The novel cleverly exposes some of the risks involved, so to speak, when being mostly reliant on communicating with other people via means of technology instead of meeting with them face to face. Not only does it provide a fascinating moral dilemma on assisted suicide and where the line is and should be drawn but it also perfectly showcases today's Internet consumed society. The premise of Kiss Me First is fantastic. Through many weeks of research and communications via email and Skype, Leila uncovers every last detail about the subject of her project and prepares for the inevitable becoming Tess. Increasingly unhappy she eventually decides that she wants to end her life. However, she doesn't want to hurt her family and friends by having them grief over the loss so instead of abruptly ending it all she allows Leila to take over her online life, pretend Tess is still alive and slowly reduce contact with everyone. Tess is a beautiful, artsy and occasional spiritual woman but she is also flaky, often confused and has depressive and manic phases. Already feeling flattered it then doesn't take much persuasion for Adrian to convince Leila to assist him with 'Project Tess'. Her excellent argumentation and debating skills soon get noticed by site owner Adrian and he invites her to join an elite part of the forum. One day while she's surfing the web she comes across a forum called Red Pill and the rational and intellectual debates on there about a variety of topics strike her interest. Leila prefers to be by herself at home where she can both do her work, she gained employment testing websites through a family friend, and play World of Warcraft throughout the night. She couldn't connect to them when they were all still in school and while they've dutifully added each other as Facebook friends she now rarely sees them and doesn't understand their obsessions with posting 'selfies' to social media outlets. As they email, chat, and Skype, Leila becomes enveloped in the world of Tess, learning every single thing she can about this other woman-because soon, Leila will have to become her. She is beautiful, urbane, witty, and damaged. Tess is a woman Leila might never have met in real life.

Leila is thrilled when Adrian asks to meet her, and is flattered when he invites her to be part of 'Project Tess.' A sheltered young woman raised by her mother, Leila has often struggled to connect with the girls at school but on Red Pill, a chat forum for ethical debate, Leila comes into her own, impressing the website's founder, a brilliant and elusive man named Adrian. My edition: Hardcover, published on 4 July 2013 by Picador, 337 pages.ĭescription: When Leila discovers the website Red Pill, she feels she has finally found people who understand her.

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