People to Follow by Olivia Worley is a debut And-Then-There-were-None-style murder mystery for the influencer age. A group of young influencers, including an Instagram fitness guru scarred by her child dance star fame, a documentarian nepo baby, a rags-to-riches beauty queen, a washed-up former child star, a Twitch streamer, and a group of lifestyle jockeys, meet at an island mansion, a la "The Real World," allegedly to participate in a reality show where they will see what happens when wifi is taken away and people get real. Naturally, it all takes a nasty turn and the miniature stars are first stranded, then their secrets are exposed to the world one by one, and the unlucky targets start getting picked off in varous ways. In other words, just my type of book.

Having only peripheral understanding of this culture, I nonetheless appreciated Worley's thorough knowledge of it, evidenced by a proficient blending of real social media outlets with invented Tik-Tok houses and video games. I'm not the target audience (new adults/Millennials), but I bought into the world, and the totally believable reality show, "IRL", that was the foil for the villain's #cancelling campaign. I enjoyed the deviations Worley took from the traditional structure (I'll not spoil what I mean) in a subgenre currently oversaturated (see: Glass Onion films; the novel Hide; Agatha Christie retellings).

More than that, Worley's ability to convincingly shift between first-person perspectives and for the most part, keep their voices distinct, is on point. The book is a joyride, strictly: while it critiques current online cuture, it doesn't really have anything new to say, and it's (fortunately) not trying to. Rather, that Worley archives in her debut thriller what she seemingly set out to do - entertain and amuse (it's also sharply funny) - suggests she will enjoy a delighted & loyal following.

I received a free digital ARC from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks Netgalley for the chance to review.
Ten influencers are stuck on a deserted island under the guise of being filmed for a reality TV show about "unplugging", but a dead body forces you to ask the question 'who amongst us is a murderer"

Told from multiple POVS (luckily not all), this story is a bit all over the place and difficult to follow. I struggled to differentiate the voices of the characters or feel drawn to them, which makes the switching pretty difficult. You want, and need, the characters to stand on their own this way: and they just don't. I understand the point was to make them insufferable influencers...but the author may have hit it to on the nose and left out redeeming qualities.

I just didn't love this. I DO love YA from time to time, this just wasn't it for me.

I found this book to be a bit addictive! This is a strong debut and really did a great job making the twists make sense. I found the premise to be really fun, but wish the characters had been ages up just a little bit more. I also think the story might have benefited from one less POVs or maybe making some of the POVs be characters be killed of a bit earlier. By the middle of the book I felt very confident that the POV characters would live which meant I was getting ready for each death of the others. I also found some of the characters to be a bit underdeveloped/ more stereotypical but overall was a good read and excited to see what is next from Worley. Thank you to the author and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy!

4.5 ⭐️

Ten influencers. Ten secrets. One dead body.

Read if you like:
📱Locked-room mysteries
🌴Remote island thrillers
📱Social media influencers
🌴Reality TV
📱Multiple POVs

Olivia Worley's debut YA novel, "People to Follow," is the story of ten teen influencers who come to a remote island in the Caribbean to star in a reality show, "In Real Life." This hot new reality show will force social media's rising stars to unplug for three weeks as their every move is filmed without filters. For these influencers, "IRL" will be the opportunity of a lifetime. But when the production crew fails to show up and a dead body is found, their dream of superstardom turns into a nightmare. Then, they begin receiving messages from a mysterious sponsor who threatens to expose their darkest secrets. They realize that they've been lured into a deadly game, and one of them may be a killer. With the body count rising and cameras watching them, these influencers must figure out who is trying to get them canceled.

Ok, so I realize I am totally not the target audience for this YA novel, but it was such a fun read! This locked-room mystery is told from the perspectives of four of the influencers: Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Elody, an Instagram model; Max, a Youtuber; and Logan, a TikToker. With ten influencers as main characters, it was hard at first to remember who was who, but it became easier as the story progressed. This was a twisty, fast-paced thriller that kept me guessing until the very end. It was a fun spin on a classic Agatha Christie novel, perfect for the TikTok generation. What an amazing debut from Olivia Worley! I can't wait to see what she does next.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

CW: death, murder, sexual assault/harassment, alcohol use, cursing

Maybe I'm too old to be the target audience, or maybe the writing is just not amazing, but wow I could not get into this. The characters go no farther than the stereotypes they fit, even when within their POVs. The writing of the POVs themselves are barely distinctive, and everything reads simultaneously too fast and too slow. I was mostly just bored. A really great premise that just was not executed well enough for my taste.

