Former.ly; Dane Cobain

“Former.ly” is a quick, easy read about the super toxic frat boy culture of a social media tech startup, and the developer who gets swept up in its meteoric rise and fall. Former.ly is a social media website that combines Livejournal with Facebook, where a user can upload their life story, their secrets and accomplishments, and the information only goes live upon their death. It’s a memorial curated by the person before they are deceased for the benefit of those they leave behind. Which is a really interesting concept on its own, but also has the perfect foundation for the kind of mystery and drama the synopsis hints at. Except the website functions mainly as set dressing to the main character, Dan, and the eccentric founders of Former.ly. Because, unfortunately, the part of the synopsis that says there are “unexpected consequences” when these profiles go live, never materialized.

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This book needed more time to marinate in order to achieve its goal of being an interesting mystery/ tech thriller given that the reader is on the side of the developers, rather than the users of the site. The author’s writing style is pretty straight forward, which can work really well for the pacing of these kinds of thrillers—this book is rather short, but regardless, even longer I think the authors style would make it a quick read. If there had been more to the mystery—more build up, more clues that Dan could have followed—then the superficial character development wouldn’t have mattered because that mystery would have been enough of a hook on its own. But without that, I can’t say I liked or really connected with any of the characters. Dan was often a contradiction with, for example, how he’d claim that someone looked intimidating, immediately followed by how he wasn’t worried. He would have relationship issues, notice how sketchy the founders were being, and often his response is to just shrug those problems away and et back to work, making him exceedingly chill about everything he encounters. It cut off the tension I was looking for in a mystery, and also made Dan hard to connect with in general.

The twists that the end of the book had were great, but needed more of a lead up to be truly gripping, at least for me. The book is very plot focused, which is perfect if you love that in stories. For me, I prefer a bit more character driven plotlines and Dan didn’t really live up to that for me. That, coupled with wanting a bit more from the mystery, is why I’m giving this 3 stars. The concept is really intriguing, and the twists at the end are really intense, and again, if you like quick, mainly plot driven mysteries, then “Former.ly” may be right up your alley! And thanks to the author for an ecopy to review!