Carter Bays (creator)

The Mutual Friend was a funny, yet scarily realistic look at how much social media and the internet control our lives and distract us. I chose it because it’s written by the co-creator of How I Met Your Mother and I love that show.

Alice Quick posted on Facebook three years ago that she was going to medical school. It’s time for her to bite the bullet and actually study for and take the MCAT. After all, tons of people liked that post. But there are so many distractions, like making the perfect Spotify playlist for when she is studying. Her new roommate Roxy, who has the attention span of a gnat and her nose permanently in her phone, is not helping. She is always twisting Alice’s arm to go to a party or somewhere else.

There are a lot of supporting characters too. It’s one of those books where you know they all end up being tied to each other in one way or another even though it doesn’t seem like it at first. The connections the author made between them were really clever. The internet is a small world!

This book was my book club’s May selection and it got mixed reviews. A couple of us – like me – loved it. Others thought it was too slow. I thought it started out slow but drew me in as I kept reading. I could totally relate to Alice and Roxy – I have a social media addiction that I’m constantly fighting. TikTok is my latest obsession! I’m glad I put my phone down long enough to read this book.

Recommended.… (mais)

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a Quick Takes Catch-up post, emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.
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Whatever problems I have with this are not with Newbern—I really enjoyed the narration.

I also really enjoyed portions of this—I can't say entire storylines or characters—but maybe half of each? (some of the beginnings were great and then fell apart, some ended so well that I forgot that I really didn't want anything to do with the characters/story, and some had great middles).

I found the overall "Friend" idea that tied all these divergent stories together both a great idea, and problematic at the same time.

I really wanted to like this, and assumed going in that I was going to love it. But I think this novel has taught me a lesson I should've learned with his TV show—Bays has moments of brilliance, but shouldn't be allowed too much control over a story's ending. (but if given the chance, I'm sure I'll give him another try)… (mais)