Faking Faith

by Josie Bloss

Dylan Mahoney is living one big unholy lie. Thanks to a humiliating and painfully public sexting incident, Dylan has become the social pariah at her suburban Chicago high school. She’s ignored by everyone―when she’s not being taunted―and estranged from her two best friends. So when Dylan discovers the blogs of homeschooled fundamentalist Christian girls, she’s immediately drawn into their fascinating world of hope chests, chaperoned courtships, and wifely submission. Blogging as Faith, her devout and wholesome alter ego, Dylan befriends Abigail, the online group’s queen bee. After staying with Abigail and her family for a few days, Dylan begins to grow closer to Abigail (and her intriguingly complicated older brother). Soon, Dylan is forced to keep living a lie . . . or come clean and face the consequences. A Junior Library Guild Selection
"Josie Bloss writes about obsession―characters who are obsessed with band or music, obsessed with a boy, obsessed with someone else's life. They're themes to which all young adults―popular or not―can relate."―INDIANAPOLIS STAR

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Religion, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Fiction, Teen

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 8, 2011

About the author

Josie Bloss grew up in East Lansing, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan, where she was a member of the best college marching band in the country and a staff reporter for the Michigan Daily.

After obtaining a degree in Political Science, she tried to decide if she wanted to be a lawyer while wrangling paper in several large Chicago law firms that are attempting to take over the world. Finding herself uninspired by global domination, she decided to relocate to somewhere more quiet and write instead.

When not mining her high school journals for material and wishing there were marching band options for adults, Josie enjoys karaoke and acting in plays.

She lives in Bloomington, IN

Reviews

[Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh...let's see. Joining an online community based on a specific interest, making unexpected connections with people you've never met in real life, becoming so immersed in this community and its friendships that you make your own blog...nah, I wouldn't know anything about that. *ahem* Bloss describes this compulsion so uncannily (and hilariously) in Faking Faith that I was onboard right from the start. The power of an online obsession. The rush of community acceptance. The need to be involved and matter--even to an obscure corner of the internet. Bloss hits all the right notes.

Her heroine, Dylan Mahoney, has discovered that social ostracization really does wonders for your blog browsing time. After a series of seriously misguided but cringingly familiar life decisions, Dylan has dropped her entire life--hobbies, friends, extracurricular activities--for the opportunity to date a popular, handsome Grade-A douchebag. And just when you think her bad decisions have reached their peak, out comes the webcam. Dylan is promptly dumped and her entire existence reduced to a Google search result of "sexting" and "girl attacks Benz with golf club".

Dylan spends her newfound free-time doing what else? Scouring the internet. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Oh, the lure of internet boredom. The sites you'll go to, the blogs you'll read. My RSS feed and I know this compulsion well. (One day I might take up stained glass and soldering or live on a ranch. You just never know.)

Dylan eventually stumbles across a link to a blog run by a home schooled fundamentalist Christian girl and becomes fascinated with the contrast to her current life. Her recent troubles have led Dylan to question her family's emotionally distant dynamic and whether her unsupervised freedom to make such humiliating mistakes was really such a benefit after all. Her voyeurism evolves into an obsession that drives her to create an alter ego Faith and start a blog of her own in the community.

She is drawn to the alpha-blogger of the genre (there's always one above the rest, right?) and finds herself truly connecting with the girl. I laughed out loud at Dylan's description of the buzz of finally being acknowledged by the queen bee herself. After suffering through the social desert of being a high school outcast, Dylan welcomes the connection and treasures the friendship that develops with Abigail-- so much so that she plans a trip to stay with Abigail and her family.

This is where some suspension of disbelief becomes necessary. It's hard to believe that Abigail's family wouldn't gain permission from "Faith's" parents for starters. For another it is one thing to blog about baking and milking cows like you know what you're doing. It is quite another to pull off a charade of farm chores in front of actual professionals for two weeks. Thirdly, it's hard to believe Faith was never required to bust out a Bible verse once or twice. Bloss handled Dylan/Faith's blunders pretty well, but also had Abigail's family give her quite a generous amount of wiggle room.

Speaking of Abigail's family--HOLY ALMANZO WILDER, Asher! I was not---NOT--prepared for this amount of swoon in a book about fundamentalist Christian bloggers. Abigail's brother Asher is just...wow. A sweet, sincere, soulful farm boy? Just...hot damn. (Sorry.) I loved everything about Dylan learning to trust that not all boys are Grade-A douchebags. Although, you have to wonder what will happen when Asher eventually discovers Google, am I right? WHATEVER HE'S PERFECT.

Objectively, I'd give this somewhere around 3.5 stars. There are plenty of funny, intriguing and tingly moments and I sped through this book in one sitting. There are also some aspects I wish had been more fleshed out. I would have liked a contrast to Abigail's dad in their community. I also felt the ending was rushed and too simplified to wrap up the story like it deserved. Yet I was seriously entertained by descriptions of Dylan's internet life, intrigued by the details of Abigail's family and their lifestyle, charmed by the scenes between Abigail and Faith and straight up giddy over Dylan's interactions with Asher. When it's time for Dylan to admit to her deceptions, I definitely felt the stakes.

And for that reason, along with a comprehensive investigation into the amount of objectivity vs. the amount of squees given, I rate this book 4/5 stars. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

Review originally appeared at Young Adult Anonymous.


Objectively, probably 3.5 stars but 4 stars and a lot of Almanzo Wilder based squeeing in the review to come....

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a homeschooled Christian girl, I picked up Faking Faith with a deep sense of curiousity. Would Bloss be the type to bash homeschooling, Christianity, and big families in general, or did she come from one and therefore be more sympathetic? Well, Faking Faith falls somewhere in-between.
Plot:
Dylan Mahoney has pretty much reached rock bottom on the social scale at her high school. After an embarssing "sexting" incident, with pictures released all over Google, even her best friends won't talk to her. So, lonley and bored, Dylan surfs the internet and becomes addicted to...
"homeschooled, fundamentalist Christian girls blogs". In fact, she gets so into it she creates her own blog, makes up a name for herself (Faith), and sort of....slips right in. Suddenly, she has friends and like a hundred hits a day on her blog. She feels excepted and right....except for the fact that all her new friends think she comes from a family in Southern Wisconsin with seven children and a farm. One of these new friends is Abigail, the "Queen Bee" of the blogs. She's from Illinois and the third child of a large family. With summer looking long and boring, Dylan as "Faith" comes up with a plan to visit Abigail, one homeschooled girl to another. What she doesn't expect to find is one super-hot older brother, a tyranical-in-the-extreme Father, and frilly pink pjamas. As Dylan gets closer and closer to Abigail and her family, her situation becomes more awkward...after all, she's just Faking Faith.

