This was an enjoyable low stakes YA thriller. Using the haunted house genre the author is able to illustrate the dark side of the internet plus the pressure that being Instagram famous can have on you as a person and a family.

Wow. Literally just wow. This book kind of blew me away!

The Follower is probably one of the most unnerving and spine tingling books I’ve had the pleasure of reading in quite a while. I really loved all of the suspense built up in this book around this Anonymous follower. Knowing it’s also loosely based around the still unravelling true crime case, The Watcher, makes it even more chilling.

I loved how the author included mixed media in the book as well, being able to watch the rise and decline of the Cole Patrol really added to the book. The social media aspect was wild, as in influencer, you can kind of understand the pressure to always want to fit inside a certain brand or box and how suffocating that can be, Even with The Follower as the main plot in this book, I really loved how the author polarized the Triplet’s feelings about being thrust into social media by their overbearing parents. I really liked how each triplet was vastly different from each other, Amber was a fierce body positive LGBTQ+ fashion guru, Cecily was more than just your average beautiful instagram-famous girl; she was a makeup artist who loved to break down the science behind the product and Rudy was deeper than anyone could have ever expected, his super sleuth skills quite literally saved his family.

The plot twist of this book was the clincher for me, I thought I had everything figured out mid-way and then was sent in an entirely different direction that just blew my mind. The ending was really solid and ominous as well, it leaves room for a second book or this also works as a stand-alone. This book is definitely not for the faint of heart and the content may be considered triggering for some; triggering topics include; death of an animal, stalking, murder, mutilation (acid burning), underage drinking, gun violence(?)

Huge, huge thanks to NetGalley for this eARC of The Follower! I absolutely loved it!

Plus-sized characters and a Fear Street-esque YA thriller? I’m so in.

“Instagram-famous triplets Cecily, Amber, and Rudy—the children of home renovation superstars—are ready for a perfect summer. They’ve just moved into the site of their parents’ latest renovation project when they begin to receive chilling messages from someone called The Follower. It soon becomes clear that this anonymous threat is more than a simple Internet troll, and he can’t wait to shatter the Cole family’s perfect veneer and take back what’s his. The Follower examines the implications of what it is to be watched in the era of social media fame—as well as the lies we tell and the lengths we’ll go to uphold a perfect image, when our lives depend on it.”

This was so much fun to read, and should be a must purchase for library YA collections, and is a great book for adults and teens.

A four star read that I definitely recommend to fellow fans of thrills and chills!

*Thank you so much to NetGalley, Kate Doughty, and Amulet Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.*

Engaging and descriptive.

Excellent writing.

Tense and thrilling.

Recommend.

I really enjoyed this YA thriller. I loved the social media influencer aspect. It’s something I’d really like to read more of. I also enjoyed the RL Stine vibes the story and writing had. Really brought me back to my youth as I was OBSESSED the Feat Street books!
I gave the book 3 stars, as I do think I’m a little older than the target audience for this story. The writing was a bit too young for me, but I’d still be interested to read more by this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and ABRAMS Kids for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟 3/5 stars

The Follower is a YA thriller about Instagram-famous triplets, Cecile, Amber, and Rudy. Their parents are well-known home renovators who have a high profile new project. When the triplets arrive at the site, they begin receiving cryptic messages from someone called The Follower, who has the power to destroy their picture-perfect lives.

I would compare The Follower to a modern, social media savvy R.L. Stine book. Although I love the storyline, I was never fully invested in the book. Overall, the characters and ending did not live up to the excellent concept for me. Fans of R.L. Stine and Diana Urban should check this one out when it releases on 3/23/21.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full review to be posted closer to release date.

The Follower is a YA novel I think teenage readers will find relevant to their lives, being that the three protagonists are Instagram influences who are perpetuating an image that is less than genuine. In my classroom, we recently had a discussion about how people portray themselves versus who they really are. I used this book as a prime example. This book was a little underwhelming in its thrill factor. I started getting bored with how vapid and shallow the triplets and their parents were. And the unveiling of the villain was way out of left field. Totally unbelievable, and not in a good way. I'd recommend this purely for the social media theme. I would not recommend this to a student that wants a good thriller book.

This one was tough for me. I love a good YA thriller, but this one was a difficult read for me. I liked the idea of the story, but overall it just fell short. I can see where teens would enjoy it though, and am still planning on purchasing it for my YA collection.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. However, I did not feel like this one lived up to what I thought it would be. Also, did not notice until later that it was YA which is probably why I did not enjoy it as much. Thank you.

This book made me genuinely scared. I had to sleep with the lights on and I think that is compliment enough! I really enjoyed this creepy book.

The Follower hits all of the marks of what I want in a YA thriller. It follows triplets Cecily, Amber, and Rudy, who star in their family's Instagram account. I really loved this aspect to the book. As someone interested in influencer culture, it was interesting to have that as the background for the novel, especially from the children's perspective. The family move into a house in order to flip it and make content for the gram, but the house has a dark past. It's been the scene of a murder-suicide. Not only is this creepy, but there seems to be someone stalking the triplets in the present. At first, a lot of this stalking takes place online, but it begins to also pop up in the new house too.

