Faking Faith by Josie Bloss

November 8, 2011.

Author website.

Dylan 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.  (goodreads.com)

ALBATROSS set the bar pretty high when it came to Josie Bloss books so when I had the opportunity to review FAKING FAITH I jumped at it.  While it definitely didn't disappoint it didn't have the same impact for me as ALBATROSS did.  The latter had excellent timing (I'd just read TWILIGHT and it's anti really spoke to me) plus I connected with it on a deeply personal level.  FAKING FAITH was good; it was eye-opening but it took a pretty big suspension of disbelief to really get into the plot.  A teen faking her way into a fundamentalist Christian home?  I'm pretty sure they would have been able to sniff her out almost immediately.

Dylan screwed up royally, against the advice of her friends and her little inner Jiminy Cricket screaming at her that her uber-hot douche boyfriend was all wrong.  She ends up being a social pariah in a way I thought was a bit forced: in a drunken stupor she blows off her friends for this boy.  Instead of recognizing the act as just that, a drunken idiocy, her friends take it to heart and things escalate from there.  Blowing off happens, shunning occurs and then Dylan's relationship blows up in her face and she's all alone.

For some insane reason she retreats to the world of fundamentalist Christian girl bloggers and their seemingly far simpler way of living.  I can half understand something like that.  They live such an isolated life, free of cell phones and high school and all the other machinations of the modern age.  What Dylan doesn't really comprehend until she takes on the persona of Faith and visits her online friend's farm is that that kind of living comes at a price and she effectively shatters pieces of a family with her ignorance of their world and her insistence of hers.

It's very Lifetime movie-esque and your standard friend make-ups happen at the end.  Dylan realizes her life isn't terrible and sometimes simpler isn't better.  But what kind of bothered me, and I'm going to play devil's advocate here, is how the fundamentalist life is portrayed as ultimately wrong.  Yes, Abigail's father was a controlling dick that reveled in being the master of his domain.  Beau, Abigail's intended, is a creeper that needs to have his junk cut off and the women are 100% subservient to the men, subject to doing only womanly duties and being married to someone her father chooses only.  Yeah, those things suck.  But this is a belief system.  In this world we live in now we view it as wrong.  Women are strong, independent beings that can make our own choices in life.  I mean the Crusades were fought because one set of people felt another set believed the wrong thing.  Bam!  War.  What happens if this kind of structure is what's holding these people together?  What if releasing them into the greater world is what unravels them?  Is their belief system still wrong?  Yes, Abigail was clearly not looking forward to her life with Beau but she stood by her convictions.  This was what was right FOR HER.  Dylan didn't understand that.  Hell, I don't understand it.  But it's HER choice.  She is actively making it even with Dylan sitting there offering her help on a silver platter.

The book painted really good juxtapositions between Dylan's and Abigail's family.  Yes, the fundamentalist Christians are extremes (arranged marriage?  really?  NOW?) but they are a cohesive family unit.  The children were far better behaved than many "normal" children, they ate meals together, the survived together.  They functioned as a unit.  Dylan's family had every freedom of the modern world but they barely knew each other.  Family time?  Right.  Sure they sat at the same table to eat cereal but there were always laptops and smartphones involved.  Dylan even points these polarities out and it's something she came to really love about Abigail's family despite their faults.  As a result Bloss really begs the question: which is the correct life?  Or is it something in between?

FAKING FAITH is a novel that will definitely make you think.  It paints the extremes as very extreme but neither are without their pros or cons.  You see the happiness of both and you see the pitfalls of both.  There is a slant, of course, but I'd think it'd be hard to write something like this without swaying at least a little.  It's a good contemporary with it's crux centering around the pervasive notion of the internet and how is can ruin people.  How running and hiding from your problems only manifests all new ones.  How the only way to fix things is to confront them head on.

Like I said, very Lifetime but still a good story if you can tuck back the notion that Dylan can lie her way into someone's home like that to begin with.  Another extreme but I don't think it was handled too absurdly.  Her obsession with the online culture was portrayed far better, I think, but the plot needed Dylan to immerse herself in it wholly. And she did.  At least it worked out in the end.

Ban Factor: High - This book basically destroys the ideal life of the religious right, read: banners.  No likey.

I'm adding FAKING FAITH to my Summer Blast Giveaway so if you want a chance to win it be sure to enter!

Ban This! Author Bites - Josie Bloss

Sometimes it's all about the need for a book. Below, Josie waxes on that need. Thanks for contributing, Josie!

I have to be honest - I don't have many coherent thoughts about book banning beyond "It's so clearly stupid" and "OMG, I hope that one of my books get banned someday!"

Why would I want a clearly stupid thing to happen to one of my books? The truth is, I believe when a book gets banned it's proof that it did something right. That book reflected us back upon ourselves so precisely or poignantly or offensively that it caused some close-minded person somewhere to be so completely overwhelmed and afraid of the reality of human experience that they tried to keep it away from everyone else. For the common good, of course. I believe being banned means a writer did something spectacular.

