Union Publishing. I was provided an ARC via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. I truly love this author's work and highly recommend every single one of her novels! Put this one on your radar.

I previously read The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by the same author (and loved it!) so when I had an opportunity to get an advanced copy of this book, I jumped at it. This book is refreshing and should probably be mandatory reading for anyone under the age of 30. The Bright Side of Going Dark is about an internet influencer named Mia who is planning on getting married using paid sponsorships, but who is then dumped before the wedding and has to deal with the fallout. It is also about Paige, a content screener who works for the internet company Mia is associated with. Both of their stories are parallel and intersecting at the same time. I loved the flow of this book. The characters are not one dimensional and you easily drift between one story and the other. This book makes you stop and think about our addiction to social media and having to always feel our phone touching our skin. As a woman of a certain age, I am lucky that I was able to be the last generation to play outside and use my imagination and just get 'bored' but I also am guilty of having multiple social media account and feeling a sense of dread when I can't find my phone in my purse after I have left the house. I'm thinking this summer I'm going to have to go dark myself and bring my children down with me...

Fun read and really interesting to think about the impact of social media, both good and bad, on all of our lives. This book definitely made me want to get rid of my apps, so there's that! I think this would be excellent for book clubs.

I sat down to read this thinking it would be a light, fun read. I was right! Mostly. I loved this book. Loved the way the two stories ran together without knowing. I loved the way they collided. And I loved the way, when all parts came together it was a logical and natural conclusion.

“Bright Side of Going Dark” tells the story of social media influencer, Mia Bell. We all know those people, right? They post pictures of every morsel of food they have eaten, every workout, and every single movie and television show they are watching. But Mia takes it a step further, turning it into a career where she hopes to get sponsorship, using her wedding planning as a bandwagon to garner attention. (“Pretty Things” by Janelle Brown includes a character who is an influencer. I was not even aware this was a thing before reading these two novels!) But when the wedding is called off, Mia is tasked with keeping up appearances, which becomes too much too handle. Hence, she returns to her mother in Colorado and vows to stay off social media all together. What kind of a life can you lead when your moments are not spun to post onto the screen?

Paige works for the social media website that Mia posts on. Her job is to flag problematic posts, but the post she misses in the one from her estranged half-sister who voices whether her life is worth living on one of Mia’s threads. Feeling guilty as Paige also wrestled with depression and suicide at a similar age, Paige visits her sister while becoming consumed with Mia and why she is no longer posting. She partially blames Mia for creating an ideal that her sister could not live up to.

As previous reviews have mentioned, this novel is not just about the dangers (and benefits?) of social media, but also finding oneself and going through the growing pains (which never stop) of life. As I was reading this book, I could not help but notice how many times a day I scroll through Facebook or need to check my phone for updates.

The novel is told in the alternating viewpoints of Mia and Paige, and Harms has a solid sense of the voice of each narrator. She also does not hesitate to point out the quirkiness that makes us human. Parts of this book were painful to read, simply because of how awkward people can sometimes be. Harms managed to address the topic of mental illness and suicide without coming across as preachy. But it’s not all serious—humor and laugh out loud moments are peppered throughout the book.

This is the first novel I have read by Kelly Harms, but plan to now read The Overdue Life of Amy Byler so that I can spend more time with this author.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. My thanks also to the publisher and the author, Kelly Harms.

This was a fun read! Very apropos for this modern age. The main character’s struggle with her job as an internet influencer brings into focus the average person’s addiction to a whole lot of nothing. Mia makes a lot of money at it, but as it takes over her real life, she realizes something has to give. It didn’t surprise me that she held on as long as she did. What did surprise me were Paige’s choices in the book’s other POV. I loved the contrast between the voices - Paige struck me as borderline Ausbergers and kept her word choice in line with that mind frame. Paige was very entertaining and unintentionally funny. There was nothing new morality wise in this story but it’s an entertaining read about a subject so many people struggle with today.

The depth of this book shocked me. I was not expecting to read such a strong depiction of the importance of mental health and how social media affects it. The Bright Side of Going Dark does a remarkable job at shining a light on social media influencers and how their lives are filtered depictions of what they want you to see. Mia is a popular social media influencer who decides to step awake from her fake world and live in the real world. Paige is someone who avoids interactions outside of her normal day; when Mia walks away from her social media life, Paige takes over. She realizes how nice it is to have such an influence over so many people. This book has so much heart and made me cry a few times.

