Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The Status of All Things by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

4 Star

What would you do if you could literally rewrite your fate—on Facebook? This heartwarming and hilarious new novel from the authors of Your Perfect Life follows a woman who discovers she can change her life through online status updates.

Kate is a thirty-five-year-old woman who is obsessed with social media. So when her fiancĂ©, Max, breaks things off at their rehearsal dinner—to be with Kate’s close friend and coworker, no less—she goes straight to Facebook to share it with the world. But something’s changed. Suddenly, Kate’s real life starts to mirror whatever she writes in her Facebook status. With all the power at her fingertips, and heartbroken and confused over why Max left her, Kate goes back in time to rewrite their history.

Kate's two best friends, Jules and Liam, are the only ones who know the truth. In order to convince them she’s really time traveled, Kate offers to use her Facebook status to help improve their lives. But her attempts to help them don’t go exactly as planned, and every effort to get Max back seems to only backfire, causing Kate to wonder if it’s really possible to change her fate.

Kathryn - 4 Star

I’ve heard many great things about these co-authors and was so impressed that they produce one voice when they write together.  You would never know that two people became one in Kate.

I found the plot interesting and didn’t mind the angel/fairy/guidance councillor in Ruby that appeared as if by magic to help Kate on her voyage.  There was no fuss made about Ruby which could have distracted a lot from the plot- that was good thinking because having a “magical” entity can throw a bit of a wrench in a story and has to be done very well to still be convincing.

The Status of All Things is an interesting concept because of the age of social media we live in. There is certainly an aspect of this new era that compels us to only display a positive image to our network- everything should appear humorous or brilliant and not reveal much of our true feelings. To have the option to go back and try and correct a path is tricky- there’s a great line by Kate’s father towards the end of the novel that sums up my feelings perfectly on this though I can’t say I wouldn’t be tempted, as Kate was, to try and win back the one who has drifted away.  But I think, like her, I would always have that niggling doubt that he wanted something else.  Could I ever live with that knowledge?  Probably not…

I warmed to Kate immediately but actually liked Jules and Liam more.  Kate became so self-involved in her mission that she almost forgot about her friends and they were so sweet and supportive that I felt more for them than for her at times.  That being said, I did like Kate and still empathised with her, especially towards the end when she was coming to certain conclusions.  It helped too that Max was so likeable.

I really enjoyed the writing style of The Status of All Things, a great easy read to make you think.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for our review copy.  All opinions are our own.

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