As Oscar Wilde wrote in The Picture of Dorian Gray, “The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame."

Rabid anti-book-banner/hopeful-future-banned-author that I am, I can see where this is debatable where children are concerned. Though I don't have any kids of my own, I understand the desire to keep children sheltered and safe, even if it’s played out in seemingly irrational ways.

And I can, at least, speak to my own experience. My parents wouldn't have been able to keep me away from any book even if they tried (which they didn't). As a result, my reading habits were basically feral. And yes, this meant I read The Prince of Tides when I was 12 and certainly too young to process such a mature story (though it became and remains one of my favorite books). It also meant I spent a whole summer devouring the entire V.C. Andrews oeuvre, and another summer swapping romance novels with my stepsister, and another summer hiding under the covers with some very dark horror stories that still creep me out to this day.

I was (and still am) drawn to those sorts of books - the stories that highlight the best and worst of humanity, the more extreme the better. Back then, I was trying to grow up, trying to get a grasp on the world and my place in it. I had emotions and moods in excess, as most teenagers do. And what I needed were books that reflected what I was feeling - anger and elation and depression and first love, the heights of joy and the depths of isolation and everything in between. I needed to know that I wasn’t alone, and that's what books gave me.

I feel like I’m still growing up, in fact, and I still sometimes need that sort of mirror to know that I’m not alone.

So that's why I react so badly when people try to tell teenagers, on the cusp of adulthood, what they can and can't read. Again, I suppose I can understand individual parents making entertainment decisions for their own children based on their family culture (though if those parents think they can protect their kids from every scary thing in the world, they're sadly mistaken), but I will never understand trying to take a book away from every teenager. I can't fathom the hubris of setting yourself up as a judge and jury for what is appropriate for everyone at any age.

Personally, I doubt anyone was made into a well-rounded and empathetic adult while covered in bubble-wrap and rainbows. I believe that being an adult, being a human, means recognizing the world is often a horribly dark and unfair place, filled with lots of people who think and do things differently than you. Trying to keep those facts out of the hands of teenagers, who need the truth in order to grow up, is one of the most counter-productive things I can imagine a society doing to its young people.

My next book, Faking Faith, is about a girl who becomes fascinated with a fundamentalist culture that has eliminated virtually all choices. After screwing up and going through some terrible experiences, Dylan wonders if this sheltered world where everyone follows a defined, protected and rigid path might have the answers. However, nothing is as it seems and Dylan is forced to confront some hard truths about life, and to grow up a lot as a result. If Faking Faith helps one reader feel less alone in the world, then I’ve done my job as a writer.

But if it gets banned somewhere, I’m throwing a party.

Author Bites - Josie Bloss on Bad Romance

Lately there's been some strong opinions voiced in the YA book blogosphere about romance in young adult literature. Both sides are equally strong and I've even voiced my opinion on my writing blog. So the timing is excellent for author, Josie Bloss, to stop by and talk about her book, Albatross, which showcases such a bad romance in a more realistic light than the more romanticized books are wont to do. So without further ado, here's Josie! Thanks so much for stopping by, Josie! (I also made a mistake in my contest reminder last night. My contest for Albatross ends tonight at midnight, EST!)

I wrote Albatross in part because I was tired of reading books in which a dude exhibited manipulative and emotionally abusive behavior that for some reason was considered romantic. Since I had personally fought my way out of a bad relationship, I was very sensitive to this romanticizing of controlling behavior. It made me angry, and deeply concerned with the messages these books were giving about what was okay in relationships. Because if a guy really loves you you he'll...disable your car? Tell you who you're allowed to hang out with? Call you weak and clumsy and insist that he needs to keep tabs on you 24/7 to make sure you don't hurt yourself? Stalk you?

Let me tell you all, as someone who has been through something similar in the real world, it's NOT romantic or hot. It doesn't make you feel loved and special. It's scary and painful and, if/when you escape (which for many people is a herculean effort), it can take years to get your head screwed back on straight and to convince yourself you did the right thing.

Albatross is also a story about obsession, and the unhealthy and counter-intuitive things that people will do when they are obsessed with a controlling person. My main character, Tess, is lonely after moving to a new town, and still reeling from escaping her hostile father. She becomes entranced by Micah, an alluring and brilliant boy who seems to understand her as no one else ever has. And though Micah eventually shows his true colors - plays her hot and cold, belittles her, tells her he's in love with someone else, keeps her constantly guessing - Tess feels helpless under his spell and is unable let him go.

I knew I would eventually hear frustrated comments about the story. "I don't understand why Tess didn't just stand up for herself! Why didn't she kick Micah to the curb after ten pages? He's obviously a terrible person!" I get that disgust, I really do. It sucks to watch someone make bad choices. In fact, it's downright unpleasant. Albatross was a hard book to write for that reason. So many times I wanted to reach into the story and give Tess a good shake and yell at her to give up on this jackass, that she deserved so much better

But even if I could do that, she wouldn't have believed me right away. And I had to stick with what I knew was true because I had lived it. The truth is that some people don't have that innate confidence in their own self-worth which allows them to instantly dismiss manipulative and angry guys like Micah. Some people can't stand up for themselves right away when they're being treated badly by someone they care about. Some people are even convinced they deserve the bad treatment, because that is what they're used to and they don't know how to demand anything else. (Or, more horribly, they think that's what love is.) Some people need time and help to realize they deserve better.

