An enjoyable thriller about fandom and obsession. A little too much going on, I think the subplots about the main character’s parents could have been cut but overall a fun and gripping read.

I don't usually read YA but I had enjoyed Lauren James's story 'An Unauthorised Fan Treatise', published online, which this is based on. I did find this less satisfying than the original story but it's an enjoyable tale and I'm sure it will work better for its intended audience.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

This book was actually recommended to me by a bookseller that loved it! I really enjoyed it and the cover is absolutely beautiful!

I did enjoy this book, but I wasn’t blown away. The characters and plot felt slightly flat, I wasn’t drawn to it and desperate to pick it up again unfortunately

A very enjoyable read which will appeal to a large YA audience.
Good true crime, with twists and turns. Kept me interested.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it was written really well and had me hooked from the beginning. It was also a very fast-paced book that took me just over a day to read, so if you’re looking for a quick read this book is perfect.
This book also gives off similar vibes to a good girls guide to murder so if you enjoyed that series I would highly recommend this book. I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in the series when it is out!

Ever since reading An Unauthorised Fan Treatise back in 2019, I have thought about it at least once every couple of weeks. So, you can imagine my excitement when it was announced that there would be another book in the same universe.

Last Seen Online is a rollercoaster of a read that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. It is an excellent combination of thriller, fandoms and true crime, which leads to it being a spectacular read.

When Delilah meets Sawyer, the son of Anya Saffitz, she becomes hooked on a decade-old scandal. Whilst trying to find the truth, Delilah uncovers blog posts written by the mysterious ‘gottiewrites’ and is soon caught up in a world of fandom conspiracy, greed and murder. The deeper Delilah digs, the more dangerous it becomes.

This book is told from the perspective of Delilah and you can’t help but trust her instantly. I wanted her to find out the truth whilst also looking after herself and those around her. We get to meet Sawyer who is another excellent character addition to this world. The pair together work wonderfully and I loved the banter that they shared.

If you’ve read An Unauthorised Fan Treatise you’ll know of the blog posts from ‘gottiewrites’ but if you haven’t don’t worry. Throughout the story we get to read the blog entries as Delilah finds them. This means if you have read the previous story you have the knowledge going in and if not, you learn it alongside the main character. This allows for new twists, a deeper look into the mystery and facts about the case.

Wren James is one of the best YA authors out there in my opinion. Their books have always blown me away and have me hooked from start to finish. I cannot wait to see what they release next!

Overall, Last Seen Online is a fast-paced and entertaining read that I cannot recommend enough. If you are a fan of a good mystery, celebrities, fandoms and true crime then this is one for you. It is exceptional!

Last Seen Online by Lauren James is a gripping and innovative thriller that kept me hooked until the very end.

The novel's format, told through a series of online messages, emails, and social media posts, adds a fresh and contemporary twist to the mystery genre. James skillfully builds suspense, slowly unraveling the truth behind the disappearance of the ... (No spoilers here 😂)

The characters are well-developed and relatable, making their journeys compelling and emotionally engaging.

The digital format MAY take some getting used to, but it does enhance the story's immersion and realism.

A thrilling read that will leave you questioning the digital footprints we all leave behind. Highly recommended, loved it!

First of all, the formatting of this book is so fun. I can only imagine how good it is in physical form if it’s this good in the ebook.

I really enjoyed Delilah as a character. I found her very relatable and I actually really liked her ~quirky~ traits, which is something I don't normally like in a character. I also really liked Sawyer, and how he didn't shy away from his emotions.

This book was very modern, which I know some people aren't fond of. There's lots of tiktok and internet references, but it felt natural in the story. This is definietly one for the internet sleuths and fandom girlies.

My only slight issue was I wish the reveal was a little bit more spread out and detailed. I felt like it ended very abruptly, but I was still shocked by it. I was even more shocked by the extra reveal in the epilogue.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It's great for fans of Karen M. McManus or A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

I'm afraid I didn't enjoy this one. But I am not the target audience, I'm older and I'm not into the celebrity thing, I don't even know what famdom is lol

Delilah and her friend Sawyer delve into an old murder mystery and attempt to find out what really happened to the star of a TV show Loch and Ness.

There is a blogger, Gottiewrites, that is super obsessed with the lives of the stars of the show. So we also get info from her from the build up before the death.

I really couldn't get into this, I didn't really care what happened and the characters are super annoying, I mean in what world is it acceptable for a stalker blogger to break into to someone's home?

This is the first book I’ve had to read on my phone (not an experience I want to repeat), and I’m probably not the target audience of this book as I didn’t know it was based on another story (An Unauthorised Fan Treatise) nor am I into fanfic, true crime pods, online forums about celeb culture, etc but... I VERY much enjoyed this murder mystery adventure. It was super engaging, weaving mixed media effortlessly throughout.
It has all the elements you want in a YA book, likeable characters, inclusivity with ADHD and LGBTQIA+, relevancy, social media and social issues, and red herrings. I thought it cleverly addressed the positives and negatives of fandom, but I didn't like the lengths Gottie went to (is that a thing people actually do!?) and the confession was a bit far fetched for me. Having said that, would I recommend, absolutely, and I'd read another Lauren James book too! A special shout out for the cover designer because this is stunning, I can just imagine it with sprayed edges too!

