Sadly, I didn’t love this one… ‘Influenced’ by Anna Whitehouse focuses on main character Alexandra, who feels like she is falling apart, having recently lost her job, and feeling well on the way to losing her husband’s respect and her daughter’s love. As a modern twist, the novel explores how the validation coming from “likes” on her online posts are the only joy in her life.

While the premise had a lot of potential, the characters in the novel were all very frustrating - including Alexandra herself - which made the book feel like a slog to finish. While I appreciated the trajectory of Alexandra’s role as a mother and relationship with her daughter, I truly HATED her husband and didn’t engage well with the stalking storyline.

I’m giving this three stars overall, and feel like it has similar vibes to books by Holly Bourne and Emma Gannon. I received an advance Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher Orion Publishing Group via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

What it feels like:
- Messy unlikeable character with themes very current particularly as they relate to online culture

What to expect:
- A book that doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of life/a person and that shows the different dimensions to each human beings
- A book that does have an online focus but also is more about the MC’s real life against that and what led her online

What hit hard:
- While I thought the first chapter in the workplace was quite dramatic, as someone who works in a male dominated field while I found it very stereotypical I did relate to some of the one liners.
- I thought Alexandra’s menopause and the impact of this on her was really interesting to read about and definitely needs more rep within literature.
- I do really like Whitehouse’s writing style and find it really engaging and pacey which is exactly what you need from a book like this.

What didn’t quite work for me (so might be worth keeping in mind):
- I usually love unlikeable characters and usually find the smallest way to ‘redeem’ them in my mind and urge them to grow but in this one I just found Alexandra a little too unlikely in a way that made me wonder if it was actually deliberate or not.
- I thought the way things played out were a bit disappointing to be honest, it was a little bit too convenient how things went and it just pulled me out of the story, against the backdrop of what I think was meant to be a ‘real, flawed’ character it just seemed a bit jarring.
- I think I went into this expecting a lot more internet drama but that was more my expectation that a problem with the books, I went into it expecting something quite punchy with twists relating to online and it didn’t give that

You’ll love this if you love:
- Unlikeable characters
- Menopause representation
- An engaging pacey read
- A neat ending


My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC .

This one’s sharp, emotional, and painfully relatable. Alexandra’s life is crumbling offline, but online she’s thriving or so it seems. When everything falls apart, she turns to the only place she feels seen: her digital community.

A modern story for women who feel unseen and unhappy - and are gaslit into feeling invisible and unworthy. I don't know that I was necessarily the audience for this, similarly, I think the cover, pull quote and the title don't necessarily reflect the story within. Thank you for the chance to read this book.

Honestly, I struggled at the beginning of Influenced. The character isn't immediately likable but after the stranger kindness, the book turned around for me and I really enjoyed the ending.

This wasn’t really what I was expecting honestly. I wanted more of the social media and online world plot but just a lot of feminist man hating stuff. It was okay, took me a while to get through as I wasn’t drawn to pick it back up.

The good: representation.

I am all for stories about middle age women protagonists and plots that refer to the experience of menopause. I think that, perhaps accidentally, certain choices and behaviours of Alexandra that seem illogical could actually be connected to the state of mind quite frequently observed in menopausal individuals.

The good: how Alexandra's marriage story was handled and written.

This actually positively surprised me. Won't add more to avoid posting spoilers.

The bad: pretty much everything else but mostly the psychological aspect, I guess.

Alexandra isn't a sympathetic character. She spends her time on the online forums/groups in which bashing influencers is the favourite pastime. She doesn't know how to build and maintain actual relationships with people, it's mentioned a few times that she finds friendships challenging. The thing is, and as readers we know it, Alexandra is looking for connection in all the wrong places. When she finally gets an opportunity for a corrective experience (the retreat) it's great but simply not realistic to justify the character progression. It's also quite a dangerous trope in literature that may inspire some readers to think that a big change can only come from one strong corrective encounter (well, most likely it won't. Change requires more work).

The relationship with the daughter as a plot line is also under-explored, considering the events unfolding there quite early in the book.

It's a fairly quick read but quite hard when it comes to suspension of disbelief.

Alex was a flawed, complex and interesting character. I did find her quite frustrating at times but also quite fascinating. The book dragged a little for me at times but definitely picked up in the second half. A fairly easy read with a few laugh out loud moments.

I’m not sure I was quite the right target audience for this book but I went with it anyway!

Alex has been made redundant from the job that she has slogged away at for years and years without much recognition at all. She feels that this is grossly unfair and at the beginning I was inclined to agree with her. But when I learnt of all the little reasons that added up to her being asked to leave, I wasn’t surprised. Alex’s personal life is also struggling. She practically hates her husband and her relationship with her teenage daughter is challenging. Alex feels that she was destined for more than this, and seeks out support from the online world.

She gets sucked into the social media politics and her actions online were borderline cyber bullying I thought!! She was harassing people, but not really realising that that’s what she was doing. Ultimately, Alex was hard to like, although I do understand some of her frustrations. I can see where the author was going with this however Alex came across as though the world owed herself and that she felt she was better than everyone else, and I think it made her hard to relate to, even though some of the things she was experiencing and thinking were relatable.

The overall tone of the book was quite down, dreary and tbh, a little bit depressing 🙈 it did perk up towards the end and the ending was hopeful and light. Alex’s moments of self reflection finally came to fruition and she ultimately saw the error of her ways.

An easy enough to read book, but also lacking in lots of ways I thought.

I’m conflicted on this book, because it was way less about the dangers and drama of internet fame than about a woman’s internal conflict. I wouldn’t mind this at all except that it was not what I was looking for and it was not, to be honest, that engaging. I’ll admit I was bored for most of this and barely finished, but I think some people really would like this if they were looking for something more a character study and less an engaging plot.

