Socially Previewed: Review

I recently finished reading 'Socially Previewed' a book written by Matthew Newell- an amazing YA/Time Travel book with a unique spin on the social media world with a hint of sci-fi. In socially previewed we follow Lewis, a thirty-something year old banker, living in Edinburgh through what seems to be his everyday life. Very quickly we learn that Lewis isn't all who he seems and has developed a premonition power through posts on social media called the QTS, (quasi-time slip). With this power he can read posts a day in advance and try to change future events from happening. He very quickly becomes engrossed in trying to save everyone from future events, stemming from his trauma of events in the past.

First Introductions

Immediately, flicking through the first few pages of the book, I knew that I was going to absolutely love this book. The genre and plot were my style and I felt so connected to Lewis and his friend Robyn from the start. The dialogue was so relatable and the relationship between Lewis and Robyn captured the true banter of an old friend and did not feel staged or stale. Every character in the book felt unique and real, and had a different dialogue style , which is a very rare occurrence in books for me. My favourite character has to be Father Berns, he was hilariously witty and gave unexpected responses as a priest that had me laughing out loud or shocked to the core, although I did feel a deep connection to each character, because of the stories told throughout the book. 'Socially Previewed' had me guessing and wanting to know more throughout the entire book, handing off plot-twist after plot-twist and real life, emotional events, which has your heart reaching for the characters. The book has very deep scenes, which may not be suitable for some readers, but It definitely adds to the emotion and the added police reports, diary entry's and little notes and letters included are such an interesting touch to the story. Matthew Newell is amazing at similes, metaphors and quotes, adding to the flow of the plot-line and capturing the readers attention.

Pros:

• Great use of dialogue, which reminded me a bit of 'Normal People' with a hint of 'How to Kill Your Family'.

• The book never had me confused about what was happening, despite having multiple time switches and POV's.

• There is a lot of information given and I loved how certain details were revealed.

Cons:

• I felt that there was a lot of telling not showing, which isn't bad for me, but definitely a no for some people.

• Third person can be hard for some people to read and with the added POV's could be confusing to some readers.

• I want to know more about how the QTS/social preview came to be.

Conclusion:

To conclude, 'Socially Previewed' is a science fiction styled book filled with relatable dialogue and events, which include mention of autism, OCD, the LGBTQIA+ community and religion. I would have to recommend this book towards mature/older teen and young adults, as there are a lot of trigger warnings, which include: death, domestic abuse, swearing/cussing, sexual content, death of animals, suicide, rape, pedophilia and child abduction, so if any of those topics aren't for you, please don't read if you feel it may trigger you. I have to add that I think Matthew Newell was extremely clever when writing this book, adding in purposeful paradoxes and butterfly effects which had me in a constant state of philosophical thoughts and had me acting detective when reading through the diary entries, letters/notes and police reports. Overall, I give this book a 4/5 stars, for obvious reasons. I loved this book!

To anyone who has read this book, feel free to comment your opinion in the comments and to anyone wanting to read this book, I hope I helped you come to your decision. I would greatly appreciate if you would consider following and sharing my blog and joining my book club group if you liked this post, and contact me with any requests or questions you may have.