Title: The Status of All Things
Authors: Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
What would you do if you could literally rewrite your fate—on Facebook? This heartwarming and hilarious new novel from the authors of Your Perfect Life follows a woman who discovers she can change her life through online status updates.
Kate is a thirty-five-year-old woman who is obsessed with social media. So when her fiancé, Max, breaks things off at their rehearsal dinner—to be with Kate’s close friend and coworker, no less—she goes straight to Facebook to share it with the world. But something’s changed. Suddenly, Kate’s real life starts to mirror whatever she writes in her Facebook status. With all the power at her fingertips, and heartbroken and confused over why Max left her, Kate goes back in time to rewrite their history.
Kate’s two best friends, Jules and Liam, are the only ones who know the truth. In order to convince them she’s really time traveled, Kate offers to use her Facebook status to help improve their lives. But her attempts to help them don’t go exactly as planned, and every effort to get Max back seems to only backfire, causing Kate to wonder if it’s really possible to change her fate.
In The Status of All Things, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke combine the humor and heart of Sarah Pekkanen and Jennifer Weiner while exploring the pitfalls of posting your entire life on the Internet. They raise the questions: What if you could create your picture-perfect life? Would you be happy? Would you still be you? For anyone who’s ever attempted—or failed—to be their perfect self online, this is a story of wisdom and wit that will leave you with new appreciation for the true status of your life.
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Quick Question: Who doesn’t check Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram daily, or even in a day or two?
Well, maybe there are some others who can do that, but most of us (myself included) live lives that are anchored to social media. I actually am guilty about checking my Twitter account every few minutes or so, and there was a time (years ago) when I would tweet non-stop and would always be in Twitter Jail (hi, Twitter friends circa 2010–you know who you are!)
Social Media isn’t always bad, after all. Sometimes, it helps us market ourselves or what we have to offer. And it definitely does help us stay connected.
But connected to what, actually? To our friends? Or…are we just concerned about what others have to say? This rings true, especially on Facebook. After all, you’re trying to connect with people you’ve known from various stages in your life, right?
Sometimes, though, the problem is that you just post things to generate likes–or to show others how “cool” you are, and how amazing your life is. Sometimes, people use social media to hide how they really feel, and more often than not, they get affected by what others post on their social media accounts, too.
This is where THE STATUS OF ALL THINGS is about.
On the eve before her wedding day, Kate gets dumped by her fiance for another girl–and one of the things she first got worried with is how she was going to tell everybody else, and how she and others would react on Facebook. Instead of thinking about how she really feels, she’s more worried about what others would say–and in this day and age, that’s basically what most of us worry about, too.
And then the next morning, she wakes up with her fiance by her side–and with the power to change things via her Facebook Statuses. She then begins to control her–and others’ life with this new power of hers–and you can just think about the hilarity and craziness that ensued.
Just imagine having the power to change things based on what you post! Ha!
I liked the narrative of THE STATUS OF ALL THINGS. It has that Emily Giffin-Sophie Kinsella feel, which makes it easy to read. It’s heartbreaking, but also light and humorous, and the best part is that this is something we could all relate to. Our lives are consumed by social media now that it’s sometimes hard to separate truth from fiction. We have airbrushed our lives too much that there are days when we basically don’t know who we are anymore.
Now back to Kate. Sure, she has this new power, but it is running out–and she has to decide what she really wants to do with her life. Of course, she loves her fiance and wants them to be together–but is it right? Has she been changing things, and seeing them work according to plan?
Or, is she just basically setting herself up for another fall?
I have to admit that some things in this novel are quite predictable. But then again, it’s something I still enjoyed because it helped me think about my life, and how much social media has affected it. Maybe, not about faking things, but mostly just about how I cannot seem to live life without it. I do try, though. Maybe, just a bit. (heh!)
For me, this story progressed the right away. Because —SPOILER ALERT–although we want things to change, there are just some things in life that are meant to be what they are; we just have to learn how to manage them, and try to be better people while we’re at it.
Did Kate get the happy ending that she wanted?
I’d say she got the happy ending that she deserved–and more.
THE STATUS OF ALL THINGS was a great, easy read. Check it out and let me know what you think!
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