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.

The year is 1998: Titanic just won six Oscars, boy bands are dominating MTV’s airwaves, and like any other teenager Jess Flynn is just trying to survive high school. Between a crush on her childhood best friend, overprotective parents, and her sister’s worsening health, the only constant is her hometown of Swickley, which feels smaller by the day.

Jess is resigned to her small-town life, until the day she discovers a mysterious device with an apple logo, causing her to question everything and everyone she’s ever known. As more cracks appear in Jess’s world, she faces a choice: can she live the rest of her life knowing it’s a lie, or should she risk everything for the truth?

Short and Sweet Review

It’s 1998 and Jess is trying to survive high school and live her best life. Jess hangs out with her best friend, has a crush on a boy, is worried about her sister’s health, and has overprotective parents. At school Jess sees a strange device with an apple logo on it and she begins questioning everything and everyone around her.

This Is Not the Jess Show, was a pretty entertaining book. Jess lives on a TV set and she doesn’t even know it, but when she finds the apple phone she starts asking questions, and someone finally admits the truth to her. Jess knows that she can’t let people know she’s on to them so she tries to keep calm. Jess eventually escapes with Kipp another actor and in the real world Jess realizes that everything she thought she knew was actually made up for the show. It’s not 1998 its actually 2037 and that just throws everything off. Even though Jess makes it off the set, that’s half the battle. She and Kipp still have to find some way to avoid being detected and find a safe place to stay.

I liked that Jess had to run from everything she thought she knew and that people were still searching for her. I felt bad for Jess, she didn’t even know what kind of life she was living, and that millions of people would tune in to see her. This was like a game of cat and mouse and I just really wanted Jess to succeed. I’m excited to read the second book and see how some unanswered questions are answered and how Jess wraps everything up.