Thoughts
I've really given this one a lot of thought. A part of me appreciates the picture of the large, farming home school family and the purity and love Dylan finds there. A part of me is indignant and more than a little skeptical of the evil side by side with that love. Here is the conclusion I finally reached:
Bloss plays it up for drama. When she is writing about farm/home school life or becoming addicted to blogs or attempting to cook or any number of small things, this book is good and amusing. Where she tries to pull "exciting plot" Namely, the molesting and kissing and stuff its...not good. Not that it is bad necesarily, but it doesn't fit. Without discounting that yes its not impossible certain things could and do happen in family situations like this The arranged marriage, for example , its not something normal. I know strict Fathers like Abigail's, and they don't go around hitting people who disagree with them. Even their sons. It makes for great plot, all "exciting" and "dramatic" but its not....real life.
I do appreciate that Bloss doesn't attempt to generalize that all homeschoolers live on a farm or all homeschoolers wear Jane Austen dresses to parties (though we might like to...)Of course, she doesn't say that all homeschoolers aren't that way, she doesn't really saying anything about that. So maybe this is a moot point.
The other thing that kind of bugged me about this book was...the romance. Now, before you throw a potted plant at my head, let me agree with most of the reviewers so far...Asher is adorable. Most of the time. He's got just about everything going for him. And he's sweet and dreamy on top of that and the note he left her is just darn sweet.
BUT
I don't buy it. The romance that is. I know guys like Asher (without the buffy and adorable and making out with girls part) and yeah, I believe him. But not the romance. There is way to much...passion. Yeah, maybe Asher would fall for her. Because he doesn't actually know any other girls, but he sees her and just....falls for her. And makes out and his voice gets "husky" when he addresses her. Like this is some sort of...romance novel or something xP. And Dylan? She's physically attracted to Asher, but she doesn't really get him. She thinks he's hot. He...who knows what he sees in her. But, even straining my imagination, I can't see their romance working well. Because....
What happens when he sees certain things on the internet?
Or when he realizes they don't, like, share any fundamental beliefs about Scripture or Jesus or...anything. Because she is going to be snarky and awesome like her Mom, and he has been raised to think women belong in the kitchen.
Bloss attemps to create a romance full of passion and romance but it doesn't flow with the plot. Not well, not at all. Like the drama surrounding Abigail, its an element thrown in with lots of added flavor and drama and not very realistic.


So those are some of my thoughts on this book. Cute when it addresses the little things of life, dramatic and unbelievable when handling climax and such. Wouldn't reccomend. Ironically, for a book about Christian fundamentalist homeschoolers...I would never reccomend they read this. From the main character losing her virginity (tactfully handled, but mentioned none-the-less) to the language, they would be horrified. Its a PG13 book, and not a particularly good one at that.

[Stacia (the 2010 club) · Rating 3 out of 5]

After bagging on several books for getting it wrong, I finally found an example of how an open ending can be done in a way which isn't completely annoying.

Psst. I have a secret. One I shouldn't tell. You might think horribly of me once I mention what it is. This secret is so possibly embarrassing that I think I'll hide it in a spoiler tag. Look only if you're brave!

So. Uh. I kinda have this weird obsession interest in observing fringe lifestyles. I don't know why but it's a guilty pleasure of mine.

Faking Faith was (in my opinion) a loose interpretation of this well-known television family.



YES. I WATCHED THE DAMN SHOW. FOR AT LEAST A COUPLE OF SEASONS. I also watched Sister Wives and a few other TLC train wrecks. Different people fascinate me, okay?!? Don't hate me for being curious!

Okay, I feel better, having gotten that off my chest. Now I can proceed with the review.

Faking Faith is not going to be the book for everyone. There were parts which were completely unbelievable, parts which were a bit young and fluffy, and parts which made you want to get all slap-happy up in people's faces.

Why did I like the book? Well, it's like this. Any time I read a book and a scene has me wandering through a flashback of my own life, I have to give extra points for the story making me relive the joys and horror of my youth.

Our female lead (Dylan) gets herself into a bit of a scrape when she discovers that her popular boyfriend is cheating on her, so she trashes his car. In turn, said boyfriend executes revenge by sending topless pics of her to just about oh...everyone.

Thankfully, I never sexted anyone in high school (unless you count writing boobs on a pager with numbers - crap, I feel old now), but I did have one of those "ex-boyfriend uses dirt on you to alienate you from other people" moments. I'm also thankful that at my high-school, scandal only lasted as long as it took for the next person to make a mistake, which was all of about 2 days. Otherwise, I might have been forced to resort to drastic measures like our girl Dylan did.

But...really? She couldn't have found another way to rebel other than to start a fundamentalist religion blog? Woo. This girl is hard-core. Most kids would be out partying. This girl was swapping recipes and making up stories about her non-existent large and conservative family. I would make the comment, "whatever floats your boat," but even I balk at the idea of "turning good" as a form of rebellion. What fun is that?!? This was the one part of the book which I found the most unrealistic. What a strange idea for a game.

Yet...I can't say that I wasn't amused at the turn of events. Dylan makes up a new persona called "Faith" and promptly worms her way into a friendship with a conservative girl. Now, by conservative, I mean ULTRA conservative. Don't worry Christians. This book is not a slam on Christianity. It's more of a parody of an exceptionally sheltered family (see Duggars above). After said friendship is established, an invite goes out for Faith to come visit her new friend's family and stay with them for a while.

One of the best points that this book did manage to make was that the grass is never greener on the other side. Another excellent point was the showing of how all families have their strong points. Even when we were being shown the flaws in the conservative family, we were also shown the positives. Most family units do come with both negatives and positives to them.

So why did I compare this particular family to the Duggars? There were a few reasons but if you've seen the show, this will make sense : I felt like a strange exclamation point walking among them in my long denim skirt and unstylish pink blouse.