I really loved the first half of Influenced. Alex’s self-delusions were fantastically written-her belief that she’s a victim in every situation, her inflated sense of intelligence, and her complete inability to see how much of her situation is self-inflicted made her a difficult but fascinating character. Her obsession with influencer Gen was compelling, especially as it grew in intensity.

The portrayal of Alex, a 49-year-old woman who has lost her job, is disconnected from her husband and teenage daughter, and has no friends- felt genuine. . Her online fixation fills the void where real connection should be, but Gen, the influencer and therapist she latches onto, can’t live up to Alex’s expectations.

While Alex likely does experience some sexism and ageism at work, it’s clear those aren’t the reasons for her dismissal. Many of her problems come from her own misjudgments, but she just can’t see it.

Although the ending wrapped up a bit too neatly for everything that had happened, I found this a very engaging and gripping read.

like Anna Whitehouse’s writing style and enjoyed her previous book so I was looking forward to reading Influenced.
Overall I enjoyed it but I think some of the plot lines and decisions made by Alex, our main character, were at times frustrating and at other times too convenient in order to progress the plot.
There are some interesting insights into middle age, long term relationships, friendships, the effect of social media and lots more

Influenced is a tale for the modern woman; Alex's personal life isn't rewarding, her daughter seems to detest her and when her work falls apart, she finds herself online searching for the dopamine she craves.

This isn't quite the book I thought it would be! At the beginning, I found Alex's character quite hard to like- she seems bitter and as the reader it was easy to see the cracks she couldn't. However, as the plot went on, I think the novel delved into something a lot deeper - online behaviour and how that affects so many people. It's an interesting read and it was both engaging and believable. It is positive at the end and onewe could probably all take something away from!

If you read Whitehouse's previous novel, you'll enjoy this one too.

This book was not entirely the book that I expected to read.

The tagline is - “Her Life Was Perfect..Now She Wants Revenge”

Our main character Alexandra (Mostly called Alex), loses her job at the very start of the book - which is not a spoiler it’s on the blurb, and she realises how alone she is, estranged from her husband and daughter even though they live in the same home. Alex, instead of trying to reach out to them, escapes online, a place where she seeks for the comfort and camaraderie she is missing in her own life.

The blurb basically outlines the above, but goes on to say “Until, one day everything changes. And she’ll do everything in her power to put it right…”

This sounded intriguing to me, I wondered what could have happened online? Did she do or say something to get someone cancelled or into trouble? Something we hear more and more about lately, around the dark side of social media.

However, having read the book, I’m a little unclear as to what this “one day” was. Instead I felt that there was a steady culmination of events and experiences that we see Alex go through, all of which lead to her working towards making changes in her life and of those around her. So not quite the dark tale I was expecting, but an interesting one nonetheless.

Alex as a main character is a tricky one, and hard to root for. At first glance she seemed to have few redeeming qualities; she's self-centred, conceited, entitled to name but a few - but then she would have these sudden sparks of self awareness sporadically to keep you hopeful. I think it was largely this hope that kept me reading. I couldn’t help but wonder, is she really this oblivious or is she trying to convince herself that she’s right?

Some of Alex’s actions are a bit unhinged in my view and I just felt pained and embarrassed for her. Then there is a shift - and I’m not going to spoil it but for me the shift was a definite relief! This book at times made me feel quite tense. I can empathise with some of Alex’s experiences being a Mum myself, but I definitely do not want to follow her example…at least not early Alex. It’s an uncomfortable but interesting read about a time of a woman’s life that I haven’t personally seen too much written about before

On a lighter note, there are some genuinely funny lines in there, one in particular involving crystals and wind chimes stands out! These were usually unexpected and used sparingly, it’s not really the overall tone of the book but these little moments of levity were a welcome change of tone when they popped up.

Overall I don’t think this book is necessarily for everyone.I think it is an interesting read, but if the tale of a not terribly pleasant near 50 year old woman’s journey of self discovery and borderline mid/life crisis doesn’t sound appealing then probably best to stay clear!

Alex is losing everything. and most of all, her identities.
Influenced started off as an engaging, witty commentary on modern life, from a fresh angle of women going through menopause and all the under appreciation, sexism, ageism.
Overall, plot, characterisation, and execution were all 3 stars for me.
The writing is interesting, some of the themes are important.
I was personally less interested in the poetry/the social media aspects.

Forty-nine-year-old Alex has lost her job, and her relationship with husband Iain and teenage daughter Emmy is increasingly strained - almost non-existent, at times. She has no friends.

Into the space where real connection should be comes an increasing obsession with the online world, and particularly with Instagram influencer Gen, a therapist and mother. Alex believes they're friends, but Gen can't live up to her expectations.

Alex is a difficult character. She's suffering, but she's hard to like, although we can sympathise with her at times. In her mind, she's a victim of everyone, seeing slights everywhere, but many of her woes are at least partly self-inflicted. (She probably does experience sexism and ageism at work, but that's not why she's fired.) She considers herself highly intelligent - and she clearly is intelligent, but many of her actions are wildly misjudged, and she just can't see it.

As things escalate, is there any way back for Alex?

This was a very engaging read - it perhaps ended a little too neatly, given everything that had gone down, but I enjoyed it a lot.

This is definitely the age of influencers and good or bad it is such a presence right now. It even is beating celebrities at the moment. If you find that world fascinating than you will most certainly enjoy Influenced by Anna Whitehorse. This novel was relatable and had me gripping the edge of my seat. Highly entertaining