Review: Life by Committee

Title: Life by Committee
Author: Corey Ann Haydu
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books
Release Date: May 13, 2014
Source: ARC
Find it Here: Amazon, 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?

My Thoughts:

Life by Committee, which will be released in May, takes in interesting look at how influential the internet can be in teenagers’ lives. Not only does it show the inter-working of female friendships but it also shows just how fragile everything seems when you’re in high school.

Life by Committee follows high school student Tabitha after she has had a huge falling out with her best friends. As a hobby, she likes to collect old, used books, especially those that have notes in the margin so that she can go through and read other people’s thoughts. While reading the margin notes in a used copy of The Secret Garden she comes across a website called Life by Committee. It’s a place where teenagers can share their secrets as long as they agree to complete dares set by the moderator. They are also required to complete one dare a week if they want to continue being members of this group. Before Tabitha knows it, she becomes completely obsessed with Life by Committee and is living her life by secrets and dares; almost all of her decisions are made by the group’s moderator. Nothing good can come when you let other people make important life decisions for you. And most of Tabitha’s dares involves another girl’s boyfriend. If you felt like you had no one left who understands you, would you turn to strangers on the internet? It’s interesting because a lot of people do even though it’s not to this extreme.

I thought Life by Committee was a pretty good contemporary and a pretty quick read. I liked it because it’s not the typical love story and the ending was definitely different.  I really like contemporaries like this: short, quick read, intriguing main characters and a story that wraps up well at the end.  I definitely recommend this book for those who are really into contemporaries.