The high point of this entire strange world was the character of Asher. I found myself attached to him and wishing I could reach into the book and yank him back out into our world. He was the one person most unsure of his place in the family and his guilt for wanting to be different was bittersweet to watch. I wanted to know more of his journey and wish there would be a book 2 to explain how everything turned out for him but I understand why this was a standalone book.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh.

The concept behind this book is great - a girl gets caught up in a sexting scandal at school, and falls into the online world of homeschooled evangelical teenagers to the point of actually starting a blog of her own, faking her way in the evangelical world as "Faith." She becomes friendly with another girl and actually goes to visit her and live among those she has merely been pretending to be.

Like I said, great concept. Sadly, the execution is less than stellar. It handles a difficult, often foreign group of people very poorly - more as satirical curiosities than actual human beings. It has its moments of respectfulness and interest, but it's far overshadowed by what I felt was more of a "hey, look at this freak show" element, as if it was fairly known that the antagonists of the story would never get ahold of it in the real world.

There are a lot of books that handle religion - and moving away from/questioning religion - very well, and tons that do this much better. There are ways to satirize belief and belief systems in respectful manners. This book doesn't do either of them well, and to its overall detriment.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a series of bad decisions, culminating in the widespread dissemination of some foolishly shared ("you'll never show these to anyone,right?") topless photos, MC Dylan finds herself home alone, suspended, grounded by her workaholic parents, shunned by her friends and generally very, very lonely and unhappy. What's a girl to do? Why, spend hours on the internet, of course, where she becomes intrigued by and sucked into the world of homeschooled fundamentalist Christian girls (from families that kind of remind me of the Duggers). She really connects with with one of them, a girl from southern Illinois named Abigail (I think that name means "Handmaid," appropriate for her, as it develops). Dylan (whose name comes from a guy who was the ultimate symbol of the hedonistic 60's) invents her own such persona, "Faith" (I like the ambiguity of the title, btw, referring to both her name and her beliefs). As Faith, Dylan creates her own blog, and insinuates herself into the little online community and ultimately ends up visiting Abigail and her family (she's a clever one, if a bit sneaky). Faith's visit stirs up a lot of things at the farm, including Abi's brother Asher, who's already somewhat on probation for having been seen kissing a non-Christian girl. Is Faith's presence and impact a good thing for any of them?

One of the things I really liked about this book was the starkly contrasting nature of Dylan/Faith's two worlds. Her parents are mystified by her interest in and questions about things like baking, and why they never go to church. And of course Abi's family views the world Dylan comes from (if they think of it at all), as equally incomprehensible, and essentially a snare for the unwary, to be avoided above all. The relationshion between Abigail, the first person Dylan's connected with in so long who hasn't judged and rejected her, is sweet and convincing, and all the more dramatic for being founded on a whole lot of lying. Maybe because it is so utterly foreign to her experience, Dylan doesn't judge Abigail's world harshly, but instead sees it as something to be experienced, comparing it to being on an alien planet at one point. One of the things I liked best was how Dylan was able to see the appealing things about both worlds, and I appreciated that the author didn't engage in a lot of stereotyping or mockery of "those benighted kooks," but was able to see what they had that the more materialistic and driven lawyer family lacked (and vice versa, of course).

This is one of those "OMG, girlfriend don't do that books," a lot of the time, and it's fun (and stressful) to see how such bad judgment and poor impulse control land Dylan in so much, and so many different kinds of, hot water. But Dylan does grow, heal and learn as the summer goes on, and the Faith experience ends up being one that brings her a new appreciation of her own world and family, while also, perhaps, having a similar effect on Abigail and Asher. When Dylan applies what Faith learned to the situation she left behind, she's able to reconcile her experience of both worlds in a healing and hopeful way that make the conclusion emotional and satisfying. And isn't that what a good YA book is supposed to do?

[Jessi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this book. I was a few pages in and became frustrated because I thought the writing was kind of contrived. Sentences were sloppily constructed and there were some really simple grammatical errors (like a then/than mixup) that any decent editor should have caught. I thought that some people might excuse things like this because the book is written from the viewpoint of a teenager, but if you look at the vocabulary the narrator uses, it's really unrealistic. Additionally, I was a bit disappointed by the portrayal of the young religious women in the book. It seems the author took stereotypical bits and pieces from various corners of the Christian faith, and mashed them all together. To me, this just comes across as a lack of understanding of one's characters. Yes, there are conservative teenage girls who blog. Sometimes, though, they came across as downright Amish. There were a lot of farm-girl depictions in the book. But really, do the majority of homeschoolers live on farms? I doubt it. Also, the tone could be condescending at times. Dylan, the narrator, talks about these girls who aspire to be good wives and mothers one day as if that is their sole goal in life. It's a "given" that these girls have no desire or are not allowed to ever attend college or have careers. The author portrays this as punishment, in my opinion. This is another stereotype, though. The Bible says nothing about keeping women away from education or the workplace, and therefore the vast majority of homeschooling families don't hold this opinion, either. Sure, some of them won't go to college. There are plenty that do, though.
I'm not a super-conservative dress-wearing Christian homeschooler, but I thought that the author should have put a little more effort into accurately portraying this community. In my line of work, I encounter these kinds of families a lot (I work at a public library)- the girls portrayed in the book come across as caricatures of preconceived notions people seem to have about this crowd.
Maybe the author does know girls like this. It is possible that she is writing from her own experience- I kind of doubt it, though. Between the stereotypes, the contrived ending ("Maybe I'll put my experiences into a novel!") and the editorial laziness, I was tremendously disappointed in the book. It took me less than two hours to read from cover to cover, so at least I didn't waste too much time on it.

[ak · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2

Dylan Mahoney is an outcast. She used to have friends, good grades, the trust of her parents, etc., etc., before a certain short-lived boyfriend, a viral video of her totalling his car with his own golf club, and a few naked photos sent via text message. Abandoned and alone, Dylan turns to the Internet, and finds a new obsession--the blogs of fundamentalist Christian girls, the ones who live on farms in the middle of nowhere and have six siblings. Dylan, fascinated, creates her own blog with her own persona, pennamed Faith. But when she finds herself living among one of the bloggers, has the deception gone too far?

