I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review – as always, thanks so much to Netgalley for sending this to me!

In a world where 75% of kids aged 6-17 have expressed a desire to do Youtube as a chosen career, YA novels about influencers are on the rise – and after the influx of contemporaries, we’re starting to delve into darker territory. In this team-up between NYT Bestselling author Sara Shephard and teenage actor and Instagram sensation Lilia Buckingham (who, I’ll confess, I’d never personally heard of,) the world of influencers turns murderous as a young Youtube star is murdered, sending ripples throughout her social circle as the spotlight falls on the friends who may or may not have been involved in her death.

It took me a little while to get immersed in this book. The beginning was clunky, and there are a lot of characters to keep track of. In addition to the four POV characters, whose voices were very similar and ran together a lot in my head – each character has an entourage of friends, boyfriends, staff members, assistants, family and siblings to keep track of, all of whom are supposed to be important but didn’t stick in my mind. I didn’t feel a particular connection to any of the characters, aside from Jasmine, which made it hard to sympathise with them. They also felt a bit surface-level – for a book about influencers, we don’t get to know the girls very well at all, or get any kind of insight into their work aside from their involvement with other brands. The content we see is all very generic lifestyle-vlogging stuff, with no indication of how these very ordinary, girl-next-door type of girls have built this huge following.

That being said, when the book hit its stride in the middle, I did start to feel intrigued. I was rapidly turning the pages, eager to find out what was going to happen. It took us a while to get to the interesting stuff, but when we did, the book really did fly by. It was one of those compulsive page-turners, and I was surprised by how compelled I was to come back to it. The muddled middle is a common stumbling block for most novelists, so it was great to see someone who’d pulled it off so well and really made it work. The excitement was building, I had so many questions, and I was really immersed in the story.

The end of this book, however, is a bit of a mess. It feels like the author is a sub-par magician at a kids’ party, pulling dozens of different coloured scarves out of thin air and desperately waving them at you in the hope that at least one of them will catch your interest. “She did it! No, he did it! Aha, gotcha – actually, THEY did it!” The first few times this was interesting, but there are only so many red herrings you can throw in before it starts to get a bit excessive, and by the final reveal I was rolling my eyes because there had been so many false alarms that a lot of the suspense had been lost.

Although it’s most noticeable at the end, I feel this is true of the entire book: it tries to be entirely too clever. It’s made very clear that we can’t trust anyone or anything. Our assumptions are proven incorrect, new information is revealed that cancels out everything that came before it, and it seems like there isn’t a single plot point or character that isn’t turned on its head to reveal a new perspective. Of course, it’s good to have a lot of twists and turns in a thriller to keep you on your toes, but after a while I just wished we could go in a straight line for five minutes. It would help if all of these twists had been properly set up, but a lot of them didn’t feel like they’d been foreshadowed enough, so they just came out of nowhere and felt inauthentic.

To top it all off, the book ends with several chapters of exposition about what all the surviving characters are doing next, and a very irritating hint that yet again, things may not be as they seem. This final ‘twist’ really rubbed me up the wrong way, because by that point I just wanted an answer and to have things wrapped up, not to be teased with one last, deeply implausible plot twist that we never get a solid answer about. I felt like the authors were trying too hard to shock the reader, so they added a million tiny plot twists instead of one really strong one. In the end it weakened the whole book and left me with a huge sense of dissatisfaction at the end.

I didn’t have a terrible time reading this book – the writing style was fine, it was well-paced and I really did enjoy the middle, but I can’t get over the ending. I feel like if it had been tightened up, streamlined to remove some of the unnecessary side characters and red herrings whilst spending more time focusing on the more important players, it could have been a way stronger novel. Overall, I’d give it a solid 3 stars.

So, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Influence, since I didn't think I was keen on a social media soap opera. However, I was totally blown away by what turned out to be a thrilling drama about the dangers of the internet and sharing your life with strangers.

The plot was totally engrossing, with twists and turns and so much drama I couldn't put it down! The mystery was brilliant and kept me guessing right to the end. I completely loved the book!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Influence gives me Gossip Girl vibes with an updated twist for the social media era and I'm absolutely here for it!

If you loved the Gossip Girl series this book is the one for you!


Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

The thing with this book is that I could really see where it was going. I thought the premise is very up to date and modern and I think this book would be very influential for younger readers, especially with the social media climate.

What did I like?
1. I liked all of the characters. I think Delilah was my favourite but I had a soft spot for Fiona too. I think each girls stories were interesting and very interwoven.
2. The writing was good and I actually enjoyed the structure of the story. At first I wasn’t sure but it worked well in the end. I think the concept behind the story and the mystery element really carried this book.
3. I think the message behind this book was strong but the execution wasn’t all there. I could painfully see what our authors were trying to do but it just fell flat in some places where you could literally highlight such good learning moments.
I think overall this book had a lot of potential and it is definitely a good book to focus on for younger teen readers. I liked the mystery element and the reveal was well done.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Deepest gratitude to Little, Brown Book Group for providing me access to this book. Influence follows the seemingly glamorous, instagram-able perfect lives of a group of teen social media stars. Delilah known as Lila D who is more of an up and coming star. Jasmine, a child star who is haunted by her image as Lulu C and just can’t seem to get away from the persona and Fiona, an actress with OCD.

This book shows the dark side of social media and reinforces the idea that people aren’t honest online,that they are living a double life - their off camera, unfiltered life isn’t as flashy and glamorous as it seems. These people have problems too yet they are idealised

This was an ok read. It was interesting to read more about the Influencer lifestyle and how it all seems to work.

However, the characters weren't very likeable and the big whodunnit was disappointing. I would recommend this if you enjoy easy books to read

This is a young YA book about a group of “influencers” in LA. It’s a quick soapy fun read. Thank you to NetGalley for access to this book.