Although The Follower stays pretty true to the YA thriller trope, I still found it really enjoyable, and I was surprised by the ending, which almost never happens. I would recommend it for anyone who loves YA thrillers, especially with a social media bent.

I could not finish this story. I was really excited for this and wanted to love it but I really struggled. The story is written from multiple view points but they are written in the third person which negates the need for the different POV. Also basic information is repeated over and over again. The reader is well away that the mom has control over the Instagram, that Cecily has to be perfect, and that Amber can't be in as many of the photos anymore because she is not thin. The premise of this book was great and I think if the author could make a change in the POV I would give it another try.

This book was pretty predictable and had far too much tell vs. show. That said, it does a great job of telling about the darker side of the "Influencer" lifestyle" and was a pretty decent YA mystery. The play on a haunted house trope is enjoyable and the characters are largely relatable, though one-dimensional.

This book is supposed to be based on a true story but when I tried to look anything up about it I couldn't find anything. The writing is really repetitive about social media, follower engagement, how well the pictures are doing, if they are on brand or not, how Amber can't be in any photos, and basically just how miserable the triplets are. I was looking to be more thrilled by this thriller but this was just boring instead. The "followers" comments aren't very creepy or scary. The thrills are very vague and left you wanting more but then the mom kept going on about social media every two seconds and took away from the story building. The story progressed very slowly and didn't seem to move much at all. It was really clunky with a lot of filler. I was sort of entertained when it wasn't all about social media but it just seemed like it wasn't getting anywhere and that's why I DNFed it. I also think there was a part where the pet rabbit gets put in the garbage disposal? I flipped a head a little bit to see if it got any better, and I think that's what I read, so basically when I saw that I was done. None of the characters were very likable so I didn't really care what was happening to them. I couldn't believe the parents put so much pressure on the kids to make up the money that the dad lost with his gambling problem, no way should that have been their problem. Overall, I just couldn't really get into it.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun and spooky YA read. I enjoyed the Instagram aspect, and I really liked reading about Amber’s journey to being a proud plus-size influencer. The siblings were well-written, I thought, and had very distinct personalities. The ending felt a little bit thrown together, but overall I really enjoyed this. 4 stars.

90’s popcorn teen horror movies and some small vibes of Fear Street series blended in modern generations’ social media addiction with one of my favorite themes: to be trapped in a haunted house!

Oh, yes. It sounds like best way to spend your Friday night, turning yourself into human burrito by wrapping yourself in your fluffiest blanket , munching your snacks, taking long sips from your cocktail as you truly dedicate your attention and entire soul to this kind reading.

Quick summary of the plot-line: Cecily-Rudy-Amber are triplets are children of home renovation stars. Cecily and Rudy are the faces of instagram page as Amber stay behind, doing all the important technical stuff including photographing, photoshopping and editing to help her siblings shine because her lovely parents don’t approve her size 18 style. ( Booing comes at this moment)

But as soon as they move to the house belongs to their parents’ brand new project, an internet troll named Follower started to threat them with cryptic messages. Now their family is under threat to be torn apart and their highly dirty secrets are about to come out! It already picked your interest, didn’t it?

But unfortunately this amazingly great concept and creative idea about building a story around teenager triplets who are successful social media influencers making special videos about renovated house and find themselves in the very wrong house at the extremely wrong time didn’t work with me.

Even though the blended concept and ideas were great, the outcome of the story, not quite relatable characterization and very foreseeable, semi twisty ending didn’t satisfy me enough.

But to be fair it’s still above the average, 3.25 starred reading (it seems like still 3 stars reading but it is not Switzerland kind of neither I hate or I like it reading. It’s better and more potential. So this is still positive three stars. I’m not a fan but I see the potential and with less dislikable characters and less repetitive chapters, this book would be easily a four starred brilliant reading -at least my guts tell me that-)

Special thanks to NetGalley and ABRAMS KIDS/ Amulet Books for sharing this digital copy of this intriguing book in exchange my honest review.

I liked this but I didn't love it unfortunately. I thought the concept was good just not executed correctly.

I really enjoyed THE FOLLOWER! It’s a clever modernization of the haunted house trope, perfect for Spooky Season!

This was very much a 2020 version of a Fear Street or Point Horror book. It has the somewhat predictable but still twisty ending, the bonkers drama, the not ideal portrayals of mental illness, the one BIPOC side character, etc. So it is a mixed bag. The one way it really departs from that 90's YA thriller mold is that legitimately bad stuff actually happens to the characters instead of everything being a prank or getting stopped at the last second. Even though some things about it weren't great, it is one of the better YA social media thrillers I've read, and I think a lot of the reluctant reader teens I work with would enjoy it.