I read the book in a single sitting. Like, without getting up. Sat down. Read book. It didn't take long. It's a relatively quick read, and there aren't real stopping points until the very end. It's not so much that there are massive cliffhangers at every chapter, but it's like reading TVTropes, or Dylan's blogs--once you start, you're pulled in by some weird fascination that doesn't allow you to put the book down. The plot is just so different from the usual. The feasibility of Dylan's trip to the home of one of her favourite bloggers might be questionable, but reading about the family is too interesting to think about it all that much.

Still, just because I was sucked in the whole time doesn't mean I was impressed the whole time. The beginning of the book is an information dump--the first four chapters are primarily dedicated to a summary of Dylan's life from November to the present day, around the end of the school year. While it didn't entirely put me off reading, it did bother me. By the end I was bored of all the infodump and couldn't wait to get into the part of the novel that sounds like a novel, instead of just an extended plot summary. The family Dylan stays with at times seemed too canned--there was nothing surprising about them, nothing that seemed unlike the assumptions that are usually held about religious fundamentalists. I don't think the book was a regurgitation of stereotypes or that the author didn't research, but I still wasn't entirely satisfied.

Dylan didn't appeal to me at all, hardly. Probably in real life, she would be an acquaintance--not someone I would be friends with, but not someone I disliked. In a novel, though, she annoyed me. She's surprised too often by the family's more stereotypical behaviours, like she's never heard of teenage girls forced into arranged marriages by their parents to older men, or sons being punished by their parents for falling in love with someone outside their religion. And this is after already reading these blogs for months and months--how could she not have been aware for so long? It just didn't seem to fit to me.

Overall, it's an interesting enough book. I enjoyed reading it, and stayed intrigued the whole time. There's a bit of romance, a bit of deception, some moral questioning. It's not all that hard-hitting or controversial, but for a quick read, it's at the least a solid, interesting one.

[Ruth E. R. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe I finished it. One dimensional characters, far too simplistic. And humanistic and hedonistic. For me there is no appeal in a young woman whose entire function is to be attracted desperately and lasciviously to young men, after spending one evening, or one full 24 hour day. with them, and never care about getting to know them. Ever.

The protagonist went "all the way" without any inner contemplation of the consequences or significance of what she was doing. We do not learn anything about Dylan's/Faith's conquests, except that that's what they are to her. Objects with no interests or accomplishments of their own, just male bodies with the potential to fulfill her self-centered erotic desires. Are we supposed to consider it loving or "romantic" for her to "defraud" a good, kind, idealistic young man, deliberately seeking to destroy the very character she found so attractive in the first place? She proved to be self-absorbed and naive in a wild animalistic way, not like an ordinary 17-year-old girl from a good home.

The abuse endured by the children Dylan meets (Annie and Asher) drowned in the wake of her libido. The author brings up the topic of serious abuse and simply ignores it. Dylan is appropriately named, because she seems more like a horny, distracted 17-year-old male than a female. The author seems incompetent to handle the interesting topic she attempted. The book seems to have been written by a 14-year-old on summer vacation. It is heavily stereotyped and shallow in its outlook on life, the characters remained as undeveloped and superficial as a Hollywood film, and nothing is resolved in a believable way.

I was particularly offended by home schoolers portrayed, predictably, as abusive Christian extremists, the freaks of society. At the story's conclusion, the main character's neglectful, secular parents (supposedly representing the "status quo" of our culture) and her abusive, deceitful public school crowd ended up being much more desirable to her. Escape the freaks! She abandoned her new friend in favor of her own personal "well-being." In truth, doctors and lawers and former public school teachers who actually think independently and who actually care about childhood and friendship and appropriate social behavior are the ones who choose homeschooling. They do not wish to become part of the Collective Mind.

[Simi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Námet & Fabula
Faking Faith ma prekvapila svojou hĺbkou. Podľa anotácie som si predstavovala, ani neviem čo presne. Jednoducho som ju chcela vziať do ruky a prečítať. Ibaže som neočakávala, že ma tak strhne. Dylan prežije príšerný zážitok a jej svet je v troskách. A ona sa rozhodne vytvoriť si alter ego. Keď sa pozvala do rodiny, kde žijú úplne inak, ukáže sa jej nový pohľad na svet. A nám čitateľom tiež.

Príbeh ponúka iný uhol života, ktorý si ja, neviem ani predstaviť. Nemyslím, že by som mohla žiť takým spôsobom. Všetky dôležité rozhodnutia by za mňa urobil niekto iný a ešte by som bola aj šťastná. Zároveň mi kniha dala námety na zamyslenie.

viac>> http://www.incredible-books.blogspot....

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

To find a book that tackles religion AND obscure Internet-phenomenon-obsession was like a dream come true for me. Several years ago I stumbled across a group of blogs that were part of a subset I found weirdly fascinating. If I'd sat down and made a list of qualities I'd want a YA book to have, and then got to instantly read that book, it would be FAKING FAITH. Add to the fact that Josie's writing is realistic, thoughtful, wonderfully paced and compelling, and I was pretty much in heaven. Also, it's refreshing to read a contemporary YA that isn't about the usual stuff; nor does it contain any easy answers or pat conclusions.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

ALBATROSS set the bar pretty high when it came to Josie Bloss books so when I had the opportunity to review FAKING FAITH I jumped at it. While it definitely didn't disappoint it didn't have the same impact for me as ALBATROSS did. The latter had excellent timing (I'd just read TWILIGHT and it's anti really spoke to me) plus I connected with it on a deeply personal level. FAKING FAITH was good; it was eye-opening but it took a pretty big suspension of disbelief to really get into the plot. A teen faking her way into a fundamentalist Christian home? I'm pretty sure they would have been able to sniff her out almost immediately.

Dylan screwed up royally, against the advice of her friends and her little inner Jiminy Cricket screaming at her that her uber-hot douche boyfriend was all wrong. She ends up being a social pariah in a way I thought was a bit forced: in a drunken stupor she blows off her friends for this boy. Instead of recognizing the act as just that, a drunken idiocy, her friends take it to heart and things escalate from there. Blowing off happens, shunning occurs and then Dylan's relationship blows up in her face and she's all alone.