This was a great book that I had a great time reading. The characters were well drawn, and the storyline flowed seamlessly. Would like to read more books by this author.

I thought that this one was ok but I did prefer this authors previous book. I enjoyed the story line and I liked the main characters although I did find myself becoming a little disinterested in some parts of the book.

This book pictured so perfectly how our society is behaving towards internet and social media nowadays... and I confess, it was scary. It was scary for me to think of how dependent we are of such things and how our interactions with each other are dictated by what we post and who we are online.

Kelly Harms did an amazing job telling the stories of Mia Bell, one of the most popular influencers of her time in a top brand new app, and Paige Miller, a very bright workaholic woman, whose job is to monitor this app, but who in reality, wants nothing to do with social media/internet whatsoever. It was a very intelligent move from the author, to create a story with such an intense premise, but opting to show both sides, with parallel stories.

Mia and Paige couldn't be more opposites from each other, however, they are forced to each experience the other side, having in the end, both worlds colliding with such an incredible plot twist.

The characters are so captivating, and not only the main characters, but all the support ones as well. A big shout out to Mia's mom, whose hippie life style brought so much joy to the book and to Mike the dog, who was such a presence and so significant throughout the story.

This thought-provoking book made me reflect upon so many things in life, and from time to time, I would ask myself if I was like that, or if I had the habit of doing certain things. Highly recommended it!!

As someone who does not have any social media accounts, I found this book fascinating. Kelly Harms highlighted how easy it is to become obsessed with social media and demonstrated its addictive quality without being heavy handed. The ending was maybe a bit neatly tied up but isn't that what we all love about chick lit? And yes, I hate that term...

I thought this was a very nice and relevant novel about the bad side of social media influencers and just life/connection with others in general. I related to parts of it deeply, as I experience a lot of my career through social media. And I found myself thinking often while reading this, about what I want my future to look like. I loved that where this novel takes place is a place I’ve called home and I liked that all of the characters had massive flaws. This book is upbeat and easy to sit and read all afternoon.

“𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆,
𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒃𝒆?

This book was such a quick, delightful read! I am a multiple-books-at-a-time-reader, and this was my designated bedside book. And when I find myself reaching for my bedside book throughout the day, I know it’s a good one!

Influencer star Mia’s seemingly perfect, online-presence-heavy life takes a few left turns, and here she is, throwing her phone off the side of a mountain.
Paige, an IT whiz who works at the social media platform Mia has made her career on, is forced to go on leave when her estranged half sister leaves a concerning comment on Mia’s page — a comment Paige blames herself for missing. In search of answers, Paige finds herself hacking into and impersonating Mia’s now abandoned social media handle.

With alternating viewpoint storytelling, Harms has written a fun, contemporary story that follows the lives of these women as they are forced to face the question of their 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲. I was quite impressed with how distinct the different women’s voices were as they all came to life off the page.

Don’t let the 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆, 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗲 deceive you (or do, as is intended)— this book deals with deep, timeless themes of 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳 and loss, 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀and will have you rethinking about what it means to be grounded and find significance of life and self in the present day where so much of ‘reality’ seems to happen in virtual spaces.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this book and would recommend it to folks who:
- Have often felt attacked by their iPhone screen time
- Follow more doggo instagram accounts than that of hoomans
- Daydream about quitting their jobs, cold turkey
- Want to explore mental health conversations through a fictional narrative
- Are often overwhelmed by all the different social media platforms
- Didn’t know they needed chickens in the narratives they read, but maybe do <- it me 🐓

—
𝘛𝘞: 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦, 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All views and opinions are my own.

Finished the Bright Side of Going Dark and let me say.... it is a book everyone needs to read!! It is so relative to the time of phone addiction we are living in. I feel hypocritical even posting about it because after reading it I want to throw my phone out and take a walk! The book has so many truth bombs in it and so many wake up calls for the reader. It is a beautiful story that focuses on what is real and what truly matters in our busy, noisy world. I cried, laughed and even felt myself cringe in knowing I am guilty of so many social media pitfalls. All I can say is wow!!!! Go get this book for yourself and every teenager you know. It is so so good and life changing.

The Bright Side of Going Dark attempts to address quite a few deep issues that a lot of people face nowadays in a light and funny way. For me, this novel was more of a miss than a hit. I applauded to the author's attempt to shed light into issues such as our addiction to social media, the illusion of the perfect life on social media, and the impact it has on people's lives. However, I didn't particularly like any of the characters; almost all the female characters are portrayed as emotionally unstable with extremely bad coping skills and the male characters are mostly depicted as attractive, mature, understanding and supportive.
Coincidentally, I read on the news today that social media content moderators are asked to sign PTSD forms stating they understand their job could potentially cause PTSD. Harms nailed that on the head with Paige who worked as a social media content moderator who tried to cheat the system and lie on her daily mental health check to avoid talking to a professional about her emotional issues. It goes to show how far some people are willing to go to avoid facing their darkest problems.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to like this. There are good things in it, and it has a really intriguing plot.

but at 40% in I'm still waiting for that plot to happen, and the characters aren't keeping me. -spoilers for the first half of the book-

The entire plot centers around Mia and Paige. Mia is a social media influencer on Not-Instagram, and Paige works for that company doing basically security on the comments and uploads. Anything that gets flagged she and her team have to look at and decide if it's offensive. When Mia goes dark after her fiance leaves her, Paige, by happenstance, takes over Mia's account in order to give her suicidal sister something to believe in.

On paper this sounds really good. However, at 40% Paige hasn't even seen her sister let alone taken over the account (which i assume will happen after she talks to her sister)

What I did like:
There was a big focus on mental health. Paige works in a very toxic environment, reviewing the nastiest of human comments and being required to really read them to understand intent before deciding if its offensive. The company has an onsite psychiatrist if you get overwhelmed and tries to provide a safe-space. They also address that most people try hard to ignore that and move on with their day. They answer the 'after work' survey with the 'right answers' to avoid talking to the Psychiatrist so they wont be prevented from working tomorrow. I LOVED this. I thought it was a really good insight into 1. how companies talk a big game about wanting to help your mental health, while still pushing you to get your numbers (employees feel conditioned to not take time off etc). 2. how we can also get really desensitized to horrific things if we see them all the time.

I loved the light being shed on the emotional damage of para-social relationships. How Mia feels lonely, and her followers look to her to escape their loneliness and how people can feel like theyre friends with people they follow or that they 'know' them when you only ever see the highlights reel of what they're posting.

Mia talking about her dog and brother were also highlights of Harms writing. There was a lot of heartfelt emotion there and it was easy to connect with.

Things that didn't work for me:
I get the feeling Harms doesn't like Millenials or influencers based on the amount of people who refuse to have or even come close to understanding modern technology. My 82 year old grandma has a better understanding of most tech than people far younger than her in this novel do. Hell, even my great-grandparents used email once or twice. Mia's mom being basically a tech-phobe seemed mostly to be a wedge in their relationship since she doesn't know the difference between an iPad and a computer, but can also manage to look up Mia's account (mind you, she doesn't even appear to have a device capable of loading the App but that's an entirely different issue).

Mia is of course anti-gluten because it makes you fat, even though as a society we've mostly moved past that mindset.... and conversely, Paige is an overweight and overall unhappy girl working in a male dominated industry (which I DID really like that Harms touched on that fact. She is one of few women, and that made her a desirable candidate.)

The characters really seemed completely detached from reality. Tucker text-message broke-up with Mia two(?) days before their wedding. he sends ONE TEXT to say its not happening. Mia doesn't respond, and Tucker never follows up. Then he seems surprised that she was hurt by that??? Mia's mom also basically said "oh that sucks". this woman gets broken up with and NO ONE reacts at all normally. Mia did for a minute, with her drunk binge-eating session (which again, was another well done scene. She has a moment of feeling childlike and 'needing her mommy' I liked these small moments)

Paige finds out from her BOSS that her sister attempted suicide 'but is okay'. I have MANY problems with this because... why wouldn't her family call her (this is later 'addressed' by her mom being flippant about the entire situation and not acknowledging that it was a suicide attempt in the first place, but I still call BS on this) but FURTHERMORE why does Paige's boss have so much information on the situation. Yes a coworker called in the 911 call, but they dont like call you back and give you updates. 'suspend your disbelief' I just can't, considering this information could have easily been delivered to Paige in another way that would not have changed much of hte story.
However, upon hearing that her sister attempted suicide, Paige has a panic attack and is required to take 2 weeks off work. Where they ban her badge from letting her in the building, but apparently don't block her from actually doing any work via the VPN etc.

Overall, this book isn't for me.

Two women are involved with a social media sites. Their lives eventually intersect in an unexpected way.

The theme is the impact social media has in our lives. The addictiveness if it and the way it prevents us from actually experiencing our lives. However it never descends into preaching

The characters are quirky and relatable. The writing is well done. An enjoyable feel good novel.