Book Review: No Filter and Other Lies
Book Title: No Filter and Other Lies
Basics:
No Filter and other Lies is written in first person from the perspective of the main character Kat. I read this 326 page ARC (Advanced Reader’s Copy) in physical form.
What’s it about?
Kat’s life is a lie. She lives with her grandparents (but tells everyone she lives with her parents and brother because that’s what her mother requested when she was 5). Her family isn’t this big happy picture perfect entity, though her mother likes to portray it as such over social media and to everyone she’s around. And while Kat loves her grandparents and are happy to be with them, she can’t help but feel less than, not enough, ashamed, and unworthy that her parents chose to keep her brother (just 18 months younger than her) but abandon her.She just feels so unseen, so unvalidated; so alone. So when, in a time of desperately wanting her photography to be seen and validated, she makes choices that may not be the best. Choices that require far more lies and secrets. But at least she’s finally being seen.But things only get more complicated when feelings get added to the mix.
My Favorites:
My Favorite Character: I really liked Kat’s grandmother. She wasn’t perfect but she was loving and she tried her best. She was in a hard situation.
I also liked Kat but there were points in which I wasn’t so happy with her.
My Least Favorite Character: Kat’s mother, without a doubt. First of all, I understand the situation she was in when she made choices, but, try as I might, I couldn’t forgive her for her choices. And not just the first big one but so many after. Her actions were such a big reason for Kat to feel the way she did, and she wasn’t there or emotionally available to help her through it all. On top of that, she set the president to lie about how “great” the family was. I wanted to slap her.
My Favorite Part: The end. Not because it was the most entertaining part of the book, but because it was the perfect ending for this story. I couldn’t be more happy with the ending for so many reasons, and this made me so happy.
My least Favorite Part:The begining. It felt…different then the rest of the book, and, honestly, I didn’t feel like it set up and introduced the characters in the best way.
Other Thoughts:
One of the first things I noticed was Kat’s obsession with social media followers.At first, I was annoyed by this. I was like, “Oh, boy. Here we go…!” But in the end I’m glad she had that obsession. The more you get to know her, the more you realize why she's obsessed. She feels unseen and unvalidated, she feels like she’s not important to others and, since she’s not getting it in her real life the way she needs it. So, in a desperate attempt to find it she looks to social media where so many people find that attention and it’s quantifiable. If she doesn’t feel it, she’ll be able to see it to convince her. Instead of annoying me, I felt bad for her. She was calling out so loudly and still not being heard the way she needed to be.
I do wish that we had gotten a little more information about her parents. I’d like to know why the choices they made were made and what the deal was that was made with Kat’s grandparents. There was a lot of talk about it but few answers. If nothing else, I feel like Kat deserved some of those answers as they pertain to her and it was those choices that set her on the path that she had been trying to navigate since she was a baby.
Like I said above, I really appreciated the ending. It was the perfect ending for the events, with consequences for her actions. The choices she made had an effect on every one of her relationships, some for he better some not so much. It was done beautifully.
I honestly went into this thinking that it was going to be a fun little YA rom-com with a lot of social media infused. Nope. It was an emotional journey with a hurting and broken girl filled with emotions, laughs and relatable moments. It was heavier then I expected but the layers were worth the weight.
Other Thoughts:
I give this book a
6
Out of
10 adoptable dogs
But that’s just what I thought. What did you think? Did you dislike how it ended? Did you love the book? Let us know in the comments.
