If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich is a powerful look at life in a boyband and the music industry

If This Gets Out is a powerful new novel co-authored by two of our favourite authors Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich, which focuses on two members of a boyband who are secretly in love.

A dream partnership that is actually as book-worthy as If This Gets Out, Cale and Sophie became friends via Twitter in 2014, both newly navigating the world of publishing and sharing a love for writing stories that are fully inclusive. Cale had this cool idea for a story. He shared it with Sophie in 2019 and If This Gets Out was born. (Well a really early version of it, which was actually called Off The Record). Sophie even helped design the cover art work.

Eighteen-year-olds Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are two members of the boy-band Saturday, one of the biggest acts in America. Along with their bandmates, Angel Phan and Jon Braxton, the four are teen heartbreakers in front of the cameras and best friends backstage. But privately, cracks are starting to form: their once-easy rapport is straining under the pressures of fame, and Ruben confides in Zach that he’s feeling smothered by management’s pressure to stay in the closet.

On a whirlwind tour through Europe, with both an unrelenting schedule and minimal supervision, Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more, and their already close friendship evolves into a romance. But when they decide they’re ready to tell their fans and live freely, Zach and Ruben start to truly realize that they will never have the support of their management. How can they hold tight to each other when the whole world seems to want to come between them?

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If This Gets Out is a book you will not be able to put down once you start it. Told through the alternating viewpoints of Ruben and Zach, it’s their story. The story of their relationship. Of them navigating their relationship and in Zach”s case figuring out his own sexuality while being in the US’s biggest, hottest and in-demand boyband “Saturday”.

It’s fast-paced and action-packed and carries an extremely important message as it shines a light on the conditions that many artists within the industry face, especially those who enter the industry at a young age, those that belong to the LGBTQ+ community and otherwise marginalised artists. It shows how overworked they are, they are slowly stripped of all autonomy, their names, who they can and can’t socialise with, what they wear, Every aspect of their lives is controlled and manipulated to maintain a public image, an image that is carefully crafted to appeal to an artist/bands demographic so it maximises sale potential.

Both Ruben and Zach have their own distinct voices, their own issues and struggles with the constraints placed on them by their management team who control every aspect of their lives. The relationship between the band and their management team is best described as toxic.

The management team is headed by band member Jon’s Dad. The relationship between the band and their management is abusive and it’s a well-depicted struggle by Sophie and Cale who have clearly done their research into the topic. As there are sadly many very public cases of the things depicted in the book happening. The exploration of what the control of the bands lives does to Ruben, Zach, Jon and Angel both psychologically and physically at times can be uncomfortable reading but it’s absolutely necessary as it makes you fully understand and emotionally connect with each character. Not just Ruben and Zach but with Jon and Angel as well (who we spent the entire book just wanting to hug).

If This Gets Out is one of the most powerful and necessary reads of this year and a must-read for anyone who has ever been in a love with a boyband or an artist who has suffered at the hands of an industry that must change.

If This Gets Out will be published on E-Book on 7 December.

A physical edition will be released on 6 January 2022.

Published by both Wednesday Books and Hachette Kids, you can pre-order your copy now.

UK/Commonwealth countries:- here.

US:- here.

Let us know if you are as excited for release of the book as we are over on @TBHONEST_UK!

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