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Instafamous
Noah likes Ben. Ben likes Noah back. No one must know. But somebody does ... Between his depression and anxiety disorder and his secret relationship with popular jock Ben Hynes, seventeen-year-old Noah Simmons has already more than enough to deal with. But there is always room for deterioration. When an anonymous blackmailer threatens to publish a salacious video of them unless they comply with his demands, Noah and Ben are hard-pressed to figure out the lesser of two evils. Ben has a reputation to lose. Noah has one hardly worth fighting for, but he doesn't want to lose Ben. Neither of them wants to be an inadvertent teenage porn star, so how far are they willing to go to protect their secret?
- GenresGayCrimeYoung AdultLGBT
140 pages, Paperback
Published February 7, 2018
37 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Marcus Herzig
12 books57 followersMarcus Herzig, future bestselling author and professional sarcast, was born in 1970 and studied Law, English, Educational Science, and Physics, albeit none of them with any tenacity or ambition. After dropping out of university he held various positions in banking, utilities, and Big Oil that bore no responsibility or decision-making power whatsoever.
Always destined to be a demiurge, he has been inventing characters and telling stories since the age of five, and it’s what he wants to do for the rest of his life. His favorite genre, both as a reader and a writer, is Young Adult literature, but he also very much enjoys science- and literary fiction.
Always destined to be a demiurge, he has been inventing characters and telling stories since the age of five, and it’s what he wants to do for the rest of his life. His favorite genre, both as a reader and a writer, is Young Adult literature, but he also very much enjoys science- and literary fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 25, 2018
(I finished this at 2 a.m. so I’m writing this literally the second after waking up. If there are mistakes/if it’s all over the place, forgive me)
I’m trying to get into ebooks, which has never been my thing, but yesterday I discovered REALLY cheap, not total shit books on Amazon, and now I just want to binge them all.
From the synopsis, I figured it’d be a quick, fun read. In the end, it was more than what it presented itself to be. The book hits on some big topics, such as mental health, cyberbullying, and suicide. Though it does go over these things and I appreciated that, by the end of the book, the conversation the author had started didn’t feel quite complete.
There were great moments scattered throughout the book, my favorite being the friendship between Noah and Jordan. The way the two interacted as outsiders of not only their school, but there lives, made the dynamic between them the best part of the book for me.
I had a couple problems with the book, the first one being Ben. His character is supposed to be this jock stereotype, which I have no problem with, but he’s a total asshole for most of the book. He gets some redemption, but it was hard to forget the things he had done. The plot and his actions never allowed for me to actually grow to care about him, but rather only somewhat pity him.
My other problem with the book is the awful ending. I felt that in general the book was too short and could have been dragged out for a little bit longer, but instead the author decided to just scrap everything and end it all in the blink of an eye. Not only did the ending feel rushed and coincidental, it also stopped the important conversations the book started in the first place. It truly felt like nothing was resolved and the characters didn’t learn anything.
I really don’t know if I’d recommend this book, mostly because the great conversations started aren’t finished and I’m not sure what someone would get out of this book otherwise. If you’re looking for an easy, quick read I’d say give it a try. It’s only just over 100 pages, so if you do hate it, at least it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
I’m not as mad about this book as I may seem. I’m actually really excited to keep buying and reading these cheap, short ebooks. So, expect more “reviews” of random ebooks soon.
I’m trying to get into ebooks, which has never been my thing, but yesterday I discovered REALLY cheap, not total shit books on Amazon, and now I just want to binge them all.
From the synopsis, I figured it’d be a quick, fun read. In the end, it was more than what it presented itself to be. The book hits on some big topics, such as mental health, cyberbullying, and suicide. Though it does go over these things and I appreciated that, by the end of the book, the conversation the author had started didn’t feel quite complete.
There were great moments scattered throughout the book, my favorite being the friendship between Noah and Jordan. The way the two interacted as outsiders of not only their school, but there lives, made the dynamic between them the best part of the book for me.
