Click by Lucinda Smyth

This novel should be classified more as a psychological drama rather than a thriller though it did contain mystery and enough secrets, lies and subterfuge to qualify as suspense.

If you read the blurb, you might think that this is going to be about the dangers of social media and the Internet. That's not really true as I'd say that the story here is more about obsession and a character in an environment that created mental instability. Eva leaves her rural home for Northam, a tiny elite university, after being homeschooled and finds campus life to be most unsettling to her sanity. Unfortunately for Eva, she becomes addicted to checking her Facebook account and latches on to a girl named Marina Bede. She stalks Marina and eventually manages to meet and befriend her while simultaneously experiences both love and hate of the girl. Caught up in a whirlwind of on and off again friendship with Marina, Eva loses her grip and becomes somewhat lost. This is obviously a toxic relationship that can't help but end badly. NO SPOILERS.

I have some mixed reaction to this book. At times it felt very slow and tedious and at others, I became caught up in the revelations and quite anxious about what was happening. My main issue is that, even now after finishing over a couple of hours, I am still not sure that I totally understand what was real and what was all in Eva's mind. The book touches on the topics of voyeurism and up-skirting as well as on the stress experienced by the young away from home at university. Yes, it does talk about the permanence of words, photos, images, etc. on social media platforms and the craziness of being a trend when complete strangers dissect and analyze your life, pronouncing judgment. Definitely a scary world out there and caution is a must. Overall I enjoyed this book but the writing style and shifting narrative made it much more confusing than a straightforward movement would have been. I never really identified with Eva nor did I understand her but she definitely had my sympathy as she sure had a lot of issues and seemed a hot mess throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the e-book ARC to read and review.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre - psychological drama