Book Review: Life Unaware

Life Unaware

By: Cole Gibsen

Published By: Entangled Teen

Publication Date: April 28, 2015

Page Count: 320

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: ARC Kindly Provided by Publisher

Audience: Young Adult - Contemporary

Oh to grow up in the digital age! Regan Flay learns the hard way that the things you text/email about someone can truly come back to bite you in the butt. Regan Flay is popular, and did what she had to do to climb her way to the top of the high school social ladder. But someone had had enough of her backstabbing and lying, so they printed out every text and e-mail she ever sent about someone at school. Then those texts and emails were taped up all over the school. 

Regan becomes an outcast, even resorting to eating her lunch in the bathroom. Her "friends" have turned against her and the only one who will even speak to her is her former best friend's brother Nolan, who used to be someone she publicly berated. Nolan helps Regan navigate her way through school, even helping to mend her friendship with his sister, Payton. 

But what neither Payton nor Nolan knows is that Regan suffers from anxiety. Her mother is a congresswoman running for re-election and puts an enormous amount of pressure on Payton to be the "perfect" daughter. Regan's pills are her life line to survival. She doesn't want to tell her mom what happened at school because she knows it will cause problems for her re-election, and her mother will just put more pressure on Regan.

Eventually Regan & Nolan come up with an apology of sorts for Regan to make to the entire school. However, it involves a few other students...and there are many other components to this dilemma that become evident as the story goes on. Many things are not as Regan originally believed. She continues to be surprised as these revelations come out, until one final revelation threatens the internal peace she thought she had found.

Life Unaware addresses several social issues teens encounter today - bullying, appropriate cyber behavior, and mental illness. I appreciated the way these issues were addressed and really enjoyed the book. Things don't always turn out as great for the victims of bullying as they did in the book, but it was nice to see someone who felt true remorse for what she had done. I really felt for Regan dealing with her anxiety. An anxiety disorder is often not see as a "real" illness, but it truly is and I hope this book will help to enlighten some people about that. As a mother, I would hope that teens realize anything typed or posted in "cyberspace" is never truly deleted. It's a difficult lesson to learn. Thanks to the author for a fantastic book!

Recommended for high school & above.

Content: Lots of f-bombs in this book. 

Summary:

Regan Flay has been talking about you.

Regan Flay is on the cusp of achieving her control-freak mother's "plan" for high school success―cheerleading, student council, the Honor Society—until her life gets turned horribly, horribly upside down. Every bitchy text. Every bitchy email. Every lie, manipulation, and insult she's ever said have been printed out and taped to all the lockers in school.

Now Regan has gone from popular princess to total pariah.

The only person who even speaks to her is her former best friend's hot but socially miscreant brother, Nolan Letner. Nolan thinks he knows what Regan's going through, but what nobody knows is that Regan isn't really Little Miss Perfect. In fact, she's barely holding it together under her mom's pressure. But the consequences of Regan's fall from grace are only just beginning. Once the chain reaction starts, no one will remain untouched...

Especially Regan Flay.