This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey

It's going to be pretty difficult to talk about this book without spoiling the big twist, although the twist is pretty obvious from the beginning. It's advertised as a cross between Black Mirror and My So-Called Life, which partially gives it away to me. Anyways, I'll try my best to toe the line... Jess Flynn is your typical late-1990s high school girl. You know, the late 90s, Spice Girls and BSB, Titanic, TGIF, Doc Martens and babydoll dresses, Clueless, pagers, inflatable furniture and lava lamps...that aesthetic. Jess has a lot on her plate dealing with her sick little sister and overbearing parents. At school, she is finally starting to act on her crush on her childhood friend. Jess starts to notice odd things happening. There are strange words being chanted outside in the morning. A lot of classmates and teachers are out sick with the flu. Her best friend drops a strange object out of her backpack, a small rectangle with a glass screen and an apple with a bite out of it on the back. These random, small, weird things start to snowball. Jess notices that her dog has been replaced with one that growls and bites her. Eventually, she is told the truth, and her reality completely shifts. The book moves from a YA contemporary novel to an action story as Jess is on the run, being pursued by those who want to push her back into her ordinary unknowing life. By the end, I still wasn't sure how I felt about the book, but I am interested to see how the sequel handles the story. I guess I will hold of my judgment until I can see how the story continues.