"Last Seen Online" is a fast paced thriller set in the glittering world of Hollywood which explorers concepts of fame, body image and the manipulative worlds of social media. While readers are unlikely to be accustomed to the likes of livejournal, it adds a "retro" feel to the mystery which works in its favour and as a result sets it apart from many of the other investigative thrillers available for YA readers. A great addition to school library shelves!

Thanks to Walker Books for the eARC of this via NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this twisty mixed media YA adventure! This was a super fast read and I was engrossed the entire time. This is the first novel I've read that really encapsulates that feeling of fandom and how it can just drag you in and how everything just feels so big and wild. Gottie’s blog posts were a favourite part of this novel for me. They almost added a secondary narrator to the novel who was wildly unreliable and we are left trying to pick up the pieces of the mystery alongside Delilah and Sawyer. Last Seen Online did lose that 5 star for me as I did feel that there were too many story lines we were juggling and the reveal though thrilling was a little easy. Delilah didn’t really do anything to get to that final conclusion except be in the right place at the right time and the “bad guy” just monologues the whole story to her and to us. Overall however I would definitely recommend picking this up for a fun YA mystery with so many twists and I’m sure if I re read I would realise there were many hints I had failed to pick up on! This is the 3rd novel I have read by Lauren James and I will 100% continue to pick up their new works along with making my way through their backlist!

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

I loved this book - the online / internet fandom is one that really excited me in books. I loved the layout of this book too, I really enjoyed it overall.

Last Seen Online is a captivating YA mystery that artfully intertwines secrets and fandom culture. This riveting novel follows Delilah, whose journey begins with curiosity and quickly spirals into a perilous investigation filled with greed, conspiracy theories, and murder.

This novel is a love letter to fandom culture, peppered with numerous references. The author does an excellent job of weaving in these elements and it's a testament to the book's broad appeal that, although aimed at young adult readers, it can easily captivate an adult audience as well.

One of the standout features of Last Seen Online is its natural and unassuming LGBTQ+ representation. The characters' diverse identities are seamlessly integrated into the narrative, treated with the same casual normalcy as their heterosexual counterparts. This inclusivity is refreshing, as characters are more than their sexual orientations and are instead complex individuals contributing to the story's richness.

The novel's structure is innovative, employing a variety of media formats such as social media messages, blog posts, and comment threads to unravel the mystery. This approach not only makes the narrative more dynamic and interactive but also immerses the reader into the investigative process, making them feel like an active participant in piecing together the clues alongside Delilah.

The characters are beautifully flawed, adding depth and relatability to the story. Delilah and Sawyer's morally ambiguous actions enhance the narrative tension and realism. Their decisions, often straddling the line between right and wrong, make them more human and relatable, highlighting that everyone has their imperfections. This moral grey area adds layers to the drama and keeps readers invested in the characters' fates.

A YA Murder Mystery/Thriller with a heavy side of social media and fandoms? The moment I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I was going to love it and I wasn't wrong. Anyone who has been involved in the fandom for something, especially the more prominent ones, will find some relatability to the blog posts and comment sections scattered throughout. They are no picnic, with sometimes wild conspiracy theories, divided opinions and ship wars. Wren James is clearly familiar with the nature of fan culture, with some fantastic references that anyone who has spent time on this side of the internet will understand.

Though the murder mystery itself is the main focus of the story, Last Seen Online also explores life in the limelight and just how toxic and invasive the seemingly glamourous world of celebrities can really be. It's a reminder to not trust everything we read online, and that the celebrities being idolised aren't necessarily the same in private as they are when they don their public persona.

Complete with twists and turns, a clever narrative and some great and varied representation, Wren James has created a brilliant and gripping story that had me hooked from start to finish.

It was a solid story but felt the pacing was a bit off between the OTT fandom murder mystery investigation and the family/friendship dramas. The mystery itself was easy to work out, perhaps a bit too easy, and the twists weren't really twisty enough.

I think this will have some shelf appeal for our crime and mystery fans, and the cover is definately 'pick me up and have a look' worthy.

This book lived rent free in my head for the couple of days that it took to read it. I loved it so much. I loved the way it encapsulates "fandom life" through the blog and the comment section throughout the book.

While the end villain was pretty easy to figure out early on, I guessed correctly between pages 35-50, there were some twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to skip work to keep reading.

I just thought that it was a really good book

Dare I say this is Wrens best book yet?? I’ve loved all of their work over the years and I think this one is a great showcase of all of their strengths in writing — creating tension, the storylines within storylines, the talk on climate, the engagement with other social issues (such as the toxicity, and community, in fandom such as in this one).

I’f you’ve read any of Wrens previous works you’ve heard of Loch & Ness and, if, like me, you were intrigued by this you would have hoped for something more…and here Wren is delivering!! And what a great job they did. I loved finally getting to see all the juicy backstory and the reveals and the secrets and the twists and turns. It was fun, exciting, and a little bit scary at times.

I really loved the multimedia aspect, that's always been another strong point in James’ novels. There was a gear pace and contrast going, and the story always flowed well.

I thought the blog posts were so well done, reading the comments were startling….it was like I could’ve been scrolling on twitter. James captured the fandom experience so well, with all the debates and the nastiness. I also laughed at the few shots taken at other fandoms like Supernatural, that made me laugh.

I really really loved this book.