Was very excited to get an early copy of this book as I loved Only Ever Yours and The Surface Breaks! I find Louise O’Neill’s style very compelling and yet again she did not disappoint! This is such a timely and current book with references to the pandemic, pop culture, and the politics of the digital age. However, it’s also deeply rooted in 90s nostalgia and longing for an idealised childhood which never existed. The book should definitely come with some trigger warnings, eating disorders, sexual assault, and drug addiction to name a few. Louise O’Neill really is an expert at crafting the unreliable narrator though and you can never be quite sure which characters to like or to trust. The book reads very much like a thriller with lots of twists which I didn’t see coming and a frustratingly wicked ending! O’Neill excellently critiques influencer and cancel culture and even brings into question what truth is, whether we can trust even our own memories, and displays the disasterous consequences of idolising celebrities in the way we do. I would thorougly recommend Idol to anyone who spends time online as it provides a very interesting insight into the kinds of situations we regularly see playing out on social media.

This was an incredibly original story with a fresh take (to me at least) on memory, trauma and friendships.

I really enjoyed the story, the social media elements and where it went.

I didn’t fall in love with any of the characters in particular but it did manage to grip me the whole way through.

The ending packed a punch and I almost could have done with me, now I want to know what’s next!

Samantha Miller is a social medica influencer with a legion of dedicated young fans devoted to her teachings on how to live their lives and honour their ‘truth’.

When she publishes an article about a sexual experience with her female best friend, Lisa, as a teenager, she is shocked when Lisa contacts her to say that her recollections of that night are very different.

With one woman’s word against the other, the article goes viral and Sam’s career and hard work begin to crumble.

In Idol, Louise O’Neill highlights the difficulties of getting to the ‘real truth’ in the he said/she said, trial by social media culture we now live in, as well as the negative effects of oversharing your life with internet strangers who then feel that they are entitled to an opinion and are quick to judge.

The story keeps you hooked right to the end, desperate to find out who remembers correctly, what actually happened that night and who is behind the constant leaks to the press (although to be fair that last one was fairly obvious!).

The cast of characters are all largely unlikeable – Sam a self-absorbed bully, Lisa a bit of a bunny boiler, Lisa’s husband jealous and controlling. It’s like a group of high school mean girls who never grew up.

Idol gives a gripping, fast-paced insight into flawed memory, cancel culture and the fake lives social media stars can often present to the world.

How can we know what’s real when everyone has their own ‘truth?’

Highly recommended – a great read for the coming Summer!

If you're the kind of person who doesn't like complicated or unsympathetic characters look away now, but if you're the kind of person who is fascinated by real, messy human beings who lie to themselves, get mixed up in messy codependent relationships and believe their own hype then Idol is the one for you.

Instagram lifestyle guru Sam Miller is at the top of her game, publishing book after book with an army of (mainly young thin white) women who hang on her every post. She adores her 'girls' and they adore her. On the eve of publishing her latest book she writes an online essay about a night of intimacy she spent with one of her best friend in high school. Her former friend, who hasn't spoken to her in years, responds with an accusation that could destroy Sam's career. Sam dashes back to her hometown to try to make amends... and stop the accusation coming out.

What follows is a brilliantly captured tale of secrets and lies which kept me riveted late into the night. The characters are so well written and so perfectly imperfect I enjoyed every page.

While I have a couple of Louise O'Neill titles on my shelf (Only Ever Yours has been waving at me for too long and I WILL pick it up soon) this is my first Adult fiction from the author, and I'm mightily impressed.

Idol tackles influencer culture, the rise and fall of the 'life guru' phenomenon, abuse of power, bullying, sexuality, consent and the Me Too movement, eating disorders, social media and cancel culture, and I'd dare to say narcissism and personality disorders too.

It's not often that I can read a story with a VERY unlikeable main character and still enjoy the story. I caught on early to the true nature of our protagonist, though I don't know if that's down to the writing, or me having spent a few years behind the curtain in YouTube event green rooms. I think it's a timely story in lots of ways, not least of which because of the public fall of a guru or two we've seen in the past couple of years, but also as we navigate this new-ish world of social media and celebrity being so... parasitic to each other?