This somehow ended up being my third "remote island, multiple dead bodies" book in one month span, so maybe it's on me that I didn't like this as much as I had hoped.
This YA "locked room" mystery follows ten social media influencers as they unplug for a new reality tv show called "IRL". We get POV from four of the characters, and some are much more likable than others. Not all ten characters were developed very well and I had trouble remembering who was who throughout the story which made the POV changes harder to keep up with.
As the cast keeps getting canceled and more secrets are coming out, you really start to wonder who is behind it all. I will say that I found the ending to be surprising, but it was hard to feel much for these characters throughout the story when they were such whiny, selfish, not great "influencers".
So a good page turner if you want a quick binge, but you won't be influenced by anything you read...

Thank you, NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I was a big fan of Libba Bray's beauty queens when I was a teenager, a satirical novel about beauty queens stuck on an island for nefarious capitalist reasons. People To Follow gave me the same vibes but it wasn't really on the level of Libba Bray. Which is fine. This was a silly, campy, very fun to read book. Not everything worked for me, but I enjoyed it and it was pretty suspenseful but I think the ending was a bit convoluted and over the top. Overall it's definitely worth reading if the plot sounds interesting to you but don't expect it to be memorable.

Okay this book hooked me from the jump. I’m not a Tik tok person, I don’t know anything about the houses or whatever they are but I was able to just roll with it. I loved this book but I do think all the character jumping got a little confusing. I had to go back to see whose chapter I was reading more often than not which was whatever. This worked for me, but I do wonder if there was any narration the contradicted the twists

The premise of this book sounded right up my alley. A bunch of reality stars/influencers on a deserted island and someone ends up dead. They’re all there to participate in a new show called “In Real Life”, where they must unplug for three weeks and go live for everyone to watch along. Sounds like a great opportunity for exposure and clout, until the whole experience turns into a nightmare. They’re all stranded with a dead body and no way to make contact with anyone. On top of all that, they start to receive daunting text messages from an unknown source, threatening to reveal their deepest darkest secrets.

Overall, entertaining read…which was my goal when I picked it up. It was easy to read, and I finished it pretty quickly once I picked it up.

If you’re going to have a killer on an island of influencers, then this is the way to do it. I have read other books that deal with this same concept and by far this is the one I have enjoyed the most as of date. I love the fact that this book is told from multiple points of view. Also, that everyone is connected somehow, and everyone has a reason to potentially be the killer is quite fun. I will say I didn’t expect the killer. Overall, this book is a smooth read, one that will keep the readers guessing, and something that maybe will make people think about what the real cost is of being an influencer.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy.

This book was really difficult to get into. Most of the time I could not keep up with what was going on with the characters or the storyline, perhaps it was me. Influencers trapped on an island without their technology slowly being picked off. Lacking. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

People to Follow is a YA version of Then There We’re None with influencers. This was an easy read with a lot of juicy secrets and twists. Fans of Pretty Little Liars or Gossip Girl will enjoy this one.

Unfortunately I ended up DNF this one.

I might pick it back up when I’m in a better headspace. But for now it just didn’t work for me.

People to Follow is a debut young adult thriller by Olivia Worley that follows ten young influencers on an island where they will be involved in a “Big Brother” type reality show. But when the film crew doesn’t show up and one of the influencers ends up dead, things start going downhill fast. Secrets are revealed through blackmail from mysterious “Sponsor” and no one knows who to trust.

I think people in the target audience will enjoy this a lot more than I did. The characters feel very young (which they are) so a lot of their decision making skills didn’t really make sense to me. There were also so many characters introduced right at the beginning and not given much development that I really found myself not caring for anyone and getting them confused a lot. You get four perspectives but they all felt very similar.

I think the overall twist was pretty decent (even though it did something I hate in thrillers) and I am a fan of these “locked room” type thrillers. I found the discussions on influencers to be interesting to read. I think this author is one to watch out for because I can see her being someone I recommend alongside Karen McManus in the future if her next book is enjoyable.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes young adult thrillers and doesn’t mind the constant mentioning of social media. This book is perfect for an older young adult audience. I would say 15-18 years old.

