The Follower
About this book
Have you ever followed someone or something – in real life or online – without quite knowing where it’s going to lead? If you have, then you’ll know how 17-year-old Joe Best feels when following somebody leads him on an unexpected journey – a journey which turns out to be an inner quest as well as a physical one.To his schoolmates, he’s Ordinary Joe, Joe Average, Joe Bloggs. He’s even come to think of himself as having ‘no distinguishing features’, just like his passport says. He leads an uneventful life at home with his single parent mother and seems to have an equally uninspiring job ahead of him.But when by chance he finds himself recruited into Revival, a group led by self-styled Life Coach, Magnus King, Joe begins to feel that maybe he can become somebody different – somebody with a completely new name. Led by his infatuation with the mysterious Revival member, Zoe, he becomes a follower of Magnus, both in person and on social media. Joe tells us his own story of how this crush on Zoe sees him becoming more and more deeply involved with Revival and more and more enmeshed in the web of lies he spins for his mother.Alongside his quest for what Magnus calls ‘the best version of himself’, Joe also becomes involved in a search for his absent father, despite warnings from his mother. As Revival suddenly begins to take a sinister turn, Joe finds himself trapped inside the group. What has he got himself involved in – a cult, a scam, a dangerous political organisation?There are many twists and turns in the road for Joe as he tries to escape from the clutches of Revival and find his way back to a different kind of family life. But breaking free from the grasp of a rapidly growing movement, as well as coming to terms with some newly-discovered secrets at home, can be harder than he thinks… A dramatic, absorbing and engaging read for teenagers and young adults (ages 13-18).