I had a couple problems with the book, the first one being Ben. His character is supposed to be this jock stereotype, which I have no problem with, but he’s a total asshole for most of the book. He gets some redemption, but it was hard to forget the things he had done. The plot and his actions never allowed for me to actually grow to care about him, but rather only somewhat pity him.
My other problem with the book is the awful ending. I felt that in general the book was too short and could have been dragged out for a little bit longer, but instead the author decided to just scrap everything and end it all in the blink of an eye. Not only did the ending feel rushed and coincidental, it also stopped the important conversations the book started in the first place. It truly felt like nothing was resolved and the characters didn’t learn anything.
I really don’t know if I’d recommend this book, mostly because the great conversations started aren’t finished and I’m not sure what someone would get out of this book otherwise. If you’re looking for an easy, quick read I’d say give it a try. It’s only just over 100 pages, so if you do hate it, at least it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
I’m not as mad about this book as I may seem. I’m actually really excited to keep buying and reading these cheap, short ebooks. So, expect more “reviews” of random ebooks soon.
January 31, 2019
Whoo boy....
Okay...
in 2003 a movie was made called The Room which has gone down in history as the greatest bad movie ever made. It's reached cult status with many celebrities loving it for how bad it is. One of the actors in it (a friend of Tommy Wiseau) wrote a book about the experience and his relationship with Tommy, which James Franco made into a movie.
Why am I mentioning this movie on a review for Instagamous? Because while reading the book, all I could think about was how closely it resembled The Room.
The characters are horribly inconsistent. Things are brought up about the characters that are completely ignored by the end of the book. Characters wander into the book, only to be never seen again. The dialogue between characters often doesn't make sense or is painfully unrealistic even if it does make sense.
Let's be honest, this book could have ended in chapter 1... By the way, no spoilers here because this scene literally happens in the first chapter.
Noah: Hey, remember when I gave you a blow job the other day?
Ben: Yeah...?
Noah: Well, someone filmed it, posted it to a private Instagram account in your name and is blackmailing us to send him dick pics or else he'll make the account public and everyone that followed it thinking it was you will know you're gay.
Ben: FUCK! What are we going to do?!
Noah: Hey... dude... it's okay! I reported the account to Instagram and they've notified the police because we're minors and the guy trying to blackmail us committed a felony when he put that video of us on the internet. They're going to arrest him. Want a blow job?
THE END!
Okay, even if I'm willing to suspend belief and accept that these teenagers are really scared (especially the one who's dad is a homophobic cop) and so that's why they make the decisions the make.... the book still has major issues! Little of it makes any sense, is realistic, or has any kind of character development.
The main character is said to have anxiety issues and depression. This is literally forgotten for the rest of the novel. Another character is revealed to cut himself to hide emotional pain. This is forgotten for the rest of the novel. The main character has a friend he hangs around with all the time and they often talk to each other, yet they are awkward around each other when the friend comes over to the main character's house.
The friend reveals that he's on the autism spectrum (later completely forgotten in the rest of the novel) and therefore has a hard time reading people, yet earlier in the book he guessed that the main character was gay and also meeting another guy for sex.
The main character makes it clear that he has nothing to lose regarding the blackmail. He's apparently already out (though no one seems to know, including his mom) so the blackmail doesn't really bother him, yet he sobs uncontrollably as he explains to his friend what's happening, saying that he has no idea what to do... he's in such deep shit! But he literally made it clear earlier he has nothing to lose!
I could go on and on. The number of inconsistencies in this novel are only rivaled by the number of typos and bad use of grammar. This book leads like a very rough first draft that the author didn't bother to reread before publishing. It's a shame, too, because the idea for this book is kind of amazing, as are the issues (social anxiety, cutting oneself, suicide, blackmail, social media bullying) that are brought up in the book but never developed or explored with any kind of depth. I've read two other books by this author (one that I absolutely LOVED!) and while they both had similar issues regarding grammar, typos and misused words, they were brilliant stories that were told well and show the kind of great storytelling this author is capable of publishing.
