Looking for Aurora

Aurora Kutti has the life that countless teenagers scroll past and quietly covet. A successful influencer with a flood of followers, invitations to glamorous events and a steady stream of freebies, she seems, from the outside, to have it all. She lives in Ireland with her gamer brother and her parents, her mum doubling as her manager and the architect of her carefully curated public image. But behind the filters, Aurora is struggling. Some scary online deception has gone unaddressed (she feels), she has no real friends to speak of, and she has lost any clear sense of who she actually is. When her mum announces that their family life is about to become even more public, it proves to be one step too far.

The territory Zainab Boladale is exploring here is genuinely important. The gap between an influencer’s polished online presence and the lonelier, messier reality behind it is something many young readers will recognise, and the novel deserves credit for taking it seriously. Aurora’s predicament, trapped in a persona constructed by those around her, is a timely one, and the emotional core of the book, a teenager searching for authenticity in a world that rewards performance, is sympathetic and relevant.

The novel is highly accessible, and Boladale has a good feel for the texture of teenage life online and off. Readers who enjoy detailed descriptions of clothes, make-up and the social rituals of teen influencer culture will find plenty to enjoy here, and the Irish setting gives the story a distinctive flavour that is welcome.

Where the book is less successful is in the depth of its execution. The characters, Aurora included, do not always develop beyond their initial outlines, and the plot moves through its beats a little predictably, rarely pausing long enough to let the more interesting emotional questions breathe. The resolution arrives without fully earning the weight it is asked to carry.

That said, for readers who are drawn to stories about identity, online life and the cost of living publicly, Looking for Aurora offers an engaging and comfortable read. Boladale is clearly a writer with something to say, and there is enough warmth and accessibility here to make this a perfectly solid addition to a school or library shelf.