“It’s not about the $200, which I could most definitely use. It’s the principle.”
Psychological warfare heats up on the Internet in author Holly Brown’s thriller, THIS IS NOT OVER (William Morrow).
Thirty-year old Dawn Thiebold grew up poor in a lousy Northern California town. She’s about to graduate from college and is married to a guy who gives her pretty much whatever she wants, but that’s not enough. They live in a rundown apartment luckily in the best part of the city and her sometimes too perfect husband takes her on long weekends to luxurious rentals, where she makes believe she’s rich.
Dawn belongs to Getaway.com, an online rental site and finds a perfect beach house in Santa Monica. After a less than perfect vacay, she receives a letter from her host, Miranda telling her she’s keeping half of Dawn’s deposit because she found a “stain” on the sheets. This hits a nerve with Dawn, who immediately wants to lash out and find out just who this Miranda woman thinks she is.
Dawn looks into Miranda, finds out she owns two homes, one in Beverly Hills, she’s married to a doctor and obviously wealthy. This doesn’t sit right with Dawn who feels as if she’s being ripped off and that her host is stealing from her. After less than civil email exchanges, in which Miranda insinuates she’s better and cleaner than Dawn, Dawn is ready to take this Internet fight to a new level. She leaves a scathing review on Getaway.com about Miranda’s rental.
This is not over.
Miranda Feldt is well off , but despite the image she projects, her life is far from perfect. Miranda is dealing with her son, Thad who is a drug addict and a husband who has cut him off, after repeated chances for Thad to get clean. He makes it known that Miranda is not to have contact with Thad in any way, but Miranda is a classic enabler, and living a secret. She uses the money she makes from renting out the Santa Monica house, which her father left to her, to financially support and stay in contact with Thad. When the negative review posts, Miranda’s revenue is in jeopardy.
This is far from over.
The tension increases, exchanges on the Internet and text messages continue to escalate until finally Dawn and Miranda have their day of reckoning.
Brown’s novel captures how social media has changed the entire landscape of communicating; the projections, misperceptions and how it can embolden writer to lash out behind by the veil of anonymity.
The novel is written with alternating narratives between Dawn and Miranda. You can feel the tension and anger rising, but there were also sections while reading that I felt the fighting had gone on too long. Enough already, ladies. The prose was repetitive and needed an editor’s eye.
THIS IS NOT OVER is coming out at a highly relevant time. Personally, the novel made me revisit how much information I have made accessible on the Internet and perhaps, I need to take a moment and breathe before sending that next email or text. A good rule of thumb is responding, rather than reacting.
Holly Brown lives with her husband and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she’s a practicing marriage and family therapist. Her blog, “Bonding Time”, is featured on Psychcentral.com, a mental health website with 1.5 million visitors per month. For more, visit hollybrownbooks.com.
We have one copy of THIS IS NOT OVER to giveaway. Just tell us if you’ve ever gotten into a nasty exchange via the web or text-messaging. We’ll announce a winner next Monday, the 23rd.
USA only, please.
Never happened but it will b terrible as people can share your responses so easily when they r via email.
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No, I have never gotten into a nasty fight. I have one person say very nasty things about me which were not true and the only thing I did later on, is say that there is two sides to a story.
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Never got into a nasty exchange
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My sister-in-law tried to a few years ago, I told her social media was not the place to air our disagreement.
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Thankfully, that has not happened to me.
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It’s too easy via text. …you just refuse to text. No fun in that. Would be way to easy to do on fb or somewhere. I avoid it every time………. so far.
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It’s too easy to misunderstand someone’s tone through text or email..if someone has an issue..call the person or talk in person. I have had someone try to start through text, but my rule is to talk in person if there is an issue!
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I haven’t sent anything that is nasty, just comments on behavior and attitude.
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Oh yes… I was an admin on a web page with a team of women and one male. The male started the page but then delegated all the conflict resolution to us women.
Wrong, he acted just like a hysterical woman. He would back stab one member to another and when confronted, he would deny everything. Well,, as you can imagine this eventually blew up. However,I was the one everyone started YELLING at in the post and comments. It did kind of scare me as do you ever really know where a person truly lives, are they who they truly say they are? I ended up leaving the group, unfriending and blocking them all on my Facebook, and eventually had to change my phone number due to harassing texts and phone calls.
My cousin’s daughter was killed in a car wreck that started when her passenger and another woman got into a Facebook fight over a guy that was in jail.
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It would be easy and painless to do that but I avoid that type of communication.
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I have never been “bashed” on social media. I try to avoid controversial subject matter.
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Never, I’ve wanted too but I’ve held back because words can be forgiven but not forgotten!
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I’ve never had this happen. I try to keep my opinions to myself lol!
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I try not to. If someone says something offensive publicly, I will try to talk to them via email. I think my children have tried arguing by text, but I will end up calling them.
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No, I haven’t before.
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No although there have been times where I have wanted to send a nasty email.
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I was in a FB group. There were about 5 admins. We did get in a heated discussion between the 5. One said something mean about my close friend. She didn’t realize the friend could read the post. So needless to say, I’m no longer in the group or friends with that person. My usual rule of thumb is to not put my disagreements in writing. They can. E saved and may bite you in the a**!!
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I got into once with a guy who tried to “judge my Christianity.” It infuriated me but did challenge me to review what I believe.
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I have been lucky so far as never to have received a nasty exchange.
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I learned long ago never to say anything I don’t want to hear repeated or write anything I don’t want to see reprinted. Not to say I’ve never been firm or let it be known that I was upset, but after a point you just need to talk.
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no
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Aa far as I remember, it was during a breakup when the bad text messages were exchanged.
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