Okay...
in 2003 a movie was made called The Room which has gone down in history as the greatest bad movie ever made. It's reached cult status with many celebrities loving it for how bad it is. One of the actors in it (a friend of Tommy Wiseau) wrote a book about the experience and his relationship with Tommy, which James Franco made into a movie.
Why am I mentioning this movie on a review for Instagamous? Because while reading the book, all I could think about was how closely it resembled The Room.
The characters are horribly inconsistent. Things are brought up about the characters that are completely ignored by the end of the book. Characters wander into the book, only to be never seen again. The dialogue between characters often doesn't make sense or is painfully unrealistic even if it does make sense.
Let's be honest, this book could have ended in chapter 1... By the way, no spoilers here because this scene literally happens in the first chapter.
Noah: Hey, remember when I gave you a blow job the other day?
Ben: Yeah...?
Noah: Well, someone filmed it, posted it to a private Instagram account in your name and is blackmailing us to send him dick pics or else he'll make the account public and everyone that followed it thinking it was you will know you're gay.
Ben: FUCK! What are we going to do?!
Noah: Hey... dude... it's okay! I reported the account to Instagram and they've notified the police because we're minors and the guy trying to blackmail us committed a felony when he put that video of us on the internet. They're going to arrest him. Want a blow job?
THE END!
Okay, even if I'm willing to suspend belief and accept that these teenagers are really scared (especially the one who's dad is a homophobic cop) and so that's why they make the decisions the make.... the book still has major issues! Little of it makes any sense, is realistic, or has any kind of character development.
The main character is said to have anxiety issues and depression. This is literally forgotten for the rest of the novel. Another character is revealed to cut himself to hide emotional pain. This is forgotten for the rest of the novel. The main character has a friend he hangs around with all the time and they often talk to each other, yet they are awkward around each other when the friend comes over to the main character's house.
The friend reveals that he's on the autism spectrum (later completely forgotten in the rest of the novel) and therefore has a hard time reading people, yet earlier in the book he guessed that the main character was gay and also meeting another guy for sex.
The main character makes it clear that he has nothing to lose regarding the blackmail. He's apparently already out (though no one seems to know, including his mom) so the blackmail doesn't really bother him, yet he sobs uncontrollably as he explains to his friend what's happening, saying that he has no idea what to do... he's in such deep shit! But he literally made it clear earlier he has nothing to lose!
I could go on and on. The number of inconsistencies in this novel are only rivaled by the number of typos and bad use of grammar. This book leads like a very rough first draft that the author didn't bother to reread before publishing. It's a shame, too, because the idea for this book is kind of amazing, as are the issues (social anxiety, cutting oneself, suicide, blackmail, social media bullying) that are brought up in the book but never developed or explored with any kind of depth. I've read two other books by this author (one that I absolutely LOVED!) and while they both had similar issues regarding grammar, typos and misused words, they were brilliant stories that were told well and show the kind of great storytelling this author is capable of publishing.
January 1, 2018
Technically speaking Herzig writes tight, snappy stories with compelling characters and interesting situations.
What promotes unease on my part is a seeming tendency of this author to touch on very morally complex situations in his stories, but not resolve them or at least give them a thorough evaluation worthy of the import of the topic. He'll use such situations to create energy for the narrative, but never return to write intelligently about the imperatives caused by said situations. There are some quite severe things going on in this story which are glided over quickly and disappear after a page or two. As a reader, I was going, "What? Wait. Back up." For me, It becomes a credibility issue with the author as a craftsman.
As much as I like some of the things Herzig has done in the two stories I have read, I'm not sure I can trust him in any more of his work. Is just too frustrating.
What promotes unease on my part is a seeming tendency of this author to touch on very morally complex situations in his stories, but not resolve them or at least give them a thorough evaluation worthy of the import of the topic. He'll use such situations to create energy for the narrative, but never return to write intelligently about the imperatives caused by said situations. There are some quite severe things going on in this story which are glided over quickly and disappear after a page or two. As a reader, I was going, "What? Wait. Back up." For me, It becomes a credibility issue with the author as a craftsman.
