This is a new author for me so I didn't really know what to expect. The scenario in this book is every social media guru's worst nightmare.. You're at the top of your game and one message can see it all unraveling, what follows is a downward spiral, a fruitless exercise in damage limitation and a desperate attempt to keep afloat. The writing keeps you hooked, you feel EVERYTHING the protagonist does. You despair, you cringe and you have some sympathy but all the while you're not entirely sure where your sympathy should really lie. Who is telling the truth? Who is behind it all? Very clever and very current.

Louise O’Neill’s sixth novel - her third for adults - is an intense and timely character study of one Samantha Miller. Miller is in her early forties, thin, blonde and beautiful, with a wellness empire and millions of adoring fans. We meet her at the height of her fame - reading an extract from her new book to a crowd of acolytes - only for things to change with an email from Samantha’s former best friend, Lisa, has accused Samantha of sexual assault. Seeking to defuse the situation, Samantha travels to her former hometown, only for things to unravel very, very quickly.
An early review of O’Neill’s debut has always stayed with me, that the author “writes with a scalpel”. Six books in, and this is still true - the cool, clean style of O’Neill’s writing allows for a dissection of so many societal issues, as well as the psyche of a deeply toxic individual. No element of Influencer/Wellness culture is left unexplored by O’Neill in Idol, and she also returns to her recurring big issues - self esteem, eating disorders, and sexual trauma.

If that sounds intense, it’s because it really is - but I don't think anyone comes to O’Neill for an easy ride. Her books are always compulsive and readable while still being food for thought. It’s a tricky balancing act to pull off but in Idol she does so with aplomb. That said - I did find Idol slightly overstuffed, with certain issues slightly crammed in . The central entanglement of Samantha, Lisa, and Lisa’s husband Josh, was spicy enough without adding layers of other, difficult topics on top of that.

Samantha herself is a deeply enigmatic, magnetic character, and as our point-of-view character, a deeply unreliable narrator. I found myself completely drawn in by her - like millions of others in the novel, to be fair! - questioning how bad a person she truly was, and if she could trust anyone around her. Samantha is broken but unbowed by “her truth”, years of trauma caused by family, friends and relationships, and interactions with those who she claimed hurt her add a delicious frisson of tension to the novel. The climax of the novel had me racing through it’s pages, when it’s revealed that Samantha had fooled me along with millions of others. Reading Idol is an uneasy experience that forces you to look at how you view online relationships and ultimately, how gullible you are as a person. O’Neill is at her best when her YA beginnings are on show, in splashy, dark and compelling character studies - I think this is her best work since her classic Asking For It, and it has left my skin crawling in similar ways.

This was an exciting read and grasped my attention from the get go. Samantha is a guru/influencer/idol with millions of fans which she calls her 'girls'.
Samantha one day speaks her truth, and discusses her sexual experience with one of her friends. Her friend remembers this in a very different light.
A very interested, well thought and balanced novel about the issues and the darkness which comes with social media.

I really enjoyed this and it was very different to what I'd been expecting. A real twist, and an original storyline. Keeps you interested to the end.

An addictive unique read. This was a great story about a social media star who writes a story about a night she had with a friend. Years later this friend contacts her to say the night they had together she remembers very differently. It was interesting to see the aspect of ‘should we believe everything we read online. This book is brilliant, really well written, with a great story which kept me interested from the beginning.

I enjoyed this book however its clear that the roots of the authors writing skills are firmly based in young adult fiction.
I am aware that this world of influencing exists and how it all works but the childishness/shallowness of it all really shines though in this novel.
All the characters in this book were pretty loathsome - mostly living lives built on childhood resentment for various reasons - it was hard to have any sympathy for any of them - and that includes the girl we are meant to feel sorry for - Lisa.
It was a book that was well paced however and it could have fallen into a very repetitive circle of cause and effect but it managed to avoid that and rattled along at a good pace. The ending however was signalled early on so no great surprises.
Great cover though and it certainly is a timely novel with the increasing influence of instagram/youtube etc
I can't tell you how glad I am I have grown up in a time when these things did not exist.