For some insane reason she retreats to the world of fundamentalist Christian girl bloggers and their seemingly far simpler way of living. I can half understand something like that. They live such an isolated life, free of cell phones and high school and all the other machinations of the modern age. What Dylan doesn't really comprehend until she takes on the persona of Faith and visits her online friend's farm is that that kind of living comes at a price and she effectively shatters pieces of a family with her ignorance of their world and her insistence of hers.

It's very Lifetime movie-esque and your standard friend make-ups happen at the end. Dylan realizes her life isn't terrible and sometimes simpler isn't better. But what kind of bothered me, and I'm going to play devil's advocate here, is how the fundamentalist life is portrayed as ultimately wrong. Yes, Abigail's father was a controlling dick that reveled in being the master of his domain. Beau, Abigail's intended, is a creeper that needs to have his junk cut off and the women are 100% subservient to the men, subject to doing only womanly duties and being married to someone her father chooses only. Yeah, those things suck. But this is a belief system. In this world we live in now we view it as wrong. Women are strong, independent beings that can make our own choices in life. I mean the Crusades were fought because one set of people felt another set believed the wrong thing. Bam! War. What happens if this kind of structure is what's holding these people together? What if releasing them into the greater world is what unravels them? Is their belief system still wrong? Yes, Abigail was clearly not looking forward to her life with Beau but she stood by her convictions. This was what was right FOR HER. Dylan didn't understand that. Hell, I don't understand it. But it's HER choice. She is actively making it even with Dylan sitting there offering her help on a silver platter.

The book painted really good juxtapositions between Dylan's and Abigail's family. Yes, the fundamentalist Christians are extremes (arranged marriage? really? NOW?) but they are a cohesive family unit. The children were far better behaved than many "normal" children, they ate meals together, the survived together. They functioned as a unit. Dylan's family had every freedom of the modern world but they barely knew each other. Family time? Right. Sure they sat at the same table to eat cereal but there were always laptops and smartphones involved. Dylan even points these polarities out and it's something she came to really love about Abigail's family despite their faults. As a result Bloss really begs the question: which is the correct life? Or is it something in between?

FAKING FAITH is a novel that will definitely make you think. It paints the extremes as very extreme but neither are without their pros or cons. You see the happiness of both and you see the pitfalls of both. There is a slant, of course, but I'd think it'd be hard to write something like this without swaying at least a little. It's a good contemporary with it's crux centering around the pervasive notion of the internet and how is can ruin people. How running and hiding from your problems only manifests all new ones. How the only way to fix things is to confront them head on.

Like I said, very Lifetime but still a good story if you can tuck back the notion that Dylan can lie her way into someone's home like that to begin with. Another extreme but I don't think it was handled too absurdly. Her obsession with the online culture was portrayed far better, I think, but the plot needed Dylan to immerse herself in it wholly. And she did. At least it worked out in the end.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Info
Kindle Edition, 242 pages
Published November 1st 2011 by Flux
original title Faking Faith
ASIN B005QR9SSM
edition language English
setting Illinois (United States)
other editions (3)
Source:Kindle version borrowed from Public Library

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

After a humiliating “sexting” incident involving a hot and popular senior, seventeen-year-old Dylan has become a social outcast—harassed, ignored, and estranged from her two best friends.

When Dylan discovers the blogs of homeschooled fundamentalist Christian girls, she’s fascinated by their old-fashioned conversation themes, like practicing submission to one’s future husband. Blogging as Faith, her devout alter ego, Dylan befriends Abigail, the group’s queen bee. But growing closer to Abigail (and her intriguing older brother) forces Dylan to choose: keep living a lie or come clean and face the consequences.

My Thoughts

Dylan proved to be a fairly typical self absorbed 17-year-old girl whose main concern in the beginning turned out to be finding a way to “shine” so when the somewhat nerdy junior was singled out by the hot senior boy she fell hook, line and sinker for his charming and practiced seduction.

Finding herself a few months later friendless, dumped and than humiliated Dylan basically becomes a recluse, she turns to the internet and finds herself becoming obsessed with reading the blogs of young women who are her polar opposites.

Dylan wants so badly to connect with these girls and so she creates Faith, the alter ego that allows her to create an entire life built on what she gleaned from reading and a life that is a total fabrication.

Soon “Faith” has online friends that boost her confidence, one in particular named Abigail Dean is actually the original inspiration that Dylan used as the basis for her alter ego and as they chat online over time they get closer and closer until finally the idea for a summer visit with the Dean family comes to fruition.

This is where the book became a little bit murky for me as in my mind the dishonesty that is perpetrated on the unsuspecting family is one that crosses way too many moral lines.

The good thing is that after all is said and done Dylan manages to learn valuable life lessons that also carry over when she returns home to her parents and younger brother, allowing her to express how much she appreciates them. As a result of her short absence she comes home to find her mother has made some changes in her professional life allowing her to spend more time pursuing hobbies as well as more time with Faith one on one.

Felt unfinished when ended though as several important points were left unresolved to my satisfaction.

[Kindle version borrowed from Public Library]

[Megan]

The secret shame of my Internet bookmarks: among the recipes, the how-to articles, and the gazillion and one book reviews, I have saved links to a few personal blogs of people who belong to subcultures I am in no way a part of but am voyeuristically fascinated by. That's what blogs are for, right? An opportunity to expand one's own world by learning about the lives of other people.

So, yeah. When I read the blurb for this book, I thought, "Hmmmm. I can recognize some of the feelings here."

For Dylan, the seventeen-year-old protagonist of Faking Faith, the Internet is first a source of trouble (after Dylan's boyfriend cheats on her and she takes a golf club to his car--the incident of course captured in video and posted to the Internet--he then emails to the rest of the school the topless cell phone pics she had sent him earlier) and then later a source of refuge. Friendless and harassed at her high school, she's now spending a lot of time home alone, at the computer. She becomes obsessed by the blogs of fundamentalist Christian teenage girls who seem to live picture-perfect lives and who also seem to have the peace and serenity of knowing All The Answers. But Dylan's not satisified by just reading or even just commenting on the blogs. No, Dylan has to assume a fake identity as one of these girls and get herself into this group. She wants to be accepted by them. And it all happens just as she dreams it, and within a few months, Dylan's actually buying a bus ticket to go visit her new best friend--the most popular and most virtuous girl of all these bloggers--and she's going to pull off this charade in person.

