Undiscovered Scotland

 

Four teens, all with different reasons for standing outside the circle of peer group acceptance, forge an unlikely friendship when they each suffer at the hands of online media. They hatch a plan to show people that what they read on the Internet isn't always the truth; in fact, it's often far from it. They go on to launch their own news site, with stories that, though untrue, they are able to spin so that they seem utterly believable. This is the basis for C.J. Dunford’s charming coming of age novel, "Fake News".

The four always intend to come clean and reveal their site to be a hoax, but events overtake them, and initial success goes to their heads, leading them to plan an even bigger deception. Suddenly the public interest is huge, and they find themselves flushed with success, but fearful of the implications of their actions.

In a story where aliens make an appearance, and the youngest member of the team has his own, separate, conflicting, motive for success, it is no surprise that the group find themselves drawn into a world of spies and espionage. In fact, it would be disappointing, given all that has gone before, if they didn't!

C.J. Dunford brings together a charming list of characters that the reader cannot help but want to champion. They each have traits that mark them out as different and there are cameos, built into the storyline, that enable the reader to get inside their heads. We learn what they are going through, see how it affects them and gain a deeper understanding of their lives and aspirations. "Fake News" takes a slightly irreverent, but in no way disparaging, look at life through the eyes of teenagers who could be, or could have been, any one of us.