People to Follow is Olivia Worley’s debut novel, is yet another retelling/reimagining of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. These seem to be particularly popular lately, and I don’t hate it since it’s one of my favorite Christie works. It shares a similar tone with Lucy Foley’s The Guest List but is distinctly tailored for a younger audience. This became apparent to me about halfway through. It’s technically considered a YA Thriller, but I would consider it more of a mystery than a thriller.

The characters in People to Follow are an intriguing mix; none are particularly likable, each harboring both annoying traits and deep-seated secrets. These secrets are the threads that bind them together and lead them to an isolated island for a three-week retreat. What starts as a period of relaxation quickly turns sinister when a storm leaves them stranded, and the murder of one among them sparks a tense whodunit.

10 young influencers are invited to a private Caribbean Island for 3 weeks of relaxing and unplugging, all to be filmed of course for a new reality show titled IRL. Each of the characters is facing some sort of personal crisis, mostly revolving around their dive in popularity. A “storm” strands the production crew, and the emergency takes the PA off island. She leaves a cell phone for emergencies, and each influencer has a watch. Turns out the cell phone goes missing, and the watches only get messages from “The Sponsor”, and they can’t send any outgoing messages. When one of their number ends up dead, the remaining 9 come to the logical conclusion that one of them is a murderer.

The story is told from alternating points of view between 4 of the main characters. Max, an aspiring documentary YouTuber who has had trouble catching a new story since his smashing expose. He’s here trying to catch a story on The Bounce House, a famous TikTok trio who have also been invited to the island. Kira, a fitness influencer who was a former reality star of a popular dance show. She finds her old nemesis from the dance show, a member of The Bounce House is also on the island. Logan is a former member of The Bounce House who has recently been kicked out/left. Who knows, but the internet is awash with rumors and conjecture. She isn’t happy to see her former friends. Then there is Elody. She’s the most annoying of the bunch, but she has the most distinct voice of all the characters. She has no apparent ties to the other influencers but seems to be there as the life of the party. When in doubt, she finds a way to make it fun/interesting. I found myself enjoying her chapters the most as the book unfolded.

I managed to guess the murderer’s identity mid-way, but the specific character revelation was a surprise. Particularly interesting was the plot involving Max’s secret, which led to a predictable yet intriguing revelation of the perpetrator’s identity and their accomplice. Despite some predictability, the book’s ending was engaging, with a well-executed plot twist.

This book is literally begging to be made into a movie. It was an absolutely solid debut from Worley. While the ‘closed-room mystery’ theme might seem overdone, Worley’s take is great.

The market is over saturated right now with influencers on an island and so you really need to be special to stand out. Unfortunately this wasn’t it. All the characters were caricatures of personalities. None of them were likeable and it was hard to tell them apart. One of my least favorite influencer stories

I am a huge fan of reality shows and this one has influencers on a reality show. This was a fun debut by Olivia Worley and I am looking forward to more books by her

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of People to Follow by Olivia Worley.

People to Follow is such a fun debut! Influencers stranded on a remote island without their phones, mysterious messages coming from an unknown person, and murderous activity. What’s not to love?

Worley unravels our story through the eyes of four different influencers, which gives the reader the opportunity to both, get to know them and to learn about the others on the island through their eyes. As things start to ramp up and get more tense it was fun to see what these individuals would do and who they would believe among them. I loved how each character had a distinct voice that fit their influencer personality. They felt exactly like how I would imagine an 18-year-old influencer to talk and behave in this situation.

There are so many secrets in the pages of this story that you’ve got to make sure you’re paying attention throughout. I found myself multiple times kicking myself for missing something as Worley revealed a pivotal connection or truth.

This is very much an And Then There Were None type story, which I absolutely adored. Trying to guess who would fall victim next or what secrets would be revealed about who kept me consistently coming back for more.

A huge thank you to Wednesday Books for my gifted copy!

So many moving parts! The story is told from four different points of view, who all sound somewhat the same, and there is a lot to unpack, most of which is a bunch of whiny teens crying about not having enough followers and all sorts of other drama. They are all killed off, one by one, which was kind of nice as they weren’t particularly likeable (I don’t think they were supposed to be) but it leaves you with no one to root for. There are some funny lines but not enough to really make this a great read. If it wasn’t for the last chapter, I still would be confused about who killed who and why. I just wasn’t the right audience for this book; young adult readers and fans of influencers would love this.

People to Follow by Oliva Worley. This book had a lot of characters and a lot going on but once I got about 25 percent in, it was easier to keep everyone straight. The book was action packed and you never knew what was coming next. So many influencers, so many problems. I enjoyed this book and the ending was unexpected. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for the ARC.

"People to Follow" was a unique and fun read! I know it is geared toward young adults, and i'm not a young adult but I still loved it! It was complete of so many twists and turns and kept me invested throughout the whole book. I couldn't put it down and needed to know how it ended!

This book kept me guessing. I enjoyed the chapters alternating between the influencers - it did keep the mystery going and made it hard to determine who was telling the truth. I do appreciate this style of book, the "locked room" type situation and I think the author executed that incredibly well. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thrillers, mysteries, and especially the "locked room" mystery style.

