Review: Faking Faith by Josie Bloss

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

Dylann Mahoney is living one big unholy lie.

Thanks to a humiliating and painfully public sexting incident, Dylan has become the social pariah at her suburban Chicago high school. She’s ignored by everyone—when she’s not being taunted—and estranged from her two best friends. So when Dylan discovers the blogs of homeschooled fundamentalist Christian girls, she’s immediately drawn into their fascinating world of hope chests, chaperoned courtships, and wifely submission.

Blogging as Faith, her devout and wholesome alter ego, Dylan befriends Abigail, the online group’s queen bee. After staying with Abigail and her family for a few days, Dylan begins to grow closer to Abigail (and her intriguingly complicated older brother). Soon, Dylan is forced to choose: keep living a lie . . . or come clean and face the consequences.

Review:

Faking Faith has been on my radar since I first spotted it on Flux's website a few months ago. I always find books involving religion to be intriguing, and since Faking Faith seemed like it was going to provide an interesting twist to the religion twist, it ended up pretty high on my wish list, so when the chance came up to read and review it, I jumped at it. As it turns out, Faking Faith by Josie Bloss turned out to be an intriguing as well as unique read, one I fully enjoyed to say the least!

Faking Faith introduces the character of Dylann Mahoney, a girl who hasn't had the easiest of times lately due to one scandalous sexting scandal and the outlash that followed. Now a social outcast at her school as well as in her own family, Dylann has taken to hiding out in her room, watching TV and browsing the internet. However, everything changes when she stumbles upon the blogs of homeschooled fundamentalist Christian girls. She's fascinated by their lives, especially the one of Abigail, a legend in the Christian blogging circle, so Dylann decides to start her own Christian blog so she can finally be part of something again. What's a girl to do, though, when everything goes a bit farther than she expected? Only time and more pages can tell in this fast and furious new addition to Teen Lit.

The high point in this novel was without a doubt the plot. It always was intriguing as well as interesting to see how Dylann's past scandal had shaped and changed her as well as how her involvement in Christian blogs began to bring her back to life so to say. I especially liked the secondary plot lines that came with Abigail and her family, because it also managed to bring some suspense as well as intrigue to the story. In addition, I felt Josie Bloss did a great job of incorporating religion into the novel. It's always an iffy topic so to see how easily she weaved into the novel without any pushing or shoving in any direction toward the reader was pleasant to see.

The characters in this were also well developed and fully their own. I found Dylann to be a likable character, because I found her to be "real." She had made mistakes and pain for them, and while she sometimes didn't always make the best decisions, she always tried her best to stay true to herself. I especially enjoyed seeing her friendship with Abigail develop, because not only did it mean more development came to Dylann's character but it was also to see how two girls from totally different worlds could come to change each other's lives for the better and for the worst. I also have to add that I enjoyed the addition of Asher, Abigail's brother and Dylann's love interest. He was someone who was as messed up as Dylann, but he still managed to bring goodness to Dylann's life as she did to his.

Lastly, I have to add that I really enjoyed the ending of this one! It took a couple of surprising twists towards the end, and based on the twist at the end, I'm really hoping there will be a sequel. However, even if there isn't, Faking Faith was still a great book on its own.

Overall, Faking Faith is a solid addition to the YA contemporary genre! I can't wait to see what's up next for Josie!

Grade: A

Faking Faith (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads) is now out!

Source: Publicist at Flux