People to Follow: a gripping social-media thriller

by Olivia Worley

Ten influencers. Ten secrets. One dead body. A pacy, page-turning thriller perfect for fans of We Were Liars, The Inheritance Games and One Of Us Is Lying.

'Agatha Christie meets TikTok . . . a wicked, juicy page-turner' - Alexa Donne, author of Brightly Burning

They're used to being followed. But not like this . . .

Ten social media stars think they're about to join the cast of a hot new reality show.

But the production crew never shows up, and the influencers find themselves stranded on a deserted Caribbean island with no contact with the outside world - except for messages from the mysterious 'Sponsor', who is threatening to expose their darkest secrets.

When one of them winds up dead, things start to get more real than they bargained for . . .

With the body count rising, the influencers must figure out who is trying to get them cancelled - like, literally - before their number one follower strikes again.

• ISBN10: 1444976109
• ISBN13: 9781444976106
• Publish Date: 2 November 2023 (first published 31 October 2023)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Hodder Children's Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Four POVs. Three Big Ideas. Two Interesting Twists. One Technically Error Free Book.  

 

Ok, so the title may have been a bit of a stretch there.  

 

There are absolutely four primary POVs here across our 10 "influencers" (my God I both despise the term and indeed the entire concept, despite some authors labeling *me* as one), and while it can at times be confusing when switching between them early on, as the characterizations and "voices" get set, it does in fact get a bit easier.  

 

The Big Ideas here are all various flavors of social commentary on the idea of the "influencer", though so much as mentioning them begins to get too close to spoiler territory for my own comfort in writing this review.

 

The two interesting twists are deep in the book and *absolutely* spoiler territory to discuss, but I found them fairly well done and truly intriguing.

 

And yes, ultimately there are no technical flaws here. Yes, there were absolutely different things that different readers may have problems with - including the multiple POVs. But there was nothing wrong that begins to approach a universal, objective level, and thus the book retains its full five stars. Very much recommended.

[chymerra]

There is one main storyline in People to Follow. It follows the ten influencers and why they are on the island. Then, it morphs into a fight for survival when the Sponsor starts making their demands. This storyline was well-written, and I couldn’t put the book down. It was also a chaotic mess. I’m not too fond of books with more than one viewpoint. But in this case, it worked. The author would end one POV with just enough information or half of the information given about a person and then start the next chapter with that person’s POV.

Numerous secondary storylines are married to the main storyline. Some will not make sense initially, but a lightbulb will go off while reading, and you will understand why the author mentioned that storyline. All of the characters are intertwined in one way or another. Even characters that you think didn’t know each other are connected. It makes a massive spiderweb of storylines that can be difficult to separate.

The mystery angle of People to Follow was excellent. I didn’t figure out who the Sponsor and the killer were until almost the end of the book. And even then, I was only halfway right. The author had a massive twist in the plotline where the author revealed everything, and it was freaking wild. My mouth dropped because of not only who it was but because of why.

The thriller angle of the book was just as good as the mystery angle. The author used being confined to an island during a storm with no electricity to give an appropriate background and feel. The characters’ helplessness and horror over what is being done to them come off the pages.

The end of People to Follow was very anticlimactic, but it gave me chills. I can’t go much more into it, but I will say that the killer was not sorry.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, NetGalley, and Olivia Worley for allowing me to read and review this ARC of People to Follow. All opinions stated in this review are mine.