Literary Coffee

Going Viral by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc

---

Three out of Five Magical Coffee Cups

I found this book at my school’s Scholastic Book Fair. Got to love those book fairs!

This is a story during lockdown.  I love that we are getting more of these.  Some people want to avoid the lockdown as much as possible, but I like reading about how others handled being stuck inside.  What was it like for people in a big city? Also, I would be lying if I said I never thought about what it would be like to write a fantastic story that went viral. I would probably freak out and avoid the internet for months.  I am very aware of the traffic this blog sees. I like sharing my thoughts, but I know there may be three people reading all the way through my reviews!

Claire is bored during the lockdown, so she starts writing about what she sees on her fire escape—a young lady across the alley. She writes a story about ‘Clarissa’ and the girl across the fire escape. The more posts she writes, the more views and comments she gets. She has gone viral!

I was annoyed by a few things Claire did, but at the same time, she is a teenager. I’m an adult; I should have a different mindset than a high schooler. It was odd that Claire could write all these posts but not have much conversation with anyone else. I felt terrible for her but simultaneously really annoyed with her, and I wished she would take some time to speak her mind at some point! Some of her texts to her girlfriend were simply “okay.” I know she is a teenager; I will give her some grace.

I would love to eventually have students who were either very young or not even born during the lockdown read this book and discuss how they would handle the lockdown.  I enjoyed how different characters dealt with the lockdown. Some were very productive, some were stressed, some were bored. I liked the lockdown aspect of the book more so than the love story.