ALA Booklist (Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Tessa Hart hasn't left her bedroom in months, not since the thing she can't talk about happened and she deferred college for a year. Her mother and boyfriend are impatient, and Tessa's only connections to the outside world are her therapist and her Twitter account, where she follows pop star Eric Thorn. Eric has some issues of his own: a fellow musician was murdered by an obsessed fan, and Eric's been paranoid of his own fans ever since (yes, it might be a one-in-a-million incident, but he has 14 million followers). When Eric Thorn fan fiction catapults Tessa into the fandom's spotlight, a frustrated Eric creates a fake profile to troll her and ends up starting a real conversation. But this is the Internet, and no one is who they seem. This tends toward melodrama, and the characters are thinly drawn ssa's agoraphobia could have been better researched and better handled. But celebrity culture and Twitter wars will catch the attention of many teens, and for them, this thriller will be addictive.

Kirkus Reviews

Two teens develop a Twitter relationship.White teen Tessa Hart's life has been put on hold. After a terrible incident at an arts camp, Tessa has developed agoraphobia, and her condition confines her to her bedroom. Her window to the outside world is her Twitter profile, @TessaHeartsEric, where she fixates on white teen heartthrob Eric Thorn. Eric is tired of the way his official Twitter handle, @EricThorn, is swamped with adoration from his fans, so he creates @EricThornSucks to have a bit of fun. Eventually Tessa and Eric meet online, and as they send direct messages back and forth, a peculiar friendship starts to form. But not everything is as it seems. This mystery element ends up being the novel's undoing. The author hints at Tessa's dark past here and there, eventually revealing the terrible happening, but understanding her condition is key to readers' empathizing with her, so withholding that information cripples the narrative. On the other end, Eric comes across as a self-obsessed goon. These two teens feed into their own isolation complexes, crafting a truly unhealthy relationship that generates no heat or investment. The cherry on top is a last-minute reveal that will have readers scratching their heads and questioning everything that came before, but not in a good way. A dysfunctional romance about a dysfunctional romance. (Thriller. 12-16)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Battling agoraphobia triggered by an event she refuses to discuss, Tessa Hart defers her freshman year of college and spends her days locked away; social media is her primary connection to the outside world. On Twitter, Tessa finds sanctuary in the online fandom surrounding Eric Thorn, where devotees of this onetime YouTube hopeful turned pop music star follow his every move. Eric himself is jaded, constricted by his celebrity and afraid of his often rabid and obsessive fans. After creating an alternate persona to troll his own fans on Twitter, Eric-under the pseudonym Taylor-begins a friendship and flirtation with seemingly genuine Tessa. As their relationship deepens, identities become less clear and things turn deadly. Debut author Geiger-s social-media-saturated thriller (which fittingly got its start on Wattpad) should transfix teens for whom online relationships (romantic and otherwise) are integral parts of daily life, and catfishing and hacking are genuine fears. Tweets, direct messages, and police interrogation transcripts are incorporated throughout, throwing the reliability of both narrators into question and hinting at the sinister thread underlying this boy-meets-girl story. Ages 14-up. Agent: Lydia Shamah, Carol Mann Agency. (June)

Voice of Youth Advocates (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

A traumatic experience left Tessa with anxiety so severe she cannot leave her bedroom. Twitter and the access it gives her to mega-star Eric Thorn is her last connection to the world. Feeling trapped by his fame, Eric begins using a Twitter account registered under his middle name to vent his true feelings. When Eric and Tessa’s Twitter worlds collide, they bond over their shared feelings of helplessness and fall in love. To reveal the truth about his identity, Eric concocts an elaborate scheme to get Tessa out of her house and into his arms. Little do they know that others have been listening in, making their in-person meeting the one thing that will bring both of their worst fears into reality.
Told though alternating points of view, tweets, and police reports, this novel is perfect for fans of Sara Shepard, April Henry, or Kimberly Derting. In her debut novel, Geiger creates a rich horror story which is all the more intriguing because of its conceivable possibilities. Using fan culture and social media communications to the best effect, she makes the setting and plot convincingly real. Tessa is savvier then some heroines of the genre, and Eric makes a good foil. While elements of Tessa’s emotional recovery and the depth of their online-only romance do strain credibility, Geiger deftly turns what could become a sappy romance back into something completely horrific with just a few words, leaving readers with a hauntingly ambiguous conclusion. Readers will anticipate the next volume in Tessa’s sage, slated for summer 2018.—Rachel Wadham.

Groggon, Alison. The Bone Queen: Cadvan’s Story. Candlewick, 2017. 416p. $17.99.