If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich
ARC provided by NetGalley
Publishing date December 07, 2021
My Thoughts:
For somebody whose youth was spent much of it listening to boy bands and fan girling out loud, I was thrilled to be able to read and review this.
This coming-of-age story wasn’t the light reading rom-com that I thought it would be. It is sweet, the friendship between Angel, Ruben, Zach and Jon is solid and comforting, the banters are amusing.
But it is also angsty and a bit dark as the story delves into the dark side of fame and management control and involvement. It’s no wonder we are all left in shock when celebrities like Miley Cyrus shed that perfect image her team wrapped her up in and she went 180 degrees and rode a wrecking ball. Or when Britney Spears couldn’t handle the pressure anymore and had her public meltdown and breakdown.
This book gives us a glimpse of why celebrities spiral and how it gets bad real fast, specially when the pressure to be somebody you’re essentially not, gets to you.
The boys found solace in their friendship and for Ruben and Zach, they found love. I love that they fought for their happily ever after and even when it seemed like it was them against the world, and at one point them against themselves, love wins.
This book is a balance of touching important and heavy issues such as control and abuse of power, substance abuse as a coping mechanism, emotional abuse, the pressure of society’s expectations. It’s also about self discovery, navigating friendship and love in all its forms.
This book will make you smile, make you laugh, it’ll make you mad, it’ll break your heart but it’ll pieace them back together and give you joy.
The world needs more stories like this.
Blurb:
Eighteen-year-olds Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are two members of the boy-band Saturday, one of the biggest acts in America. Along with their bandmates, Angel Phan and Jon Braxton, the four are teen heartbreakers in front of the cameras and best friends backstage. But privately, cracks are starting to form: their once-easy rapport is straining under the pressures of fame, and Ruben confides in Zach that he’s feeling smothered by management’s pressure to stay in the closet.
On a whirlwind tour through Europe, with both an unrelenting schedule and minimal supervision, Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more, and their already close friendship evolves into a romance. But when they decide they’re ready to tell their fans and live freely, Zach and Ruben start to truly realize that they will never have the support of their management. How can they hold tight to each other when the whole world seems to want to come between them?
Don't forget to check this one out once it's released later this year!
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