Hello everyone! I’m excited for today’s post because I get to review one of my highly anticipated releases. This post is part of a blog tour organized by Colored Pages Tours, thank you so much to them and Holiday House for the ARC of this book. I truly cherish it and it brings me joy to see it next to my copy of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega.
This is the last day of the tour, but be sure to check out the schedule for all the other wonderful posts made by other creators.
Book Info
Title: No Filter and Other Lies
Author: Crystal Maldonado
Publisher: Holiday House
Publication Date: February 8th, 2022
Genres: Young Adult contemporary romance
Synopsis:
You should know, right now, that I’m a liar.
They’re usually little lies. Tiny lies. Baby lies. Not so much lies as lie adjacent.
But they’re still lies.
Twenty one-year-old Max Monroe has it all: beauty, friends, and a glittering life filled with adventure. With tons of followers on Instagram, her picture-perfect existence seems eminently enviable.
Except it’s all fake.
Max is actually 16-year-old Kat Sanchez, a quiet and sarcastic teenager living in drab Bakersfield, California. Nothing glamorous in her existence–just sprawl, bad house parties, a crap school year, and the awkwardness of dealing with her best friend Hari’s unrequited love. But while Kat’s life is far from perfect, she thrives as Max: doling out advice, sharing beautiful photos, networking with famous influencers, even making a real friend in a follower named Elena. The closer Elena and “Max” get–texting, Snapping, and even calling–the more Kat feels she has to keep up the facade.
But when one of Max’s posts goes ultra-viral and gets back to the very person she’s been stealing photos from, her entire world – real and fake — comes crashing down around her. She has to figure out a way to get herself out of the huge web of lies she’s created without hurting the people she loves.
But it might already be too late.
Review for No Filter and Other Lies
Disclaimer: I read and received and ARC of this book as part of the tour, which in no way influences my opinions about it.
No Filter and Other Lies follows Kat Sanchez who is social media obsessed, especially with Instagram. She is extremely aware of follower count and is often sad that her photography isn’t getting the recognition she knows it deserves. Kat lives with her grandparents and while she loves them her relationship with what is supposed to be her nuclear family is rocky.
One of the things I love about Maldonado’s works is the exploration of complicated family dynamics. We had a glimpse of this in her previous book with Charlie and her mother and it continues to be explored in this sophomore novel. We have a complicated mother and daughter relationship as well as sibling and father/daughter. This is one of the biggest topics explored in No Filter and Other Lies. I thought it was great to see other family structures besides the nuclear family or families with just one parent present.
Kat’s family is the first lie she has to tell and it ripples to other parts of her life. One little lie cascades down to bigger ones. How do you stop yourself from lying when you’ve been asked to do so for such a long time? It was great to see the web of lies and trace them to a source. Maldonado weaved all of them fantastically.
Our main character is messy and I loved that she was. She lies constantly, she is selfish, she is trying to figure herself out and she is making a lot of mistakes. This made for such a nuanced character and allowed space for growth. I absolutely loved Kat’s character journey!
Kat can’t get away from her phone, she is constantly comparing herself to others as a result of being glued to Instagram. I am so glad that this was such a big part of the novel. I found Kat’s struggles with Instagram extremely relatable and it made me evaluate my relationship with the platform. Whenever Kat would talk about how she felt about IG I couldn’t help but think of Jealousy, Jealousy by Olivia Rodrigo.
The book does deal heavily with a trope that I don’t like which is catfishing; however, the narrative does a good job of addressing the severity of it. It was not dismissed as something that happened, it’s problematic nature was discussed and the root of it was explored. Catfishing was not the source problem, it was what lay underneath it. Such exploration gave the story nuance and made the reader realize why such decisions lead to catfishing. I enjoyed how it was handled and while I still don’t love the trope I believe it was very fitting to this story.
I also enjoyed the character dynamics. No Filter and Other Lies has a great cast of characters and I enjoyed reading about Kat’s group of friends. I liked that she was friends with guys her age and they all shared photography as a hobby. It was nice to see how they all developed as a group too, from antics to being vulnerable with each other.
No Filter and Other Lies is a ultimately a story of dealing with family trauma, accepting yourself as you are, being present, and being your true self to the ones you love. The novel has bi representation and a super cute 3-legged friend that will steal your heart.
Crystal Maldonado has become an auto-buy author for me. I enjoy how her prose is straight-forward, fun, and raw.
No Filter and Other Lies is out now! Grab your copy from your favorite bookstore or local library.
Rating: 5/5 Stars ✨
Author Info
Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author with a lot of feelings. Her debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, is a 2021 New England Book Award winner, a Cosmopolitan Best New Book, and a POPSUGAR Best New YA Novel. Her next novel, No Filter and Other Lies, explores teenage life in the social media age—and the lies we tell to ourselves and others.
By day, Crystal works in higher ed marketing, and by night, a writer who loves Beyoncé, shopping, spending too much time on her phone, and being extra. Her work has also been published in Latina, BuzzFeed, and the Hartford Courant.
She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.
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