If Idol were a film I would definitely watch it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is one day.

Memory is a funny thing, we can be so sure of ourselves & our recollections, but what if someone remembers it differently? This is the story of a shared childhood, an influencer in the limelight, how things may not always be as they're portrayed on the internet & a search for the 'truth'?

This was a gripping read, I wasn't sure where the story was going, who was reliable or who to question. The twists were subtle but I ended up querying everything on more than one occasion. I'm not sure I really liked any of the characters but I think the story was better for that for me personally. It allowed me to question everyone & their motives. An interesting read, especially considering the social media aspect.

Brilliantly immersive.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is another unputdownable page turner from Louise O' Neill where she explores the contemporary world of online influencers, who create a narrative that is rarely honest while seemingly enjoying celebrity lifestyles that are carefully curated online for their followers.
Samantha Miller, a small town girl, has risen through the ranks to become a guru advising her one million young women followers how to live their best lives and be happy. Her latest book has topped the best seller charts and she is much in demand for tv shows and public speaking events. She writes an essay detailing a sexual experience she had at eighteen with her friend Lisa, who responds by saying it was not consensual. This proves cataclysmic to her public image and her brand as the essay goes viral. Who is telling the truth or do each of them have their own truth? The same experience or event can often be remembered very differently by two people, so who is correct?
Louise O'Neill is a master storyteller who has created another gripping novel. It's dark and sometimes hard to read, but it's a riveting superb tale and I highly recommend it.

Yo. I do not know how to feel about this book. The bells in my childhood brain started ringing when I saw Louise O'Neill's name, and I wanted to see what an adult reading experience would be.

Throughout the first half of the book, I didn't really feel much of anything. It felt like the main character was simply being dramatic, and frankly highly insensitive and entitled. I really didn't feel compelled to read on. BUT THEN... her status as an unreliable narrator started becoming apparent. And this is when it started to get interesting. I honestly love an unreliable narrator, I think it makes any reading experience much more interesting. You become so much more attuned to details, trying to figure out an internal puzzle that not even the MC may know. So the second half of this, I found much more intricate and appealing.

One of the main letdowns for me was how repetitive the problems for the MC were. The same worries kept being reiterated and the same solutions kept being pushed, so it all felt quite cyclical for a while, without necessarily amounting to much external conflict. It also felt that by internalising a lot of the issues, combined with the unreliability of the narrator, the other characters didn't have much depth and faded into the background a bit - but maybe that was intentional, to reflect the overarching themes and content of the book. There are different ways to think about it, which actually makes it a great one to sit with for a while once you're done.

I would love to reread this with a more critical eye, I think it would be a great one to study closer. I appreciate the attempted social critique, but there were just a couple of points that made it a little tedious for my own tastes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Transworld for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review! #netgalley #idol #transworldpublishers

Best book I have read in a long time. Gripping throughout, with twist and turns all a long and a big one at the end. A real 21st century book, highly recommend it, and so apt for the social media era.

First time to read a Louise O'Neill book. One word excellent. Twists and turns all the way- highlights the constant watch and intrusion of social media and how we portray ourselves S and our lives.

Examining influencer culture, the wellness industry, consent, and abuse of power, Louise O’Neill does not hold back. The main character of this book, Samantha Miller, is a successful woman who earns her living by telling her followers how to live their lives better. After a piece on a sexual experience with her best friend Lisa when they were teenagers her life begins to unravel. Samantha views that night as an intimate moment, Lisa remembers it as something she didn’t consent to.

This is a book that I have been thinking about for a few days since finishing. It is a dark and unflinching novel at times, and it was one that made me feel very uncomfortable at times. I think that this was due to Samantha, someone who reminds me of Alix from “Such a Fun Age.” She is manipulative and selfish, caring only about her career and her reputation. She dismisses the allegations against her almost instantly and tries to force this opinion on everyone else. Lisa is equally as unreliable, and has herself suffered through traumatic experiences. We examine their intense childhood friendship, jealousy, and bitterness. Having two women at the centre of this novel was interesting.