In a way, this book is pretty much a classic YA novel: Dylan is desperate to be accepted by a group of girls who have everything she thought she wanted, she learns this life is obviously not what it seems like from the outside, and she returns to her old life and knows how to improve it. I like the Internet and Quiverfull twist, and I thought that Bloss did a fair job depicting the religious aspect without being too one-dimensional--and a particular good job at depicting what it was like for those caught in that lifestyle (Dylan's friend Abigail, and Asher, Abigail's brother). I didn't find the characters particularly deep; Dylan's never given much of a personality other than her obsessive stalking of the lifestyle, and I was pretty disappointed by how she didn't even think through how she'd pull off her fakery in person, and how she managed to fool so many people for so long. The book centers primarily around her visit to Abigail's family's farm, not the actual Internet blogging stuff, so I was deprived of an opportunity to read for myself whether Dylan was convincing in her fakery. I found her parents' change of heart in the end to be pretty convenient, too, but I really did like seeing how they could communicate better now, with so much out in the open.

The ending's tone and openness was one of my favorite things about the book. (Speaking of the openness, this is a good book for fandom. After reading it, I knew exactly what kind of fanfiction I'd want from this book, and I could see other people getting into it, too.) There aren't easy answers, but Dylan now knows what she could have faith in, and what she wants to have faith in, and she's better equipped to work toward peace and security and friendship and family in her own life.

[Candice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven’t read any books about stay at home daughters or Christian fundamentalists. So when I happened across this book, I decided to give it a try.

Faking Faith surprised me. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It is fast paced, interesting, and deal with heavy issues without getting too depressing.

Here are my favorite things about this novel.

The Female Friendships. At the beginning of the novel, Dylan has ditched her friends over a fight about her boyfriend. Then she lies to her new friend Abigail. Like, big time lying. These friendships are pretty rocky. Things change though. By the end of the book Dylan’s friendships have received a good dose of forgiveness, growth, and loyalty. I liked how Abigail forgave Dylan for lying to her, and Dylan respected her friend’s decisions. It’s nice to see positive female friendships in books.

Pro Woman Views. I liked how some of the characters acknowledged the potential and power women have. Yes! Women have so much more talent, brains and skill than they get credit for in these kinds of circles. It was also nice to see Dylan find some self confidence and get a better sense of who she is.

The Contrasts. I liked how the author paralleled Dylan’s and Abigail’s lives. Dylan is raised by busy, distracted parents. They give her very little supervision or advice, and when Dylan thinks she may nor get her way on something, she simply lies about it and does it anyway. Dylan ends ups making several bad decisions that will impact her in a big way.

Abigail’s parents, on the other hand, are incredibly involved in her life. Abigail has been homeschooled by her parents, and she always under their close supervision and guidance. She always asks permission before doing pretty much anything. Abigail is dead set on pleasing her parents, so much so that she can’t be honest with them about her concerns and she ends up making several bad decisions as well.

Dylan was raised with minimal parental involvement. Abigail was raised by controlling parents. Each extreme is harmful. Extremes are very rarely healthy. The contrast of two unhealthy extremes was well done.

Faking Faith is not without its flaws, and sometimes I was left thinking, “Um, no. This is unrealistic, and just unlikely.”

Dylan’s love interest, Asher, would be more likely be an arrogant, sexist young man who blamed women for his mistakes. Instead, he is a sad little puppy kind of guy whose tender heart is wracked with guilt for kissing his Catholic girlfriend. Then, Asher ends up breaking away from his parents’ control, and striking out on his own. And he might end up with Dylan someday. Whoopee.

I was disappointed. I mean, I’m glad for Asher and all, but the book would have been waaaaay better if Abigail was the one who left. Here’s why: stay at home daughters are called “stay at home” for a reason. They have fewer opportunities and more restrictions than men. In real life, the women in these communities are more likely to leave than the men.

Faking Faith missed an opportunity to actually show what things are like in these communities. It would have been much more powerful and satisfying and realistic if Abigail had left instead of Asher. I wish Abigail would have run away to be a missionary, or costume designer, or whatever she wanted to be. She didn’t, and that was a major disappointment for me.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sexting is something that has gotten a lot of media coverage lately — young girls taking and sending nude photos to their boyfriends; this often backfires when the couple breaks up, the photos are distributed, and charges are brought about regarding distribution of child pornography. But although that is the catalyst for this novel, it is not the central theme. Dylan is one of those girls — swept off her feet by the bad boy (despite warnings of her friends), and then tossed aside in a dramatic clash culminating in a smashed windshield and a flurry of picture texts. While she attempts to recuperate from the social ostracizing that occurs, Dylan finds herself reading the blog of a homeschooled fundamentalist Christian girl named Abigail, and becomes fascinated by her life, so very different from her own. And soon Dylan is making her own blog in an attempt to connect with Abigail and other girls like her.

I have to admit that I grew up with some girls like this. My parents did homeschool me, and my mother tried hard to make us fit into the good homeschooled Christian girl model (ala Elisabeth Elliot), although we were too Chinese to ever be the perfect fundamentalist girls. So I know all too well the world that the curious Dylan describes, right down to the “Christian girlhood” blogs that she reads, first with astonishment and a little scorn; I had friends who dabbled in writing similar newsletters, though these were actual mailed newsletters — no World Wide Web for them! I appreciate that in this story, Dylan’s experience with this foreign family and their odd lifestyle causes her to become closer to her own family and friends, creating an appreciation that she did not have before. That Dylan realizes she cannot force Abigail to accept her help in breaking away from the unhealthy aspects of the lifestyle is also very true to life. The author seems to do a good job at portraying Dylan’s attempts to understand and respect the lifestyle choices made by the fundamentalists while still disagreeing with some of their beliefs; however, upon reading Bloss’s blog, it is evident that she is adamantly anti-fundamentalist, calling her discoveries “sheer mind-boggling terror.” And while I too have issues with fundamentalism, for many of the same reasons that Dylan does in this novel, the author’s attitude of outright condemnation and disgust does not seem like the most appropriate way to bridge the gap to women who are emerging from this lifestyle, nor would it give teens much sympathy for someone recently emancipated from such a lifestyle.

