[REVIEW] Lord of Fly Fest – by Goldie Moldavsky

The premise and cover both caught my eye for this YA novel. Before we proceed, let’s take a look at the provided synopsis:

“To get her true crime podcast on the map, Rafi Francisco needs a splashy case. Her plan? Land an interview with Fly Fest headliner River Stone, who rose to stardom after his girlfriend’s mysterious disappearance—and expose him as the killer she’s sure he is. But Fly Fest, the dreamy Caribbean getaway they were promised turns out to be a nightmare. Soon, Rafi is fighting for her life against power-hungry beauty gurus and spotty WiFi. And, as she gets closer to River, she discovers that his secrets might have even bigger consequences than she suspected.”

Unfortunately, I think my age has something to do with my disinterest in this story as the chapters passed me by. The characters really irked me. They were insufferable drama queens and robots, and I get that was part of the point — surrounding our MC with unlikeable “influencers”, which are people definitely have trouble connecting with and understanding — but I still hated the constant interactions with these people from the very first time. I also didn’t feel very interested in the MC, though she had her promising traits. The idea of the podcast was one of my draws to this book. But alas, the characters and all the “vibes” and “influencer” content made me unhappy in my reading. 3/5

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