The perfect fix for teens looking for a thrilling mystery, or just hoping to watch influencers crash and burn.
The writing was good, the plot was intriguing, but I was not the target audience.
My own fault for not reading more into the story before I requested an ARC, but I think it will be well loved by the target group.
Thanks for the opportunity, as always!

This book masterfully delves into the realm of young adult fiction while embracing one of my all-time favorite literary tropes - the isolated closed-circle thriller, so if you like that, you'll probably like this!

I am older than the demographic for this book, so even though I did not necessarily feel an emotional connection to this book, I think younger readers will form deeper attachments with the characters than I did. Overall, I would definitely recommend!

This is the kind of book I would’ve been totally obsessed with when I was in high school. It’s juicy, scandalous and full of catty behavior and plenty of lies. I really liked the locked room style setting but make it a private island with a mansion and no way off the island. So the vibes were great as far as setting goes but it lost me a bit with trying to keep everybody straight when a few characters were very similar. There are four points of view but ten total characters and most of them were awful, think super privileged TikTok influencers with a slew of first world problems. Parts of it bordered on silly but I grabbed this when I wanted a popcorn thriller so I wasn’t mad at some of the ridiculousness but the overall mystery was wasn’t anything amazing. It was decent though, I just wish there was more suspense instead of them deciding to play spin the bottle while people are getting killed.

I love a good thriller especially a locked-room theme. In this YA thriller, the locked-room in this case is an island where teen influencers are about to film a reality show until things take a turn. The story is told from multiple points of view, which I found confusing at times as each perspective was not as distinctive to tell one from the other. While it was hard to root for the majority of the characters, it was easy to see where the author got their inspiration from and that made it fun. There is a definite "And Then There Were None" vibe throughout the book, but I enjoyed the twist and ending. Highly recommend for those who love YA thrillers and those tired of influencers.

first, i would like to thank netgalley, st. martin's press, and wednesday books, for the electronic advanced readers copy. my thoughts and opinions are completely my own in exchange for an honest review! 😇🫶🏼

2.5 ⭐️⭐️💫 but will round to 2 ⭐️⭐️!

what drew me into the book was the whodunit mystery theme of social media influencers. i am apart of the gen-Z, so what a perfect book for me right? i think the idea was there, but the execution was not perfect. 📲📧🔗

a bit of cons from the book was there were around 10 characters that were on the island, but only 4 pov’s were shown in the book. i would’ve love to seen the other 6 pov’s, but that would’ve been too confusing. besides, i was already confused on who’s who, and i saw another review that can back me up on that. all 10 influencers were so unbearable and so annoying that i wanted to cry because of how painful the characters were being. personally, the two worst characters were max and kira. dare if i said more, then i probably would’ve spoiled the book but just know i disliked those two. whenever their pov chapters appear, i just rolled my eyes but all 10 of them were so immature, naive, terrible, and just believed what the other person said. i wish there was more depth to the book like there was no mention of the audience’s live reactions on watching the episodes. it also was getting a bit repetitive! there were some heavy topics in the book, so beware reading it with caution. all in all, it felt very messy for some parts of the book. 📱📶⌚

to give my sparknotes summary...there were similarities to characters like past dance moms reality stars, hype house members, youtubers who do documentaries, chase hudson (a tiktoker and singer), a twitch streamer, a wannabe jake paul and a walmart version of blogilates. there were so many pop culture references such as the debby ryan meme or among us. like i just imagine if a millennial or gen-X reading this and saying, “what is this book even talking about 😭.” so we can see this book is heavily targeted towards gen-Z people. and overall, the writing felt so young adult (ya) because the many cringe moments i personally had to endure!!! 📸🤳❤️😄

i’m so sorry, i didn’t like this book. but i would say the gen-Z people would either like or hate this book. it’s for the people who love tiktok and pop culture references (me!). but for what it’s worth being worley‘s debut novel, the storyline was interesting to where i wanted to request the e-arc! it was fun at most parts when i was reading it! i’m sure worley will make an excellent sophomore novel and i can’t wait to read it! one last thing, this felt very like a summer book rather than a book releasing on halloween! 🌐📱

book is set to published on october 31st, 2023! 🎃👻🍂🦇

A great, fast read if you’re looking for a thriller you just can’t put down! When ten teen influencers come to a remote island to star in a reality show, one of them inevitably ends up dead. Who did it? Why? Is their career going to come to an end before it can really begin? This is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone who loves thrillers!