Review: How Far She’s Come

I received a copy of How Far She’s Come from William Morrow publishing company through TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, let me say, TLC Book Tours provides consistently good novels that often tackle timely events of our history. How Far She’s Come is novelist Holly Brown’s response to the #metoo movement.

I thought this book was really interesting in the premise! A young media exposée gets the job offer of a lifetime, and enters into the world of TV journalism in today’s 2018 post-Weinstein society. This book’s genre falls somewhere between the women’s fiction genre and thriller/mystery.

The main character is 24 year old Cheyenne Florian. Cheyenne is this beautiful girl who is plucked from rural Montana to become a new fresh face for Independent News Network (INN). Cheyenne’s “selfies” to her longterm boyfriend are leaked across the internet after she publishes a contentious blog piece. The leak draws the attention of INN, and Cheyenne is flown to New York. Slowly, she gets sucked in to INN, and I found myself wondering if this was going to be a repeat of Eggers’ The Circle. Instead, the book focuses on the difficulties that women face in the workplace.

The story definitely uses its thrill and mystery to entice the reader to flip pages. I read How Far She’s Come fairly quickly, and was looking forward to the big reveal. One of my favorite movies out there is 2016’s Miss Sloane, and they certainly seemed similar. Working in a fast-paced environment, these fiery women are fighting for what they believe in. But unfortunately, the novel’s ending fell a little flat at the end for me. The comeuppance wasn’t enough, especially since one crucial character gets off “scott free”. Simultaneously, I was conflicted because the book honestly felt a bit too much like a coached lesson in #feminism.

I would say, if you are angry, confused, or frustrated with current events, this book might be a good selection for you.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About How Far She’s Come

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• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (May 22, 2018)

From the highly acclaimed author of Don’t Try to Find Me and This is Not Over comes the unforgettable, harrowing story of a young broadcast journalist who discovers a mysterious diary from a female broadcaster in 1991 featuring startling—and frightening—parallels to her own life.

You might be wondering what a diary from 1991 has to do with you. You’re about to find out. Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it…

Twenty-four-year-old Cheyenne Florian has just received her dream job offer. On the strength of a few vlogs, she’s recruited to be the new correspondent on the recently hatched Independent News Network, INN.

With the slogan “Because independent thinking is the only way out,” INN has branded itself as innovative. Yet once Cheyenne joins the INN team, she finds age-old dynamics in play. Some of the female staff resent her meteoric rise, while a number of the men are only too happy to welcome her. Then there’s the diary left for her anonymously, written in 1991 by a female broadcaster named Elyse Rohrbach. The mysterious diary is accompanied by a note, urging Cheyenne to learn from the past. She wants to believe it’s intended as inspiration and friendly advice, or at most, a warning. But as disturbing—and increasingly dangerous—parallels begin to emerge, she starts to wonder if something more sinister is at work.

It’s almost as if someone is engineering the similarities in Cheyenne’s life to match those from Elyse’s past, like she’s a pawn in a very twisted game. But Cheyenne is determined to rewrite the rules and play her own game. Though they’re separated by more than twenty-five years, Elyse and Cheyenne are forced to learn the same lesson: Nothing is more threatening than a woman who doesn’t yet know her own power…

About Holly Brown

Holly Brown

Holly Brown lives with her husband and toddler daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she’s a practicing marriage and family therapist. She is the author of the novel Don’t Try to Find Me, and her blog, “Bonding Time,” is featured on the mental health website PsychCentral.com.

Find out more about Holly on her website, and connect with her on Facebook.

Photo by Yanina Gotsulsky