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Review: You Don't Know Me by Sophia Bennett


It was all so good. Sasha and Rose. Best friends in a band, singing together. Right up to the finals of Killer Act when the judges tell them one of them must go Suddenly their friendship is put to the ultimate test. On TV in front of millions. Two girls. One huge mistake. Can they ever forgive each other?

My Thoughts

After enjoying The Look by Sophia Bennett last year I was desperately excited to get my hands on a copy of this book and when I finally did I wasn't disappointed. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

You don't know me is a book about friendship and betrayal set within an XFactor esque style contest. I must admit the very fact it had this link did make me pause and wonder if it was the book for me but actually it was awesome. You start the book by meeting four ordinary friends. They spend the majority of their free time messing around together doing daft things and one afternoon the daft thing they do is write and perform a song which they record on a camera phone. The phone goes missing and the next thing they know they are entered into a song contest and gained hundreds of votes rapidly propelling them into the top 10 most popular acts in the competition. They think it is all a bit of a laugh until they a invited to perform live in front of judges and told to drop one of their members because she doesn't have the right look even though she has more talent than the rest of the group.

The main story looks at the decision the girls in the group have to make and why they decide to make it and then looks at the fallout as a consequence. What I liked about this book was it said a lot about true friendship and what it means to be loyal to another person. It also had a brilliant message about such reality tv singing contests and the way in which they treat the participants in order to boost ratings and make money for the people running the shows. I also loved seeing the role that social media had within the book and the way in which it just heightened all the issues the girls were facing because of the input of hundreds of thousands of strangers. Quite honestly I was completely fascinated by this aspect all the way through and it made me think about the role it plays in society and how it isn't always a good thing.

I can't tell you about the ending even though I want to rave on about it for ages but I can say I loved it. It suited the book completely and was just so brilliantly awesome and a perfect way to end it. Loved it!

All in all a brilliant read and and has left me wanting to read more from the marvellous Sophia Bennett.

Comments

Jesse Owen said…
This sounds so fabulous .. I can't even put it into words! Great review :)
Anya said…
I loved this! It was fantastic, I loved the portrayal of friendship and the effect of social media. Great review :)