OFF THE RECORD By Camryn Garrett

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Off the Record by Camryn Garrett
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on 5/18/21
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 307
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Ever since seventeen-year-old Josie Wright can remember, writing has been her identity, the thing that grounds her when everything else is a garbage fire. So when she wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she's equal parts excited and scared, but also ready. She's got this.

Soon Josie is jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with sparkly celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. Josie's world is expanding so rapidly, she doesn't know whether she's flying or falling. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, the answer is clear: she's in over her head.

One woman's account leads to another and another. Josie wants to expose the man responsible, but she's reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. What if she lets down the women who have entrusted her with their stories? What if this ends her writing career before it even begins? There are so many reasons not to go ahead, but if Josie doesn't step up, who will?

Short and Sweet Review

Josie wants to be a writer, writing is basically her identity. When Josie wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine she’s nervous and excited. Josie and her sister, Alice, set off on a multi-city tour. Josie meets celebrities, but the main focus of her article is Marius Canet an up and coming actor. But her mission for one profile ends up on the back burner after learning an actress has dealt with sexual assault at the hands of a director. More actresses start telling Josie their story, Josie knows that this is important but this story could also end the writing career that is just beginning.

Josie is our main character and she was okay, I’m sure she was written to be relatable, she’s a plus size girl, all for black inclusion, and she likes speaking out about topics that are important to her. My thing about Josie is that even though she was written to be relatable I found myself annoyed with her. Josie’s romantic interest is Marius and he’s obviously smaller than her in the weight department and he likes Josie but Josie will ruin the moment talking about how she could crush him and how he couldn’t like someone like her because she’s fat. Anyway it felt like Josie was way more interested in a relationship with Marius than writing her profile about him. Josie is also approached by an actress named Penny who tells her about a director who has sexual harassed her and others. Josie tells Penny she’ll help by writing an article to expose this director. Things start to get complicated because she believes Marius doesn’t care and the director threatens to sue. I also mentioned Alice, Josie’s sister, she’s on this trip as a chaperone and I feel that she was more level headed than Josie. Josie and Alice fought a lot and that’s normal between siblings but Josie would take everything to heart.

I could see the direction that this book was going in, and how important it is to help victims but Josie made loving this book hard. This book just didn’t meet my expectations.