As much as I like some of the things Herzig has done in the two stories I have read, I'm not sure I can trust him in any more of his work. Is just too frustrating.
August 27, 2019
Okay so let's do this: this is not a great book, and it hurts me to say it because I wanted to like it. And the reason is his premise is very basic, sure, but you can get a basic premise and make it work if you really want to. I didn't feel like the author wanted.
There are good things here. Good plot points and good ideas, but almost none of them were really developed. To me it felt incomplete and almost lazy and it hurts me to say it 'cause I could see the potential around this story. I think what bothered me the most was Ben: we are told he's a popular, charismatic, fun, banther-y jock with lots of friends and whom everybody loves aaaand that's it. We are told that, never shown. All we see, from the point of view of his romantic interest nonetheless, is an asshole teenage boy who don't really show any personality except being egoistical and rude.
And that happens a lot during the whole book. We are told a ton of stuff, but we never actually see them. We get the initial plot points from a lot of topics and barely one of them is actually developed (Noah's anxiety, Jordan's cutting, the suicide attempt, Mom's 3 jobs etc). Nothing gets more than a couple of paragraphs about it.
The format and the writing are not bad at all (pretty nice, actually), but in terms of narrative it's just lacking in various aspects - like an real deep development of characters. The major problem (Ben) could be solved with POV chapters from him, so we get a deeper meaning of his mind and what he's like. The way it is now, not only I can't relate to him, but I don't really care about him at all. His relationship with Noah is bland and boring af, specially since we only see sex related topics. I mean, Noah does say "Ben is different when they're alone" but we see that once. It get me impression that it's like an abusive relationship, but without the "good parts" of the abuse cycle.
The whole conflict of the book - the blackmail - is dismissed in a very nonchalantly way as if we're not reading just to find out what was gonna happen. It's like literary blue balls tbh, a lot of promisses and work to get to the end and there's no reward there waiting for you.
And the end of the book, when things start to get interesting, the story is over. The conclusion is that it seems the author skip the most interesting parts of the story (like Noah's talk to his mom about the whole issue, for instance, since he was not even out to her) and he kept bits about sex and superficial character development. What a disapointment.
There are good things here. Good plot points and good ideas, but almost none of them were really developed. To me it felt incomplete and almost lazy and it hurts me to say it 'cause I could see the potential around this story. I think what bothered me the most was Ben: we are told he's a popular, charismatic, fun, banther-y jock with lots of friends and whom everybody loves aaaand that's it. We are told that, never shown. All we see, from the point of view of his romantic interest nonetheless, is an asshole teenage boy who don't really show any personality except being egoistical and rude.
And that happens a lot during the whole book. We are told a ton of stuff, but we never actually see them. We get the initial plot points from a lot of topics and barely one of them is actually developed (Noah's anxiety, Jordan's cutting, the suicide attempt, Mom's 3 jobs etc). Nothing gets more than a couple of paragraphs about it.
The format and the writing are not bad at all (pretty nice, actually), but in terms of narrative it's just lacking in various aspects - like an real deep development of characters. The major problem (Ben) could be solved with POV chapters from him, so we get a deeper meaning of his mind and what he's like. The way it is now, not only I can't relate to him, but I don't really care about him at all. His relationship with Noah is bland and boring af, specially since we only see sex related topics. I mean, Noah does say "Ben is different when they're alone" but we see that once. It get me impression that it's like an abusive relationship, but without the "good parts" of the abuse cycle.
The whole conflict of the book - the blackmail - is dismissed in a very nonchalantly way as if we're not reading just to find out what was gonna happen. It's like literary blue balls tbh, a lot of promisses and work to get to the end and there's no reward there waiting for you.
And the end of the book, when things start to get interesting, the story is over. The conclusion is that it seems the author skip the most interesting parts of the story (like Noah's talk to his mom about the whole issue, for instance, since he was not even out to her) and he kept bits about sex and superficial character development. What a disapointment.
March 9, 2019
In the last two hours, I have read this 132 page book cover to cover, and I have to say I’ve had a wonderful time!
