Lord of the Fly Fest (Review)

Information:

• Author: Goldy Moldavsky
• Genre: Humor, Contemporary, Thriller
• Page Count: 320
• Year Published: 2022

Read This if You Like:

• Lord of the Flies retellings (especially if you hated the original)
• Deserted islands
• True crime podcasts as part of a story
• Celebrities with secrets
• Cheesy meta-humor
• Unlikable characters
• Plot Twists
• Satire

Spoiler Free Summary:

Rafi Francisco has just arrived at Fly Fest, which is supposedly the biggest, most exclusive events of the year, hosted on a mysterious island. Rafi might be an outsider at the festival, but that won’t stop her from achieving her goal: meeting River Stone, a popular singer who rose to fame after his girlfriend mysteriously disappeared. And exposing River as the killer Rafi knows he is, then gaining a few thousand more followers for her true crime podcast. But soon the festival turns out to not be the exciting, glamorous event that was promised- none of the big name celebrities that were promised are appearing, the food is atrocious, and there’s no wifi. And that’s before people start disappearing and further disaster emerges as the influencers go to desperate measures to survive. And soon Rafi discovers the secrets that River and the other celebrities are holding.

Review/Opinions:

This is one of the only books I’ve ever read where I have no idea what my opinion is. On one hand, this book was among the cheesiest books I’ve ever seen. This felt exactly like one of those bad 80s parody films that eventually becomes a cult classic- in this case, it’s an extreme Lord of the Flies parody. But on the other hand? I secretly loved this.

I’m going to start by discussing the characters, which is one of the most divisive parts of the book. Honestly, the only likable character is Rafi, because she’s the “outsider” character who isn’t as rich or popular as everyone else on the island. Every other character is a bratty social media star who is constantly complaining about how they weren’t given the luxury that they deserved on the island. I seriously don’t get why many YA authors think the way to appeal to teenagers is to write about social media and influencers. Because are those the type of books that actually go viral? No. I feel like it’s a stereotype that doesn’t need to exist. That doesn’t mean that every character other than Rafi is unlikable- River ended up being quite developed, even as a potential murderer, and some of the side characters learn their lesson about how annoying they are. But in my opinion, the best characters were Paul and Ryan, because every scene with them was hilarious.

The book’s survival story and mystery is surprisingly good. There was plenty of suspense, especially when characters started to go missing and secrets were revealed. However, the mystery is another factor that falls victim to how bizarre the book is. The truth about River’s girlfriend and what happened to her is a twist you will never guess… because it’s so ridiculous. Yep, the secret is so absurd that you will never even think of it as a possibility throughout the story and then you will be gasping in shock when it’s revealed. Trust me. Anyway, another part of the mystery I liked was that there was a true-crime podcast in the story, which is a trope that has been emerging in YA recently due to books like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, but it’s a trope that I think worked well in this book because it gave us a better perspective into Rafi’s thoughts about the mystery, especially because most of the book is in third person perspective.

There were also plenty of references to the original Lord of the Flies story in it. Lord of the Flies is one of my least favorite books, mostly because the entire cast is male characters and the ending was too abrupt and satisfying for a book about human evil. And most YA books that claim to be a LOTF retelling turn out to be a more “original” survival stories with not much related to LOTF in them. But this book had plenty of references to the original story in it, including but not limited to the face paint, the beast, and many others. And most of the characters names even reference LOTF characters- Rafi is this book’s version of Ralph, Peggy is representing Piggy, and Jack… his name is the same as the LOTF character. But I’m not revealing his true agenda. I will note that this book has way less violence and is less bleak than the original LOTF, especially because it’s meant to be more humorous.

Above everything else, this book is mainly satire about the influence of social media and fame. Reading the summary and the first few chapters, it’s obvious that this book is inspired by the real-life disaster that was Fyre Fest, with a Lord of the Flies inspired survival plot thrown in. And this satire also is the main cause of the bratty characters and how desperate they become to return to their perfect lives (leading to a thing relating to makeup that was so disgusting that I’ll never get out of my head.) This also leads to most of the book’s amazing bad humor. There’s also a bunch of pop culture references, but one thing I found weird was that the book discussed Banana Republic and the boy band O-Town with their real life names, but they had a character based off of a real-life supermodel (though I’m not saying which one) where they made up a parody name. This is probably because the celebrity played a much bigger role in the story while the other brands were simply referenced, and it was easier to make up a fake name then risk being caught with copyright infringement, but it still was a weird inconsistancy.

Overall, your opinion on this book will be based on your personal preference. If you don’t like social media obsession in YA or bad humor, pass on this one. But if you want a new guilty pleasure, a so-bad-it’s-good type of read, or just want to see how Lord of the Flies would be like in modern times, I highly suggest reading this. The author does have a few other YA thrillers (including one called Kill the Boy Band that’s about exactly what it sounds like), which I may read due to the fact I secretly loved this book. (Also I apologize for how much longer this review ended up being compared to my other ones, I just had a lot to say. I promise that I’m done now. Have a good day.)