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Mar 2, 20213 min read

Follow Your Arrow by Jessica Verdi Book Tour



Title: Follow Your Arrow


Author: Jessica Verdi


Publisher: Scholastic Press


Publication date: March 2, 2021


Genres: Young Adult Contemporary, LGBTQIA+




Book Synopsis

 

"For fans of Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, this is a riveting and irresistible take on love, life, and identity — both online and off. CeCe Ross is kind of a big deal. She and her girlfriend, Silvie, are social media influencers with zillions of fans and followers, known for their cute outfits and being #relationshipgoals. So when Silvie breaks up with her, CeCe is devastated. She’s lost her first love, and now she can’t help but wonder if she’ll lose her followers as well. Things get even messier when CeCe meets Josh, a new boy in town who is very much Not Online. CeCe isn’t surprised to be falling for a guy; she’s always known she’s bi. And Josh is sweet and smart and has excellent taste in donuts… but he has no idea that CeCe is internet-famous. And CeCe sort of wants to keep it that way. But when CeCe’s secrets catch up to her, she finds herself in the middle of an online storm, where she’ll have to confront the blurriness of public vs. private life, and figure out what it really means to speak her truth."



My Thoughts

 


Welcome to my stop on the book tour of Follow Your Arrow with TBR And Beyond Tours! The full tour schedule for Follow Your Arrow can be found here.


I absolutely loved this book! I think at first glance it's easy to dismiss a lot of CeCe's problems as only affecting the internet famous, but I really think there are important questions in this book about how we manage our online vs personal lives. What people feel like they have a right to know and what people really have the right to know. This book tackled a lot, from cancel culture to biphobia, and I feel like it handles everything in such a fair way that didn't shy away from the messiness of all of it.


I thought the love story between CeCe and Josh in this one felt so natural and so incredibly cute! Every time they have a moment it made my heart happy. And this book really dove in and showed the vicious biphobia that exists online and in the world. As a bi person myself I appreciated this so much. Bi people don't owe anyone their full history to prove whether we're bi or not. So I really loved CeCe's character throughout this book. From the small moments of wondering if it was easier just to lean into the label "lesbian" even if that didn't really ring true for her to trying so hard to make sure no one is upset by basically repressing a huge part of herself. There were also just tiny lines throughout this book that made it so much more inclusive that I hope to see more in books to come!


I think this book is fantastic and asks a lot of great questions while also being a super cute love story! Definitely would recommend it! Follow Your Arrow comes out TODAY (March 2nd, 2021) and is available for purchase at any of the links above!


I received a physical copy of this book from TBR And Beyond Tours and the author as part of my participation in their tour.

 

Representation: bi/pan MC, trans, lesbian, Latinx


Content Warnings: homophobia, HP references, biphobia




About the Author

 

Jessica Verdi is an author of books for kids and teens about identity, family, acceptance, and love.

Though she’s always been a bookworm (her childhood was basically defined by the philosophy that working your way through giant stacks of library books is far superior to playing outside), she remained convinced throughout high school and college that theatre and music were meant to be her creative outlets. After nearly ten years in the NYC theatre world, she got an idea for a novel. While that first attempt at a “book” will never see the light of day—nope, don’t ask—it was the book that started her love affair with writing. Now she can’t imagine doing anything else.

Jess received her MFA in Writing for Children from The New School and is a freelance editor of romance and women’s fiction. She lives in New York with her family.


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