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Published Aug 2017
384 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
From the author of Between the Notes comes a story that shines a light on our love of social media and how sometimes being the person you think you want to be isn't as great as being the person you truly are.
Vicky Decker's social anxiety has helped her to master the art of hiding in plain sight, appearing only to her best friend, Jenna. But when Jenna moves away, Vicky's isolation becomes unbearable. So she decides to invent a social life by Photoshopping herself into other people's photos and posting them on Instagram under the screen name Vicurious.
Instantly, she begins to get followers, and soon, Vicky has made a whole new life for herself without ever leaving her bedroom. But the more followers she amasses online, the clearer it becomes that there are a lot of people out there who feel like her - #alone and #ignored in real life. To help them, and herself, she must stop living vicariously and start bringing the magic of Vicurious back to life.
"Starred Review. Those who enjoy Laurie Halse Anderson's works and Sophie Kinsella's Finding Audrey will want to snap up this funny, important, touching, and, at times, profound title. It offers an engaging tie-in with antibullying or kindness campaigns." - School Library Journal
"Just like the protagonist's virtual foil, this should have wide appeal to the Gen-Z crowd." - Kirkus
"How to Disappear is a heartfelt and heartwarming story for anyone who's ever wanted to be someone else; for anyone who's ever felt like they were on the outside looking in; for anyone who's ever felt alone in a room full of people." - Jeff Zentner, author of Morris Award Winner The Serpent King and Goodbye Days
"Through Vicky's moving journey, Roat brilliantly captured everything beautiful and terrible about social media, and all the ways it can't possibly compete with real life. If you're a fan of Dear Evan Hansen or if you're a human being living in the 21st century, you need to read this." - Lance Rubin, author of Denton Little's Deathdate and Denton Little's Still Not Dead
"This book. THIS BOOK. It punched me in the heart in the best possible way, reducing me to a small puddle of feels by the end. Flawlessly plotted. Gorgeously written. Absolutely perfect." - Marci Lyn Curtis, author of The One Thing
"Perfectly captures the agony and ecstasy of sharing who you are, whether online or IRL… how it feels to get attention, not knowing whether it will make you or break you. Powerful, tender, and real, Sharon Huss Roat provides a voice for every girl reaching out from the comments section." - Maggie Thrash, author of Honor Girl
"A beautifully touching, relevant book about who we are and who we pretend to be to feel connected. It's a tribute to anyone who's ever felt invisible, yet aching to be seen." - Lauren Gibaldi, author of The Night We Said Yes and Autofocus
"Eloquently captures the feeling of fear and loneliness we all experience when we part ways with our first real friend. Readers will root for Vicky as she finds strength through her online persona. Uplifting, empowering, romantic-it's everything you want in a contemporary read." - Paula Stokes, author of Girl Against the Universe and Liars, Inc.
This information about How to Disappear was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sharon Huss Roat is the author of HarperTeen novels Between the Notes (June 2015) and How to Disappear. She grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Delaware with her husband and two children. When not working on her next book, she can be found reading, gardening, cooking, or napping. She loves to hear from readers, so visit her online at sharonroat.com
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