My hope is that readers can find a way to look at someone with a screwed up definition of love, someone who is hurting, someone like Tess, with empathy.

If you're lucky enough not to have been in a bad relationship, if you roll your eyes and can't understand why someone would realistically act the way that Tess does, well...when you see a friend going through it (and if you haven't already, you probably will someday), I hope that you can react with compassion. That you don't get angry and judgmental at her weakness, but that you try and understand why she is allowing herself to stay in a bad situation.

In Albatross, Tess does eventually find her strength and inner-badass and realize she deserves better than Micah, but it takes time and a lot of patient, quiet support from her mom and her friends. Maybe you can be that support to someone you know who is going through the same thing. And we can all work toward a healthier definition of romance, one love story at a time.

Albatross by Josie Bloss + Contest!

Published February 1, 2010.

Everyone at Tess's new school warns her that Micah is bad news - a heartbreaker. And a girl named Daisy is acting like she owns him. Still, Tess can't ignore her attraction to this brooding, brilliant, friendless emo-guy who can turn on the charm - or heart-shredding scorn - at a moment's notice. Starting over in a new town after her parents' split isn't easy for Tess, and Micah feels like her first real connection. But then their bond suddenly feels like shackles.

Caught in an obsessive triangle of jealousy and codependence, can Tess learn to break away and find herself again? (book blurb)

Here is what the press release that came with the book had to say about this title:

Despite pop culture's obsession with brooding, supernatural antiheroes like Edward Cullen, one of the most common critiques of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series is the unhealthy relationship between Bella and Edward - that Edward is a bully and Bella is a doormat. Yet teen girls thrive on this unbalanced relationship dynamic. Perhaps this is because they so rarely find an alternative in the literature of today.

As a response to this trend, young adult novelist Josie Bloss penned Albatross (Flux, February). A complete departure from her previous, lighthearted Band Geek books, Albatross is a dark and tense story of codependency and psychological abuse in teen relationships. The distinguishing element is that the ultimate message is one of hope, but not without some truly distressing poor decisions made on the part of the protagonist.

I have never read a release about a book that was so accurate it could have knocked a fly off of a cliff from 3 miles away. This book is everything Twilight needs to be. I read through this one in a day (would have been a sitting had I not had to work), I couldn't get enough of it, probably because I saw a lot of myself in the protagonist. While I didn't come from the same type of family situation save for the divorce (my dad is nowhere near a prick like Tess's is), I was of a similar temperament in high school. I dated guys that weren't good for me, that treated me like crap but I was so desperate for the attention that I took it and asked what I was doing wrong when something completely out of my control happened. It was eerie and at points I was actually nauseous, it hit that close to home.

It's funny how when you see such a prick of a character like Micah from a third person perspective, it really easy to see how much of an asshole he really is. And holy shit is he ever. But standing in Tess's shoes, and I can see myself doing this at her age, you eat it up. You want this unattainable person. Don't you always want what you can't have? He keeps himself distanced from Tess, taunting her, teasing her and leaving her wanting to come back for more. But while the secondary characters (mainly Tess's friends) say that Micah destroys any girls he touches, I think he just has a knack for attracting vulnerable girls. Or they're drawn to him, either way. Because they're so vulnerable (like Tess having to deal with a divorce and a schmuck for a father), and they're vying for attention, what he gives them, they take.

You can clearly see the Bella and Edward dynamic in Tess and Micah and I really hope anyone that reads this book that loved Twilight and loved Bedward's relationship will see how it really is and how destructive it is. It's easier to match symptoms when you have something to match them against. Being in it you may be blind to it but relating with Tess and seeing what she's going through, maybe it'll help some girls escape a destructive relationship that's been romanticized by current YA fiction.

The writing is simple yet poignant. It tells the story in Tess's words and how only she would see it. It hurts to be inside her head when she's struggling with her feelings for Micah. It'll make you want to shout at the book to drop him. You'll be right along with her inner voice telling her to run away and you'll get disgruntled when she caves yet again. The story rips at you and, hopefully, will make you evaluate your relationships a little more thoroughly. Is that guy of yours pushing and pulling at you? Maybe it's time to drop him. The parallels between Tess and her mother are scary but disturbingly true so many times yet so many fall to repeating history on a subconscious level.

The ending is very Lifetime movie but not sickly sweet. It's positive without being sappy and leaves you with a good feeling that everything will work itself out. There isn't a prince that saves Tess's day. Only Tess did that and that just reiterated the overwhelmingly powerful message this book has. No one else can get you out of it except you. You need the strength to do it. You just need to listen to that inner voice of yours.

I absolutely loved this book. If you're looking for an antithesis of Twilight, you will too.

Contest Time!!!

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