Review: Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu

Title: Life by Committee
Author: Corey Ann Haydu
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release date: May 13th 2014
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

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?

It has been a very long time since I had read a story where I didn´t like the main character ( for the first three parts of the book), and that I thought that some of her decisions were dumb, had mixed feelings about it, but that strangely I enjoyed the book; because that happened to me with Life by Committee. Tabitha´s story is engrossing and I just couldn´t put it down even though I tried some times because some of her decisions....but I just could not stop reading.

The main character of Life by Committee is Tabitha, a 16-year-old, that recently was shun by her best friends, they say she had changed because she wears too much makeup and wears more revealing clothes; so now Tabitha hangs out with her new and only friend, Elise a girl with whom she occasionally hangs out at school, but is not the same as with her former best friends, so at night she chats with Joe, a guy who has known all his life, but recently began to show interest in her and she's starting to have feelings for him and apparently the feeling is mutual, the only problem is that he has a girlfriend and it does not seem that he will break up with her ​​soon.

So when she comes upon a website called Life by Committee, on which your identity is anonymous and it has a rule that you must say a secret and in return you´ll receive a task that you must complete in less than 24 hours if you want remain a member and also to keep your secret is safe, so she immediately joins and start sharing her secrets and receives support from several people (anonymous people) and Tabitha begins to feel that in Life by Committee members she has found  out new friends and people that understand her ..... until the tasks start to get out of control and she´s no longer sure what to do with such tasks.

What really upset me about Tabitha is that she´s having feelings for Joe, whom has a girlfriend and keeps making excuses to not break up with his girlfriend, but it's obvious he wants more with Tabitha and she allows him to play her! and she spends her time studying everything about Joe, every move, word and touch ... and gladly accept the crumbs of love that he gives her. Such as:

"And maybe the avoiding eye contact is supposed to let me know that he´s not interested, but it does the exact opposite. All I gather from the lack of eye contact is how scared he is. And how sad at the prospect of losing me."

And while he goes out on a date with his girlfriend at the place where she works and her family owns.

"He´s in a collared white shirt and a thick blue sweater and it´s so handsome and unlikely on him, I have to wonder if maybe it´s for me."

It really bother me a lot her attitude, but it was a little sad to see her needing someone, anyone´s approval and/or affection.

But what kept me captivated was the part about the website for Life Committee, this part of the story is very interesting. And the plot has some unexpected twists and turns and I liked that last part of the book because Tabitha grew up a little and I liked the ending.