[Kelly Hager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dylan is not having a good year. It started out great, true, but things have quickly taken a turn south. She was dating the most popular guy in school---which led to a huge fight with her friends---but then she caught him cheating on her. So naturally, she had to take a golf club to his car. Unfortunately, he retaliated in the worst possible way: he emailed personal photos to everyone. And when I say "personal," I mean "topless."

You should not be surprised to learn that she has since been grounded. To pass the time in her new life in solitary confinement, she surfs the internet constantly. And then she finds blogs that these homeschooled Christian girls keep. She's quickly sucked into reading about their lives, and then creates her own, under the guise of a homeschooled girl named Faith. But how long can she keep the charade going?

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this book. It's fun and sweet and, best of all, not snide. Dylan-as-Faith makes friends with Abigail (sort of the queen bee of the Christian teen blogging set) and while Abigail and real-Dylan are completely different, they form a fast friendship. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Abigail is talking to Faith; she never would've had a conversation with Dylan.

I feel like it would've been really easy for Josie Bloss to use this book as a way to make fun of Abigail and girls like her, but she doesn't. She presents the best and worst of both worlds, and shows that each side has gains and losses that the other doesn't have. For example, while Abigail knows her path is set (she will grow up, get married to someone her parents approve of and she will have children that she will stay home to raise), she doesn't get much of a say in it. But is that really that much worse than what most of us do? We stumble around and learn by a series of mistakes we make.

Of course, Dylan and Abigail form a great friendship and while neither has their mind changed, both minds are definitely more open by the end.

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the love interest. Abigail's brother, Asher, has his own drama and is so conflicted about Dylan-as-Faith. But the two of them are so great for each other, and I am holding out hope for a sequel because there is so much that could happen between Asher and Dylan.

Recommended.

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This young adult novel by Josie Bloss seemed to start out as a warning of sorts about the dangers of the internet, and the constant texting (or in this particular story.. 'sexting'), which is so prevalent among adolescents in our society. The story surrounds teen Dylan Mahoney, who suffers like so many teens, from low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, no guidance from her ever busy parents and her overwhelming need to 'belong'. She becomes involved with a guy (a user!) who talks her into sending inappropriate photos of herself to him via her cell phone. And upon their inevitable bad breakup, he posts the photos online. Dylan is ostracized by everyone at school... including her two best friends. Her absentee parents are disappointed and don't know how to talk to her about her situation so Dylan becomes very lonely. She begins to obsess over blogs written by homeschooled fundamentalist Christian girls... one in particular written by a teen girl named Abigail. Dylan becomes so immersed in the online world, that she creates a phony alter-ego named Faith and starts a blog of her own. She ends up going to visit Abigail and her family for a couple of weeks and realizes that this world that seemed so perfect and uncomplicated actually has its own pitfalls and complications.... very much like her own.

Faking Faith turned out to be more than just a cautionary tale about internet usage. It turned out to be a well-written, thought provoking story... about two very different lifestyles and just how it's possible, that even though people always look for where the 'grass seems to be greener', any lifestyle has the capability of keeping people 'in a box.' This was a hopeful story, in the end, of how two young adults with very different belief systems managed to come together and find some understanding. Ultimately, they continued on their different paths, but as sometimes happens... they each managed to take something good from the other and use it to become better, more accepting people.

[Sasquatch · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.
This book had a very original plot but fell short for me.

Dylan's and Abigail's characters and relationship seemed fully developped but the other characters were more caricatures that characters. I really couldn't buy Dylan's relationship with Asher. It seemed shallow and fake but Dylan went on about it like it was true love when they barely knew each other. Asher kissing Dylan also seemed far-fetched considering how badly he was punished for his last romantic relationship and the level of anxiety he seemed to experience around Dylan. Asher's whole back story was kind of a lot down. I was expecting something more exciting. Overall, I didn't think the romance really added to the novel as it seemed really forced.

Other parts of the story also seemed unrealistic to me. I get that Dylan's parents were supposed to be distant from Dylan's life to contrast her life with Abigail's life. Still, I found it hard to believe that her mother wouldn't even look into how Dylan was spending her summer, given the amount of trouble Dylan had been in recently. I also found it odd that Abigail's parents wouldn't attempt to find out who exactly Dylan was and talk to her parents before inviting her to stay.

As far as whether or not Abigail's whole family was unrealistic and stereotypical, I can't really say, not being familiar with those communities. Still, I completely understand how Amish readers would take offense to their depiction in the novel. I tried to just think Abigail's family as extremely conservative and not a representation or the average Christian homeschooling family.

Though the writing could so awful I wanted to put the book down at times, I felt that the Dylan's narration offered a wise reflection on the two lifestyles Dylan took part it. I loved how Dylan could both despise the misogyny she'd immersed herself in while simultaneously appreciating the close family.


I probably would not recommend it because the writing style and unrealistic nature bother me, even if there were some good bits burried under there.

[Clementine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dylan did a little sexting to make her boyfriend happy, and now she’s a social pariah. No longer on speaking terms with anyone at her high school–including her supposed best friends–Dylan becomes ensconced in an online world where she discovers the world of homeschooled Christian blogging. Posing as a fellow homeschooler named Faith, Dylan makes fast friends with Abigail, one of the most popular bloggers. It isn’t long before Dylan ends up going to stay with Abigail and her family. It’s there that Dylan learns that her actions truly have consequences.

There was a lot of promise in Bloss’s novel about telling the truth and figuring out who you are, but it never fully develops. Bloss goes for complete cliches and offensive stereotypes and doesn’t ever ask her readers to ask the hard questions. Also, it’s not nearly as interesting as it should be.

Part of the book’s problem in being uninteresting is that Bloss doesn’t allow her characters to be complex in any way. While Dylan herself is fairly well-developed and clearly facing a dilemma, everyone else falls prey to the worst types of stereotypes about Christianity. All of the men in the world that Abigail (and “Faith”) inhabit are domineering and overbearing. The women are meek. Readers get the sense that these Christians are unenlightened.

This is made worse by the fact that Dylan’s life provides a stark contrast with no nuance whatsoever. While it’s clear that Dylan’s life is flawed, it’s glaringly obvious that her secular life is preferable to the oppressive world in which Abigail lives. It’s a disappointingly shallow exploration of fundamentalism, and readers deserve better.
Uneven, uninteresting, and overall not worth a read. Readers would be better to seek out something with a more balanced perspective.

