Here’s to the Ladies who Launch:: A Review of Jenny Mollen’s City of Likes

Here’s to the Ladies who Launch! Okay, yes, that’s from Sondheim’s Company, and I can’t believe I’m using a musical reference to start this review, but that’s where we are.

Meg and her husband recently moved their young family to New York (from LA) in order for him to take a good job at an exclusive club in town. Meg is friendless, and jobless. She wants to go back into copywriting, but it’s hard to find just the right job. She’s not a right coast kind of girl. However, when she’s given an opportunity to work on a new bath bomb line–but they want to pay her partially, and at the end of the quarter, and contingent upon certain this. She lands Deidre as a spokesperson after a quick meeting at the hottest pool in town. Deidre starts talking with her about Instagram and takes Meg under her wing to Pretty soon, Meg is more interested in likes and followers than the very things that made her the Meg her friends and loved ones recognize. But are they holding her back from her awesomeness, or do they really have a point?
Jenny Mollen takes readers on a wild ride through Social Media and the dangers of the perfect lives the platforms seem to show.

This was my first Jenny Mollen book, and I enjoyed it, but I also felt like it was easy to determine the twist much earlier on–within the first quarter of the book. I appreciate that Mollen is familiar with Social Media, and knows a lot about the Influencer life. But I also think that this book could have used a bit more conflict as it related to within Meg’s head. Things seemed very Single White Female, and I know that she mentions that in the book, but it was really, REALLY accurate. It’s definitely summer reading length, and feels like the kind of book that many will choose for their book club or as a readalong with a friend.

I will warn you, however, that it made me really think about my Instagram usage, and the things that I don’t put on social media. It definitely shows the dark side of the filtered, perfect lives so many like to portray on various platforms.