Review: Life By Committee by Corey Ann Haydu

Book Title: Life By Committee

Author: Corey Ann Haydu

Release Date: May 13th, 2014

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository 

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Some secrets are too good to keep. 

Tabitha might be the only girl in the history of the world who actually gets less popular when she gets hot. But her so-called friends say she’s changed, and they’ve dropped her flat. 

Now Tab has no one to tell about the best and worst thing that has ever happened to her: Joe, who spills his most intimate secrets to her in their nightly online chats. Joe, whose touch is so electric, it makes Tab wonder if she could survive an actual kiss. Joe, who has Tabitha brimming with the restless energy of falling in love. Joe, who is someone else’s boyfriend.

Just when Tab is afraid she’ll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she finds Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe. 

Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and go further than she’d ever go on her own.

But in the name of truth and bravery, how far is too far to go?

Disclaimer: I received this e-ARC from Katherine Tegen Books via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

Review:

This book was addicting. It was like chocolate in the sense that I had to have it and one chapter was never enough for me. The main character, Tabitha went through a lot of crap and while she made some questionable choices, I could tell she was trying to hard to regain some part of her old life. Loneliness can be very difficult to deal with and it's even worse when all of your friends turn against you, even going as far as to call you a slut and other such awful names.

When loneliness really sets in, people often find themselves turning to an online community. These can give you a sense of belonging and I think it definitely did that for Tabitha. She felt welcomed in that community. Life By Committee allowed her to share her secrets, but she always had an assignment attached to it. It was usually something designed to face the secret head on.

Tabitha's family was pretty interesting. They had been teen parents when she was born so they had sort of all grown up together and her parents were more like her older siblings than her parents. Her mom tried to instill some sort of parenting thing, but that may have been due to the fact that she was expecting again and she wanted to do it "right" this time around. Her dad seemed more relaxed, and that had more to do with his increasing levels of pot use.

My favorite bits involved Tabitha with her copies of old books that had writing in it. I really don't like to write in my books, but I have done it and I loved that she had a well worn copy of The Secret Garden. Really made me want to read the book again.

The love interest was a creep and I really didn't understand why Tabitha was so obsessed with him. My feelings about him definitely did not change throughout the entire book. However, there was another boy who made me excited and I hoped Tabitha would notice him.

I enjoyed this book more than I initially thought I would. However, I really was hoping for more character development, especially for the secondary characters. I don't feel like I knew all of the characters as well as I wanted to. So that really disappointed me. I will be giving this book 4 stars, and I will continue to read anything Corey writes because I freaking LOVE her. I would still recommend this book to people because I think so many teenagers feel that loneliness and they need to know they aren't alone.