Faking Faith by Josie Bloss. Flux: 2011. Library copy. Read for 2012 Cybils YA Panel Round 1.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dylan's friends all warned her that Blake was a jerk, but she didn't believe them until it was too late and he had already forwarded topless pictures of her to the whole school... Completely ostracized by her classmates, Dylan spends most of her time messing around on the internet, which is where she finds them - the blogs of homeschooled, fundamentalist Christian teenage girls.

Dylan becomes fascinated by everything from their modest dress to their weird vocabulary, and quickly finds herself hooked. Soon, just reading the posts isn't enough, so she creates a blogger alter-ego named Faith, a devout maiden who lives on a farm in Wisconsin. When she starts an online friendship with Abigail, a girl who actually lives the life Faith is pretending to live, it seems simple enough, but when Abigail invites Faith to visit her for two weeks, things get a lot more difficult. Will Dylan be able to convince people that she is Faith, or will her lie be revealed?

Faking Faith is a unique book that explores the pros and cons of both modern secular life and insular religious life. Dylan and Abigail are believable, fully-formed characters, and Bloss doesn't take cheap shots or give easy answers to complex problems. This is a good read for girls who are interested in exploring religion or those who want a story of a girl triumphing over her past mistakes.

[Pamela Hubbard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dylan has made a few too many poor choices and is now suffering the consequences. After a scandal involving topless photos, a youtube video with Dylan vandalizing her ex-boyfriend's car, and a school suspension, Dylan has no friends, is a social pariah and is incredible lonely. Her family is fragmented, her parents work too much and Dylan is left on her own to figure out her life. She happens across a set of blogs written by fundamentalist, home schooled Christian girls. She envies their simple life, their pure morals and their seeming happiness. She creates a fake persona, Faith, and connects with these girls online. Eventually, she goes to visit one of the girls and realizes that their lives are not idyllic and everyone has their own issues to face.
I was hoping for more from this book. It seemed like it could be a lot deeper, but it ended up being very stereotypical and a little unrealistic. Dylan's character did undergo transformation as she grew up and got some perspective on life, but other aspects of the book seemed forced (like her mom suddenly becoming a caring, hands-on mother). All in all, I read this book in one day but didn't get much out of it other than some eye-rolling.

[Kaysa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited to get my hands on this book after reading the excerpt. It sounded so original and refreshing compared to typical YA books. Although it wasn't a complete disappointment, I felt that my expectations were too high and the plot was more mediocre than I expected.

The book follows the story of a girl who, after an unfortunate incident, deals with bullying and harassment in school, as well as falling out with her best friends (due to aforementioned incident). She comes across a Christian blog online belonging to a devout Christian girl and, inspired, starts her own blog depicting herself as a similarly devout Christian, under the pseudonym "Faith".

She becomes friends with the blogger and eventually visits her and stays with her family for awhile, keeping to her fake identity. She's fascinated by the girl's devout lifestyle which seems so surreal to her own modern one. She's also fascinated with the older brother Ash, who seems kind but also distant.

I thought this was just the beginning and then the story would set off, but that's basically 80% of the story. The ending wasn't satisfactory and gave the feeling that there would be a second book to tie the loose ends in this one.

[Jac (For Love and Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Dylan Mohaney! This book is one series of bad decisions after another! First she falls victim to a sexting scandal, and goes all Carrie Underwood on her boyfriend - which coincidentally? Is also caught on video.


Then, while still grounded from the above incidents, she uses her parents credit card to buy a bus ticket to meet a girl she's met on the internet - telling her parents she's on her way to some school related summer camp. (At this point? I was seriously wanting to shake some sense into Dylan. I blame that on the mixture of my own experiences as well as being a mother.)


Of course the internet friend (Abigail) doesn't know Dylan, she knows Faith. The sweet, Duggar-esque farm girl who loves God. Throw in Abigail's totally cute older brother, Dylan's true city girl attitude and a (nearly)arranged marriage scandal and you've got a great book!


Now go! Read Hobbitsies review (because it was so fabulous it caused me to pick this book up, then not put it down!) And then go read this book!

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a 'palate cleanser' between 2 tough books (as YA titles are easy reads and you can blow through them pretty quickly) and it was decent enough and did the job I was looking for it to do.

The characters were neither memorable nor too forgettable. I will say that the characterization of Abigail and her entire family were no more than caricatures of how modern society views far right winged fundamentalist Christians (think the Duggars, but in book form). Having had grown up in a pretty fundamentalist church myself (though found my way to the Episcopal Church) I was nodding my head at times. However, for the most part, the author simply regurgitated facts about the fundamentalist lifestyle that are fairly commonly known.

Still, though, take it for what it is -- a nice little breather between books.

[Emily Goodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I'm not exactly the target audience for this book, I had such a great experience reading it. It was totally in tune with the angst, the pressures, and the hopes of the modern, young adult. I thought the story was unique and the characters lovable. What I respect most about Bloss is her ability to write unbiased accounts of two very different cultures, allowing her readers to love each character based on the individual personalities, rather than the idiosyncrasies of the worlds around them.

[Alise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I enjoyed this book because it was realistic. In no way did the author force religion down your throat, but actually took an average person's outlook on this whole other world and that was what made it believable. I loved Dylan's humor and sarcasm and even though she faked being a religion, she never lost herself and conformed. Wish there was more of an ending between Asher and her, but I can see how the open ending fits the story more.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting novel about the Internet and blogs and how easy it is to become someone you're not. The first half of the book is solid but the second half wavers - almost as if the author didn't really know how to get her protagonist out of the situation. I also didn't like the ending very much - too neat and clean on one hand and yet too many threads left hanging.

[ratanak · Rating 5 out of 5]

❝ Josie Bloss - Faking Faith Review ❞

love it,can't get enough of this book.
the only thing i didn't like was the ending i want more but still a great read

[Zemira Warner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to say about this book. It is obviously about forgiveness,friendship and letting go of the mistakes from the past. I always found these YA religious books interesting because there is always something more to them than meets the eye.

[Mim-Is-Reading · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick read, one of those books that the main character actually learns something. The only lesson that stuck with me is DON'T SEXT! :)

I tend to spot spelling/grammatical errors easily, especially when I find one at the start of a book. Dylan was "pouring over pictures" instead of "poring".