The Cracked Mirror of Social Media ("What I'm Reading Wednesday")

"What I'm Reading Wednesday"...
Let’s talk about honesty for a minute. How truthful are you, in general… say, with your significant other, your closest friends, or maybe your immediate family? Chances are—provided they’re good relationships—you’re pretty darn forthcoming.

Now, take away that level of intimacy, and think about other people you see regularly—co-workers, relatives you don’t feel close to, casual acquaintances. They probably know a whole lot less about you, right?

Finally, let’s pull waaaay back, and look at how the rest of the world sees you. Not complete strangers—people you’ve never had any reason to meet and interact with aren’t going to have any opinions about you whatsoever. No, I mean your friends (or “friends”) and followers on social media. (Look, you’re here reading this online, which means you’re not a Luddite. So, unless you hate everyone or are in Witness Protection, let’s assume you’re at least a little bit active in some kind of social media, ok?)  

Anyway, how about it… how much truth do you share with those people? Do you post details about the huge blowup you just had with your s.o., for all your Facebook friends to see? Tweet that your boss is an utter dick (and how you really, truly wouldn’t be sorry to hear he just got ran over by a transit bus)? Instagram a snapshot of the now-empty quart container of Chunky Monkey you just polished off in one sitting? In other words, do you share the Bad Stuff?

Bet you don’t… or at least, not much of it. Why? Because most of us want to portray a happier facade than that. We want people to think highly of us, and maybe even to feel a teensy bit envious of how “good” our lives are. Yeah, there are exceptions, of course. We all know the Facebook equivalent of the drunk who’s always crying in his beer, or the drama queen desperately seeking daily or weekly support. In general, though, most of us keep the worst of the bad, sad, depressing, and really hard personal stuff away from social media--which is good (privacy concerns and all), but which also serves to only tell pieces and parts of our stories.

(I know what you’re thinking… “Wait, isn’t this ‘What I’m Reading Wednesday’? Where the eff is the book, GlamKitty?” Patience, Grasshoppers… we’re just about there.)


I’m not going to say that Minka Kent’s debut thriller, The Memory Watcher, is brilliant or that it plumbs uncharted territory; it isn’t, and it doesn’t. What I can say, however, is that it's an undeniably-entertaining entry in what I’ll call the recent “Girl With Secrets” sub-genre, and definitely worth a read. 

Told via the alternating POVs of a pair of young women—Autumn, a Single Gal With Secrets, and Daphne, a Married Gal With Secrets—The Memory Watcher is, in part, a study in how the “normal” and “not-so-normal” among us use social media. (To wit, Daphne updates her “Instaface” account daily with images of her oh-so-happy-and-perfect family of mommy, daddy, and three small children… which Autumn rabidly follows, in secret, all day, every day.) Is it creepy? Absolutely. (Creepier still if you've got any "friends" on your social media sites who follow you that closely... which I do.)

Where things get trickier shouldn’t come as any real surprise (although some parts do); not only is Daphne’s life anything but perfect—with a problem child, a philandering spouse, and a general air of discontent at home—she’s also living a secret life, on the side. Autumn, meanwhile, finagles her way not only into living in Daphne-and-family’s neighborhood, but manages to swing a job as their new in-home nanny. (Again, über-creepy.)

What follows is a good deal of unraveling (because, psychological thriller, duh) and a few little surprises which you may or may not see coming (but I'm not about to spoil them here). 

It’s all unquestionably a bit pulpy, but The Memory Watcher is a consistently-disturbing ride throughout… one that will--if nothing else--probably have you rethinking a few public posts you might’ve been tempted to make. 


~GlamKitty

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