This book had me hooked from the moment Sam, a world-renowned influencer and wellness guru, received some unexpected and troubling news from her agent. I was absolutely drawn into second guessing Sam’s plight and I changed my opinion about most of the characters in this book again and again. I would say this book is a fairly accurate depiction of the twisted world of social media influence and cancel culture and the author highlights the extremes in pretty stark detail! Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with where Sam is and how she got there so you have to suspend disbelief a little, but I was fascinated, gripped and saddened in equal measure, right until the end.

I absolutely tore through this book. There's nothing that grabs me more than a messy, female unreliable narrator. And Louise O'Neill's Samantha Miller definitely delivers that.

With echoes of Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects, this book had me completely gripped as I delved deeper into Sam's past and weighed it against her present trying to separate the fiction from the fact.

Idol also gets bonus points for taking a *much* needed side swipe at female social influencers who place themselves on a pedestal and use their power to peddle dubious health and wellbeing goodies to their captive teenage audience.

I'm always sceptical of the gurus who spout their wisdom and am never sure if it's bases on sound evidence or science. This book sheds a light on that showing how the recollection of a childhood and what actually happened can differ and it can shape a persons life - and when the truth comes out it can destroy you.

A good read and one which makes you think.

Very much a book of the day. The topic is a bit hard to use as a vehicle to write a book around. #metoo dimes it all up.

An intriguing MeToo book that looks at Instagram-influencer culture and toxic female relationships. This was a complex and compelling read.
Our protagonist is a famous influencer whose has written a memoir recalling a sexual experience she had once with her best friend in high school. But her world is shook when this friend emails her saying that she didn’t consent to this experience...
We alternate with flashbacks to their teenage years as different versions of the past are recalled. This was a brilliant read. It took awhile to get into it. The protagonist is unlikeable. But things come together in the end in such a brilliant way. It was gold. What a twist!

There's an interesting yin yang in my feelings about Idol - written by an author who in her previous novels, especially Asking For It, has always challenged my world views and had me thinking long into the night about the narrative she has presented. Her journalistic articles too are deep and affecting.

On the one hand Idol is a page turner. Watching the fall of an Internet sensation after an allegation of sexual assault and her desperate attempts to rewrite the past, to the point of obsession, is in many ways wildly entertaining. You don't want to stop reading until you find out how it ends even though it's perfectly obvious from the outset that there won't be any real surprises in this she said she said story.

On the other hand I felt this was more, and I'm reaching for the right word here, sensationalist? Sam reaches almost stupendous caricature status as the story progresses, while her accuser, the childhood best friend, is almost a cardboard cut out, slinking around in the shadows, never really offering the reader any grasp of her realities. Even the final "confrontation" is shouty and honestly a bit shallow when comparing it to the depth of writing I've come to expect from this author. I didn't feel sorry for any of them frankly, and the final " twist" - I use that description for lack of a better one rather than inferring a typical psych thriller twist - was a bit of a flail in the darkness.

I did enjoy it, it has some interesting insights into those trials by social media we see all the time - and I read it over a couple of sittings it was gripping. But it didn't challenge me in the same way and I likely won't return to it in my head now I'm done.

I thought Idol well-written. It describes the event when uber-successful influencer Sam’s world starts to come crashing down when old friend Lisa describes their liaison of long-ago non-consensual.

Lisa, as suburban mother, wants little to do with Sam and her hyper-online world of social media, and is reluctant to help when Sam returns to their hometown to try to resolve the situation, although the attempts serve only to reopen previously closed wounds.

Idol explores a number of themes. The first explores what it means to be front and centre as a social media influencer with a massive following. Beyond that, it looks at the role of authenticity in connecting with those followings, and how fickle they can be. Lastly it looks at memories and how they get shaped to suit people’s lives and narratives.

Samantha Miller is idolised by millions of women. She is inspirational and gives her fans everything they need. To them, she is an open book and she is happy to share her darkest days with them. When she writes an article about a night she has long remembered, spent with her childhood best friend, Lisa, she opens a can of worms she struggles to close. Lisa doesn’t remember the night in the same way and her revelations threaten to ruin Samantha.