Wow, wow, wow — at the time of writing this, I finished People To Follow moments ago and it truly had my inquisitive self surprised at the outcome! I can hardly believe that this is Olivia Worley’s debut, there was clearly so much thought put into carefully planning the plot and each of the characters.

As with many mysteries/thrillers, the reader is usually trying to take a stab (pun intended) at what is happening before it is made clear. In People To Follow, trying to make a guess just wasn’t happening for me once it came to light that things weren’t as simple as they seemed… And I loved that!

I look forward to reading more from Worley, and can certainly foresee more brilliant thrillers in her future. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read & review this ARC!

Ten teen influencers come to a remote island to star in a reality show, but when one of them wind. up dead, they realize that this time, the price of being "cancelled" could be their lives.

Before reading: this book synopsis reads like a mix of pretty little liars with saw thrown in. A for sure odd combination that will I for sure have an interest in.
After reading the book these are my thoughts:
Overall this book was pretty solid who dun it thriller. It did get kind of tedious to the point where I was wanting it to get to the point of who the killer was. I was on the right track but didn’t guess the correct killer. Which is a good thing cause when you can guess the killer, the author didn’t do a good job with hiding them.
The influencer culture aspect for sure got on my nerves at some point cause the way they talked for sure reminds me of real life influences that I refuse to watch.
Overall 3.5 star read.

Thanks to the folks at NetGalley for a copy of this book. My review is a honest reflection of my feelings towards this book.

Unfortunately, I have had to stop reading Hollywood-related stories and anything related to famous characters that are not non-fiction books. I find them ridiculous and unbearable to read.

I received this e-book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the author/publisher for the copy!

As I started this one, I wasn't sure how I was going to like it. With the story line switching between 4 different characters, I thought it was going to be hard to navigate who was who and who did what, but the author made it really easy to decipher who was talking with the unique voices that she used for each character.

Ten "influencers" are brought together to be on a reality TV show, In Real Life, on a private island 15 miles from civilization. We get to see 4 different points of view through 4 different influencers. What they thought they were getting into turns out to be much more than they bargained for. They are left stranded when the production crew never shows up and things take a turn when they realize that one of the influencers is dead. Who killed him? As the body count starts to jump, the influencers start questioning which of them is the murderer.

I found myself hooked from the beginning and staying up late just so I could keep finding out what was going to happen next! I loved the set up of this one and would definitely recommend this!!

- If you are looking for a juicy, escapist read, put PEOPLE TO FOLLOW on your list. I couldn't read it fast enough: every chapter ends on a cliffhanger, keeping you turning the pages and trying to guess what was coming next.
- This book both sympathizes with and expertly skewers the phenomenon of young influencers. The author seems to understand how lonely and unreal the life of a full time influencer can be, while also hitting on everything that makes the industry absurd.

In a society where social media influencers have much power, this suspenseful thriller begs the question, "Do you actual know the people you follow?" These people with supposedly perfect lives? I loved everything about this story. The way not everything is as it seems. The twists and turns. Such a fun read.

Interesting premise, meh execution. This was a clue or knives out style mystery except it was centered on influencers. The actual mystery/thriller bit felt lazily executed. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

Ten influencers are invited to be part of a reality television show on a remote island. And because they're all about that exposure, they all say yes. Once they arrive, things start going wrong - Secrets, lies, dead bodies, etc. They're trying to figure out what's really going on, why they're there, and also making sure they don't get "cancelled" which has a variety of meanings in the game/life. This was one that did keep me reading, but I wish it would've had more about the game/show they were invited to. I recognize that's not the point of the story that was being told, but that appeals more to me. However, the secrets kept me guessing and reading, especially as the connections between characters were revealed. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this recent release.

I enjoyed reading this book for the most part. It’s contemporary (social media creators all gathered on an island to make some quality reality TV), it’s suspenseful (someone dies… and then one by one they all start to follow), and it involves secrets and lies (what are these creators hiding?).

I liked the idea of, “being canceled” and the whole game show aspect, but that quickly fizzled out and that’s when it got kind of boring.

There were way too many characters to really understand what was going on, and why. Until the end, I couldn’t have told you the difference between Makayleigh and Corinne or between Aaron and Max. They were all the same to me for a very long time.

The whole thing just seemed pretty unoriginal to me. I’ve seen this revenge plot a million times before. And, to be honest, it wasn’t even a big enough deal to want revenge for most of it.

If you are younger and really into social media, maybe this will be more suited to you!

I don’t think I’m the right age demographic for this book. With that being said I think that’s why I personally did not enjoy it. I didn’t realize this book was YA. This was challenging in a few ways for me. It was hard to keep track of the characters. It felt like they all had the same personality (spoiled annd whiney) and without any development no one was memorable. The dialogue between them was also super cringey to me. Again, I think being in my 30’s this was just the wrong choice for me. I don’t think this was a bad book. I would recommend this to someone 14-18 years old.

I really enjoyed the first 20% but as the story progressed it became increasingly harder to know who was speaking. There was also a Black character who did not feel Black and I completely forgot about her race until it was mentioned again. I appreciate what the author was trying to do and I appreciate the messages about social media but the plot twist felt very cartoonish.