Instafamous reads like a teen movie, and as we all know, teen movies are the greatest. Don’t even question me. So this book - Love Simon meets the world of porn, but set in a Mean Girls-esque high school - reads super easily and is super relatable in one way or another.
You may be wondering how you can tell a complete story in 132 pages? I wondered the same. But Marcus Herzig, the very talented author, managed exactly that! From the start we are introduced to our narrator, Noah, and the salacious secret that he’s being blackmailed over, and right from the off we are thrown into this world of paranoia, anxiety, and panic! I wish not to reveal any spoilers, but as well as this main topic of blackmail and identity crisis, we also read about self-harm and attempted suicide, and it all flows beautifully together like it belonged in this book. AKA, nothing felt forced to me.
I really enjoyed all 132 pages of this and really enjoyed being in this world for a couple of hours! I had never read any of Marcus Herzig before but I certainly will be checking out his other work!
5/5
Instafamous reads like a teen movie, and as we all know, teen movies are the greatest. Don’t even question me. So this book - Love Simon meets the world of porn, but set in a Mean Girls-esque high school - reads super easily and is super relatable in one way or another.
You may be wondering how you can tell a complete story in 132 pages? I wondered the same. But Marcus Herzig, the very talented author, managed exactly that! From the start we are introduced to our narrator, Noah, and the salacious secret that he’s being blackmailed over, and right from the off we are thrown into this world of paranoia, anxiety, and panic! I wish not to reveal any spoilers, but as well as this main topic of blackmail and identity crisis, we also read about self-harm and attempted suicide, and it all flows beautifully together like it belonged in this book. AKA, nothing felt forced to me.
I really enjoyed all 132 pages of this and really enjoyed being in this world for a couple of hours! I had never read any of Marcus Herzig before but I certainly will be checking out his other work!
5/5
April 19, 2018
It's short and cute. I mean, as cute as blackmail can be, I guess. But the three main characters are pretty fleshed out (I would've loved more about Jordan) and they all can be kind of terrible people and kind of relatable too. I wish it hadn't ended so abruptly, with more questions than anything, but I appreciated that not everything was wrapped up in a bow too. I have to give a lot of kudos for tackling depression, anxiety, self harm and suicide, especially in such a short book. It was handled pretty well, all things considered. It's just... very short, so you get what you can from that length.
November 27, 2017
After reading Counterparts by the same author, he's become one of my favorites for LGBT YA novels. The narrator, Noah, is charming and you want to the best for him. With the cyber bullying, his secret relationship with the closeted jock, and his struggle with depression, you really root for things to come out right. The twist actually surprised me, which was super exciting, and the social media dangers for teens gave this a real world vibe. I would recommend it.
May 29, 2018
This was a quick read, but it brought up a lot of complicated issues it didn't completely resolve, which left me a bit frustrated. There were also some situations that I had a really hard time believing would actually happen. That said, I would be open to reading more of this author's works in the future.
January 1, 2020
Worth the read.
Very enjoyable story. I tend to prefer stories that are believable. This story is very believable. I felt like I was looking in on some real life events. I will say there were some loose ends that would have been nice if they had been tied into bows and gave a nice ending. You will like the characters and feel like you have gotten to know some new people.
Very enjoyable story. I tend to prefer stories that are believable. This story is very believable. I felt like I was looking in on some real life events. I will say there were some loose ends that would have been nice if they had been tied into bows and gave a nice ending. You will like the characters and feel like you have gotten to know some new people.
March 7, 2021
Now What?
When two boys find themselves in the most difficult time of their lives what now? This book addresses well how social networking can destroy lives yet bring them back without the social media. Great book!
When two boys find themselves in the most difficult time of their lives what now? This book addresses well how social networking can destroy lives yet bring them back without the social media. Great book!
January 18, 2022
Quite short, fairly good build up but the plot is finished off to quickly for me, it seemed to suddenly end.
March 21, 2018
I didn't think that they couldn't fit a big topic like this in such a short novel, but they did and it was great!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews