What an original and thought-provoking book.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and especially appreciated the way it was set out. For a book about a life lived on social media the story was told in headlines and transcripts and tweets.
A clever book about issues that are current and relevant in todays society as well as a great page turner.

A very apt and relevant read. Social media - the good and the bad. Two sides to every story. A intriguing read into the downside of fame.

Melanie Lange is well known in the media, having been famous since she was a teenager. When Melanie disappears, her father claims she is being cared for in a private mental health clinic, whereas her friend Nell and ex-husband Finn claim she is being held against her will. As the reader you must choose who to believe.

A highly original thriller with an addictive format.

I felt like I was reading the transcript from a real TV documentary. I really enjoyed how the story was told through various interviews, transcripts and diary entries. The interviews were thoroughly absorbing and gave me a great insight into the characters.

What made this book so unique for me was the way it got me thinking about how we consume media and view celebrities in the UK. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that there are real people behind the headlines. There is an important message to be taken away here around the issues presented in this fascinating story.

I highly recommend this if you after something a little different but with a captivating and unpredictable plot.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House UK for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The Ugly Truth is original, thought-provoking and utterly compelling. As you can telll, I absolutely loved it - and can’t recommend it enough.

It’s the story of Melanie, who has lived much of her life in the media spotlight. A member of a high profile family, from life as a teenage model to now successful businesswoman and mother of two, her life has been well documented and, as is all too common in this day and age, people are not afraid to express their opinions on her. When she goes missing and a video appears on YouTube claiming she is being held against her will by her father Peter, he is quick to insist that in fact she is simply in a facility following a mental breakdown. But who is telling the truth?

Told in mixed media - a combination of transcripts, press articles, emails, Twitter threads and diary entries - Melanie’s story is gradually revealed as we hear from her father, ex-husband, friends and the public, all of whom have very different perceptions of what has happened and of Melanie as a person.

This is such an addictive read as as a reader you try and separate fact from fiction - and decide whether you are team #SaveMelanie or team #HelpPeter. It is also a stark reminder of the impact of modern media and the resulting challenges of living life in the public eye.

All in all a clever, well plotted and thought-provoking book - and a thoroughly good read!

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishers for a copy of “ The Ugly Truth” for an honest review.

Although I started off enjoying this book ,and the style of writing ,the novelty soon wore off for me.
I’d hoped for more of a psychological thriller but it was more of a comment on the problems with the desire for fame , and the destructive impact from social media.
I’m possibly not the right age demographic for this , I’m sure it would appeal more to younger age group.
I managed to finish the book but unfortunately it wasn’t an enjoyable read

Oh boy, this one sucked me in! Big time!

I loved the concept, the different sources like Netflix doc, interviews, Tweets, tabloid headlines and journal entries…it’s cool, honestly.

The story kept me engaged, I really wanted to know the truth but I was not ready for the ending… at all.

A true and solid 4 stars from me!

Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley!

If you want to read a book about the rise and fall of a celebrity, this is that book. If you're looking for a compelling thriller, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

A book of our time. The format is very modern - using scripts from Netflix, twitter and interview notes. Who is to be believed is the question at the beginning; is it the missing daughter, social media manipulator extraordinaire or her businessman father. Either way the fact is that the daughter has disappeared from all friends, family and social platforms - the question is why and what happens next.

With my name being Melanie and my dad being Peter this was a book I was always going to read. Luckily for me my dad, unlike the Peter in the book, isn’t an over protective, controlling megalomaniac.

There aren’t many books that have made my blood boil as much as this one, the author instantly had me invested and shocked at the treatment of Melanie. I really related to her as I was a bit of a wayward teen myself, but I still believe you have to give your children the freedom to make mistakes. Not lock them away and wrap them in cotton wool. Or in this case it may as well have been a straight jacket. I mean would this even happen if she was male!

However and this is where it is really clever, as a parent how far do you go to keep your child safe? We all saw the Britney Spears drama play out and when the media plays a huge part and it is affecting their mental health to the point of breakdown what else can you do?

I loved the inclusion of social media and the public’s perception of what is going on. How mass thought can influence and sway opinions. The formatting showing interviews for a documentary means you get to hear from both sides and everyone involved.

Let me just add the one character I despised all the way through was her sister Zara, sibling jealousy to the extreme. All the characters are questionable and cleverly given two sides so you don’t quite know what is the truth and are they with Melanie for the right reason. Be that as a husband or a friend. It is all dependent on which side you believe.

Then I was hit by that ending and a big bravo as I did not see that coming at all. No spoilers here but it has to be read to be believed.

This book had me completely drawn in and hooked let me tell you!
I love the format it was written in, really enjoyed the writing style and overall I thought it was a brilliant thought provoking thriller.
It really highlights how horrible and dangerous social media and the general media can be and really does make you wonder. Very clever book by L C North I won’t hesitate to pick up another!

This book is split up in to parts and each part gets gradually more tense and fast paced. It is written in a series of different interview styles from different points of view.

It looks into the life of Melanie who seemingly disappears but seems to have contact with the outside world through YouTube. As the story goes on, things become clearer and are explained more thoroughly.

I really enjoyed the writing style, felt the way I think I should have for the characters and thought the ending was pretty powerful!

This book has a very current storyline and was a brilliant read. I would definitely recommend this book if you like a mystery/thriller.
Thank you to L.C North and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Ugly Truth is a book written very differently to anything I have read before, I wasn’t sure if this was my cup of tea and found I struggled to put it down.
Melanie Lange is daughter to Peter, a millionaire who oversees Melanie’s life a little too closely. She has been missing for a few months, her ex husband and children have no idea where she is and neither does Nell, Melanie’s best friend. They try to find out where she is but to no avail, they start an online community for trying to find Mel but again hit a brick wall. Her sister is saying nothing and so is her father, is she even alive?
This is a very different type of read, the book is written in various interviews, transcripts, podcasts, twitter. With speculation of what has happened not everyone is sympathetic and Nell struggles with the hate for Mel online. Some do want to help but it depends on which team you want to back, father or daughter?
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

I was engrossed in this book and it was not what I expected at all. A critical look at social and mainstream media comments and pieces of news and how this can impact the person who is being targeted. This story could not be any more timely or poignant.

There were parts I struggled to read due to how strong the feelings were when reading Melanie's experiences.

I really wasn't sure which side of the story to believe until quite close to the end. The twist at the end was one that will stay with me.

I would highly recommend this book.

Well written and true to life dealing with issues in social media and the paparazzi. Excellent read!

This isn’t really a thriller as much as it is a social commentary regarding the way that the British press - but press in general - and social media, deal with ‘celebrity’, particularly when the focus of their gaze is on women. The format, familiar to readers of Janice Hallett’s books, keeps interest and pace by switching style and viewpoints via a mixture of entries from interviews, Twitter, YouTube, Netflix, etc.

There is much here that is recognisable. Britney Spears is the most obvious parallel but sadly there are many more, from Princess Diana to Amy Winehouse and Caroline Flack. We all know that the media helps to create celebrities in order to sell copy and on some level many also know that there is something at least slightly grubby in buying the newspapers, magazines and websites that encourage that behaviour. But the truth is a certain level of prurience is part of the human condition and social media and the paparazzi have fed this unattractive trait until it has become the money spinner that we know today.

This book reminds us of something that social media encourages us to forget - these are real people with real feelings and emotions. Whether they have fame or money doesn’t make a difference to that basic fact. It’s too easy to imagine that writing some comment on Twitter has no consequences and imagine that writing something you wouldn’t say to someone’s face is acceptable.

The other main theme is that of coercive control. None of us really know other people’s motivations and we often don’t even understand our own. When money and business are thrown into the mix, then reasons for certain types of behaviour can become even more suspect. We never fully understand Sir Peter’s motivation - not are we meant to - but at some point it becomes irrelevant. We have seen with Britney and with any number of child stars, what a sad and lethal cocktail this can become.

