My Sunday Book Review today is for Alex Craigie’s new release – The Bubble Reputation. Alex takes us into a story about the evils of social media when children’s author Emmie is setup by a rag newspaper by a ruthless Ursula Bloom who pushes her reporter Jessie to the limit by asking her to dig dirt on Emmie, who has a sparkling reputation that turns ugly when lies are created and images are photo-shopped. An eerie story that reminds us that we are all open game when it comes to the evils of social media and the digital world.
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Blurb:
If you want to destroy someone’s reputation, social media provides the perfect tool.
Emmie Hobson, children’s author and TV presenter, is riding high on a wave of popularity when an unscrupulous newspaper editor, desperate for a scoop, brings Emmie’s world crashing down.
Social media picks up the baton and a terrifying backlash of hate and abuse is unleashed. Threats are made and there are those, inflamed by the rhetoric, prepared to take the law into their own hands.
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My 5 Star Review:
I’ve never met a book from this author I didn’t enjoy. This book is a story about how low people will go and how easy it is to get people riled up and become haters through social media. Sad to see how far people will go to ruin a reputation for ratings and the almighty dollar.
Emmie is a kind children’s author and TV presenter with a near spotless reputation. But Ursula Bloom needs dirt on Emmie for better ratings – even though there isn’t any. Ursula, the editor of a rag tabloid pushes her reporter Jessie to get some dirt in return for a big bonus. There is no dirt so the ball gets rolling by asking the nasty co star Tiffany for some dirt, which is barely anything, but then distorted. Sadly, there seems to be no control on the evil on manufacturing lies and doctoring images, as defamation and libel run wild. Taking photos and embellishing them to look like events that never took place is the name of the game for Ursula. Then all that’s required is linking images to a BS story, and set it ablaze into social media, and one children’s author’s reputation is smeared.
Emmie’s friends shockingly join the masses of haters, because of course, it’s easier to be a sheep and go with the masses than to look for the truth. Emmie has only her husband Luke and her loving parents to stand by her side. Even Emmie’s loser, jealous sister Livvy gets in on the action. She has no ambitions, addicted to drugs, and never has money. But Emmie is too good to her until she finds out that Livvy too, helped create stories by offering personal information on her sister so she could earn some money to support her drug habit, demonstrating that money is thicker than blood.
The story grabs us as we get a good scope of exactly how easy it is to smear someone’s reputation publicly with lies. My heart went out to Emmie in this book and kept me wondering how she could stop the madness and restore her reputation. The author does a wonderful job of sewing up the story with a satisfying conclusion after squirming through Emmie’s unjustified attacks.
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