Louise O’Neill has no fear when it comes to writing about difficult subjects and she addresses women sexually assaulting another with ease. This book puts intense female friendships and the toxicities of fame under a harsh spotlight. This book is an extremely uncomfortable read but so good. From the first chapter I was completely hooked and couldn’t put it down.

Sam is an interesting character. She appears to have always got her own way and as the book progresses, you lose sight of what is is fact and what is fiction in her life.

When she returns to her home town to try and salvage her career, her old school friends don’t view her in the same way she thought they would. The relationship between Sam, Lisa and Josh is intense and excruciating at the same time.

The ending blew my mind! You come away questioning whether anything is actually true or not in your lives. It highlights our everyone views events to suit their own beliefs.

An utterly brilliant examination of the fine line between truth and deceit.

Good enjoyable read. Not my usual type of book. Very relevant to today's society and topical issues. Storyline relevant and interesting, characters well described but sometimes difficult to like.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Random House UK for an Arc in exchange for an honest opinion

How to even begin reviewing this book! I could not put it down, staying up late into the night desperate to uncover the truth of what really happened. This book discusses so many interesting and important themes, and touches on them so well. This author certainly knows how to hit at the tough topics, and she's not afraid to bring out the scalpel where needed. This story tackles sexuality, consent, cancel culture, mental health and so much more. This is such an addictive read and possibly my favourite of her work yet, it'll take you on a while ride and have you questioning a lot of things about yourself and what you believe

Samantha Miller is an influence with a massive following of young women, "my Girls" ,who see her as a mentor and empowerment Guru. Samantha guides her young fans through life by baring her own so they can learn by her mistakes, telling them of the traumatic episodes she's suffered so they can hopefully avoid making the same mistakes themselves. With 3 million women hanging on her every word Samantha is a celebrity who mixes with the stars and has even had her life story made into a movie.
In one of her books Samantha details an intimate experience she shared with her former best friend Lisa after the other girl's 18th birthday party, over 20 years ago. Lisa contacts her for the first time in decades to say that far from intimate the events of that night were an assault.
As rumours spread like wildfire on social media Samantha's image.....and following,begins to crumble and she takes a journey back to her hometown.......and the past.
It turns out that the incident isn't the only issue where Samantha' has different memories to events in her teenage years to others.
This book is a psychological roller-coaster as the reader tries to discover who is the "real" Samantha and decide if she's the victim or a predator. the social media "Wellness Queen" or a basket case living a lie.
Louise O'Neil specialises in getting inside the head of her characters and often that's a very dark place. There are some very complex relationships in this book,it's a bout friendship,manipulation,lies,secrets,damaged people and so much more.
A very powerful read that will make you think and will stay in your mind long after you've finished it.

Idol is O’Neill’s third adult novel, following Almost Love and After the Silence and two YA novels Only Ever Yours and Asking For It. Idol continues O’Neill’s exploration of troubled femininity navigating contemporary image-obsessed culture. It’s a quick read with some thought-provoking moments but lacking the bite and depth of her superb YA novels.

Thankyou for giving me the chance to read in advance. Very relevant and apt for todays times and although not My usual read I was able to read until the end due to the relevance.

Set in the modern age of obsession with celebrity and social media, Idol grips you from the beginning. Samantha Miller, a celebrity/health guru/social influencer, is flawless on the surface but a scandal sees her desperately try to salvage her reputation as she travels back to her home town. Moving between the past and modern day, the reader is taken on a journey, where along with the Samantha, they must work out what really happened at her best friend’s 18th birthday party. What I loved about this book was how, even though it is written from Sam’s point of view, the characters, and particularly the dialogue, are so well written that you can see vulnerability and motive in all the key characters. I liked how the book moves back in time to slowly reveal events that not only explore Sam’s complicated relationship with her high school circle, but also with her current team and followers who serve her need to be accepted. Idol is a captivating, modern thriller that will have you guessing right up until the very end.