An interesting and engaging read which deals with difficult subject matter in a highly accessible way.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House UK, Transworld Publisher for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

In a format which is a combination of vlogs, newspaper articles, police statements and tweets, we find out about the life and disappearance of Melanie Lange, famous for being famous. The question being, has she been kidnapped by her father to protect his hotel business, or is she lying for even more publicicty.
This is an unusual and unputdownable read - just one more tweet, just one more statement! I highly recommend it.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this novel but what I got was a stunning and chilling account of the levels of vitriol that exists daily on certain aspects of social media, in the gutter press and in an often sensationalist TV documentary.

The novel consisted of interviews with friends, family and those who gained from tormenting Mellie, newspaper reports and mostly vicious tweets. It made it quick to read initially but as the novel progressed and Mellie’s situation deteriorated I found it more difficult to read.

Throughout the entire novel I wasn’t sure what to believe or even know if there were any of the characters I liked. I did however, have a lot of sympathy for Mellie, and it was obvious that she was damaged mentally when her modelling career took off. Forever in the public eye, under attack from those who envied what she had, including from her own father and sister, both damaged themselves.

As I said earlier, I found it more difficult to read as I read further. But I also found it increasingly difficult to put down. It is a long time since I have felt this way. I read the final 25% in one sitting, even though I felt often on edge as Mellie’s desperation increased.

My feelings regarding most of them changed when I’d finished the book. The twitter trolls and media were the only ones I still loathed. The others, I could start to see how they were affected by the impact of the publicity on Mellie’s life.

I found this a brilliant, original and emotionally challenging novel, I’m sure I will be thinking about it for days to come

Melanie Lange, daughter of Sir Peter Lange owner of Lange Hotels, was thrust into the spotlight at the age of 15 and her life from then on wasn't her own, hounded by the press and constantly talked about on social media. Now in her 30s, a successful businesswoman and mum to two little boys she adores. When she disappears after losing custody of her children the rumour mill goes into overdrive. Has she went to a private clinic to recover from a breakdown like her dad says or has she been kidnapped like her best friend Mell and her ex-husband Finn are saying.

The story is told in transcripts, interviews, diary entries, tweets and the narration of a documentary, a mixed media style, which makes it quick to read and keeps it interesting.

Stories of different times and encounters of Melanie's life are recounted by her dad, Mell and Finn so it's hard to know the truth until you start reading Melanie's secret diary.

It's a topical read indicative of how social media can affect people and certainly gives you something to think about.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC.

Melanie Lange, former model, head of an internationally renowned beauty product company, has disappeared. Why? That is the mystery; but actually it isn’t a mystery, because we know the answer to that question almost immediately. So perhaps the mystery is “where is she?” But that isn’t a mystery either, because we also know the answer to that (although for the first few weeks her friends and the public at large are in the dark). So this is not a mystery story. Nor is it a thriller. There is certainly criminal activity, but the only indictable offence is that she is being held against her will, i.e. kidnapped! Although the police seem to be uninvolved until the very end. Melanie’s father, Sir Peter Lange, is head of a worldwide hotel chain, but I don’t believe he has the power to subvert the legal process. The question really is what type of story is this?
The answer is that this is a polemic against the power of the media to make and break any person who appears in the public eye. Melanie is relentlessly stalked by the paparazzi, the tabloids, and social media trolls, from her first appearance as a model at age fifteen, to the night before her disappearance. Her character and her travails reflect those of a number of real people, notably Britney Spears, Kate Moss, Charlotte Dawson, Paris Hilton, and Princess Diana. However, the assaults on Melanie seem egregious to me, and the controlling actions of her father exceed any examples of which I am aware. The ending is unsatisfactory, and disappointing for the reader. I’m sure there are readers who will enjoy this book, since it is well written and uses the epistolatory style to deploy a range of perspectives, but it didn’t work for me.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.