THIS IS NOT THE JESS SHOW by Anna Carey – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey
Series: This is Not the Jess Show #1
Published by Quirk Books on February 2 2021
Genres: Young adult, Science fiction, Contemporary
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Full of fun 90s nostalgia, This is Not the Jess Show has twists and surprises, plenty of action, and even some sweet emotional moments.

This is a hard book to talk about without spoiling some major plot points, but I’m going to do my best. I’m taking a cue from the blurb on the back of the book, which doesn’t give the plot twist away, although you may already be aware of it. I thought This is Not the Jess Show was a bunch of fun, even if I had a few quibbles here and there. The story is clearly based on the 1998 movie The Truman Show (Google it if you want to know the plot twist, but don’t if you want to go into the story blind.) Other than that I’m not going to give away much of the plot. It’s a great high concept idea, and I think the author mostly succeeded with what she was going for. (I’m including a hidden spoiler below, if you’re interested!)

Seventeen-year-old Jess Flynn lives in the small town of Swickley and has a fairly normal life. She hangs out with her best friends Kristen and Amber, crushes on a boy in her band class named Tyler, and obsesses over her TV crush Scott Wolf, the lead on the popular show Party of Five. It’s 1998, AOL dial up internet is all the rage, Blockbuster Video is the teen hangout spot on the weekends, and the iPhone hasn’t been invented yet. Jess is mostly happy, except for the fact that her younger sister Sara is seriously ill with a rare blood disease. As excited as she is to get out of Swickley and go to college someday, she knows she’ll never be able to leave her sister.

Just when it looks like Tyler might have feelings for her too, weird things start happening. A strange, shiny object falls out of Amber’s backpack but she refuses to tell Jess what it is (hint: it’s an iPhone). Half the school is out sick because of a flu epidemic. And when Jess goes to Tyler’s house, she notices that the bathroom is completely bare—no shampoo, toothpaste, towels, nothing. Jess starts to suspect that her comfortable, predictable life might be a lie, and she’s determined to solve the mystery.

This is one of those stories that switches gears about halfway through. It starts out as a contemporary—although it’s set in the past, it feels like your typical YA contemporary with some teen angst, family drama, and coming of age elements. Slowly, Carey infuses a mystery into her story, as Jess becomes more and more convinced that something strange is going on in Swickley. I really loved this first half, as we get to know Jess and her family and friends, and the growing attraction between Jess and Tyler. Except for Sara’s terrible illness, you get the sense that Jess has a pretty sweet—if completely normal—life. I had heard The Truman Show comparison before I started reading, so I had an idea of where the story was going. Even so, I really enjoyed the way Carey slowly revealed her intriguing mystery, and I literally hung on every word.

At about the halfway point, the story abruptly changes into a thriller of sorts, as Jess and another boy find themselves on the run. Carey does really good action scenes, and I had a lot of fun with this last half as well, although the action at times is a bit over the top with some outlandish elements that were a little goofy for my taste. It’s also at this point that the author throws in yet another big surprise, one I was not expecting. Overall, I enjoyed the first half of the book a little more, simply because the story seems to spin out of control at times during the second half.

By far my favorite part of This is Not the Jess Show is the wonderful, nostalgic feel Carey brings to her story. Anyone out there who misses the 90s and wishes you could go back to simpler times—before smartphones, social media and the internet—you’ll adore all her descriptions of 90s movies and TV shows, clothing lines, Lisa Frank stickers (anyone?) and my favorite: AOL dial-up internet service (having to wait until the phone was free in order to go online seems so archaic now!) Carey drops a lot of brand names, but it didn’t bother me. I have to mention that the year this story takes place (1998) and Anna Carey’s last name seem like a weird coincidence: 1998 was also the year The Truman Show came out, and the movie’s star was Jim Carey. Hmmm makes you wonder…

I did like that the author added some emotional layers to her story. We have the very close but doomed relationship between Jess and her sister, which is heartbreaking. Jess is faced with a new reality later in the story and she’s forced to evaluate her life. Can she imagine a life beyond Swickley? Or is it easier to simply stay because everything is comfortable and predictable?  Carey also addresses the social media craze and how so many people live their lives online, and the idea of reality versus fantasy and how it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between the two. 

But as much fun as this story was, there were a couple of negatives for me. First, you will have to suspend your disbelief for most of the story, and again, it’s hard to explain why without giving away spoilers. But some of the situations did not make sense to me and I ended up with more questions than answers. I also felt that Jess’s reactions were not always believable. If this had happened to me, I would have been freaking out! Jess has a few moments of shock and confusion, but she bounces back really fast. There is one event in particular that should have been earth shattering for her, but it didn’t register that way, and I was slightly let down. Finally, there are a couple of very convenient things that happen near the end of the story, I’m sure in order for the author to move the action in a certain direction, but I wasn’t buying it.

But those complaints aside, this really is a fun story and I breezed through it in only a couple of sittings. I think it’s best to go into This is Not the Jess Show with as little information as possible, because the surprises are worth discovering for yourself. Goodreads says this is only the beginning of a series, and I’m very curious to see where Carey takes her story next.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

View Spoiler »The concept of the story is that Jess’s entire life has been lived on a TV set, but she doesn’t know it. She’s grown up surrounded by paid actors who pretend to be her family and friends. The show is called Stuck in the 90s (great title, by the way!) and it’s viewed by millions of people daily all over the world. Thousands of cameras are set up all over town to capture whatever Jess and her friends are doing. The actual year the story takes place is 2037, and once Jess finally catches on to what’s happening, she enlists the help of a fellow classmate who is tired of being on the show and wants out (due to his age of 17, leaving the show before his 18th birthday is a breach of contract). They “break” out of Swickley and head out into the “real” world, where life is much different than the 1998 that Jess is familiar with: self driving cars, smartphones, etc. I was disappointed that Jess didn’t have a stronger reaction to the fact that her entire life was a lie. And her beloved sister who “dies” isn’t actually dead, of course. I also thought it was a stretch to think that for seventeen years not one single actor spilled the beans or gave anything away. « Hide Spoiler