This was a timely novel with its focus on influencer and cancel culture. We see how tenuous it is to be an influencer, and how quickly the world can turn on them. We see how Samantha has shaped her life story so that she stands out from the other wellness influencers. When the allegations are made public we watch how everyone in the background comes out in force to save Samantha’s public image, not because they believe her but because of the money they have invested.


This is a book that will have you gripped from the first page.

This is set in the modern age and you can tell. From the start of the story Samantha Miller who's am author /illsuartour after writing a book. Now the friend has reappeared saying it wasn’t consensual throwing her entire brand into jeopardy. Sam's now fighting to keep herself at the top. This is a very interesting book which changes the gender prevalence of today's society at the moment.

A compelling read which made me think about the role of social media in our lives and the negative impact it has. I also liked what it had to say about how we remember events in different ways

My first book by this author and it won’t be my last! Moving between the past and modern day , this book is a real page-turner from beginning to end. Thank you to the publishers for this early review copy

Wow!

What a page turner, I couldn’t put it down. An influencer who used the internet to build up her fortune, fame and following is destroyed by the very same medium. A story of addiction, sexual abuse, eating disorders, internet trolls, manipulation and an unpredictable and unreliable narrator to boot.

A story set across two timelines as we try to understand ‘the truth’ following a very public allegation made against the celeb, our protagonist. An interesting viewpoint on memories, their reliability (what is ‘the truth?’ when we share a memory together) and the impact of negative public allegations (bullying, sexual and otherwise) on those with the status of ‘celebrity’.

The only downside for me is I already guessed all of the plot twists, hence why I didn’t give it a 5 star review - but wow this book is going to be snapped up by many when it’s published! A really good read.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

i've loved all of louise o'neill's books so far. they've all been so different, dark yet funny, sharp yet filling you with empathy and this one was no different. it takes a very topical topic of the me too movement as well as influencer culture and melds them into a messy chaotic wild ride for the protagonist sam. i found it hard to read at parts, always feeling so strongly for characters and their lives so different from mine, but overall i found it brutal and interesting

On 3rd January 2022 Sam(antha) Miller, best selling author and owner of Shakti, a lifestyle brand, is about to launch her 4th book ‘Chaste’. She has her audience (young, mostly white and female) in the palm of her hand, this is the power of the cult idol with over 3 million social media followers. This is Sam at her peak, literally moments after her speech to her “loves“ the world she has created with all its power and monetary benefits begins to implode. Well, I dare say if you plonk yourself at the top of a brand success pedestal at some point you’ll fall off. Is she a good person? Authentic? Truthful? Only time will tell.

Wow. This is one powerful well written novel. Louise O’Neill is quite some writer as unafraid she tackles a whole host of issues via Sam such as #MeToo and sexual assault, eating disorders and so on. In Sam the author has created a superb character who you view through various different lenses. There is Sam the attention seeker, the messed up, Sam the obsessive, the deluded, the needy and the character who gets what she wants any which way she can. Then there’s the Sam her followers see but then there is the Sam from the past where other characters have an entirely different perception of the truth. This is very much a she said/he said/she said novel and you have no idea who to believe or who is the credible one with much of this being played out on social media (can you hear me groaning?!). She’s not easy to like but she’s very damaged and at times you feel sad then you feel angry at her behaviour and manipulation. The only thing that seems to be true is that if you tell yourself something enough times you will grow to believe it.

There’s tension, it’s uncomfortable, you wince, you groan and it’s quite raw at times with some scenes making you gasp in shock. It’s absolutely gripping as you witness the crash, burn, rise, crash and burn. It’s certainly not a book that is easy to read because it’s so dark but it’s equally impossible to put down. Louise O’Neill has nailed it here with the highly topical and much debated themes of the book.

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld, Bantam Press for that much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

A cool, contemporary psychological thriller that tackles issues of abuse, flawed memories, the darker side of fame and the power of social media to make or break a life.

I knew I was going to love this book just by reading the first page! I love when you automatically get sucked into a great story from the very beginning. The characters really drew you in and you at times didn't know where the story was going to go but then you get a surprise! Excellent novel.