If You're Out There - Katy Loutzenhiser
Book Synopsis: After Zan’s best friend moves to California, she is baffled and crushed when Priya suddenly ghosts. Worse, Priya’s social media has turned into a stream of ungrammatical posts chronicling a sunny, vapid new life that doesn’t sound like her at all.
Everyone tells Zan not to be an idiot: Let Priya do her reinvention thing and move on. But until Zan hears Priya say it, she won’t be able to admit that their friendship is finished.It’s only when she meets Logan, the compelling new guy in Spanish class, that Zan begins to open up about her sadness, her insecurity, her sense of total betrayal. And he’s just as willing as she is to throw himself into the investigation when everyone else thinks her suspicions are crazy.
Then a clue hidden in Priya’s latest selfie introduces a new, deeply disturbing possibility: Maybe Priya isn’t just not answering Zan’s emails.
Maybe she can’t.
This book is seriously underrated. Everyone should give this book a chance. It is a debut novel from this author and if you're out there, you should consider reading it. See what I did there?
I don't have enough good things to say about this book, other than the fact that I will have to find out if it's a standalone novel or a series. Truly, I don't care if it's a series, but I do want to know more, I feel like the ending was up to interpretation... spoiler alert: a cliff-hanger, if you will.
Zan and Priya are fun characters, and there is definitely development, but my personal favorite is Harrison, or Logan. Usually, I do not tend to gravitate towards preferring a male lead or character, because I find that I cannot relate to them, but here I definitely felt a connection to certain aspects of my own life.
One of the recurring jokes, or running punch lines, was that there was many instances when a particular character was asked if they are vegan or vegetarian, or the other moment when a fruit was mentioned. Details like these made me smile; this was not lazy writing at all and totally intentional. There were also times when I laughed out loud and people had to ask what was so funny.
Simple things in life... like reading a good book is a pleasure that I have come to find that is free in most cases. Since I got this book from the library, I borrowed it and then returned it right after I finished it. Of course, you can buy this book or choose to read it from the library or place a loan from a friend who owns a copy.
Everything seems to just tie up into a little bow on top of a cute box, there wasn't really anything that I could complain about, and I just wish that there were more books like this to read on my TBR list.
Speaking of TBR (to be read) lists, mine is close to 3,000. To be frank, I think that the higher the list, the more opportunities there are to read great books that can help you reach your goal for the year.
Fun, quick paced, and a witty mysterious read is what you'll be experiencing in: If You're Out There and the book centers around a friendship, a love story, and also family and how you should never give up so easily on true friendship. Obviously I am in support of this book and it's message, it is inspiring and truly a new story for this generation and years to come. With an old moral of the story, you'll be sucked right in.
TLDR; I just found everything about this book to be magical with an air of mystery and truly special. Just like Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way.
Disclaimer: not sponsored and all opinions are my own, not an AD either.
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5 Stars!