this book and IRL were great! It was both funny and thrilling

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the review copy.

Okay, this book had all the ingredients of something I would absolutely LOVE, and while I did have fun with it, I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. The reality TV premise that the book is based off of was barely utilized, so that aspect that drew me in felt more like a setup than an actual element of the story, so that was disappointing as far as the way the book is pitched and marketed.

I think the biggest difficulty I had with the writing was having so many characters in the cast, four different points of view, with voices that all ran together. I could barely follow the beginning with all 10 characters dumped together with very little intro and I almost DNFed in the first 10% because of that.

Then there was just a lot that I couldn't quite suspend my disbelief for--like everyone being way too casual about the increasing number of deaths. People were dying and they were just like "let's eat breakfast I guess" or "let's play spin the bottle" and it just didn't feel realistic with the tension that was trying to build.

Last, it felt like it was trying too hard to make Important Commentary about influencing and cancel culture and having a platform without really saying much at all about any of it.

All that said, I did finish it, and I found enough of it to be at least entertaining and amusing if not really impactful. It was fun and mostly fast-paced. I didn't hate it, but I don't think it'll stick with me.

A group of 10 influencers get invited to a secluded island with the intention of shooting a reality tv show about unplugging and being IRL. Unbeknownst to them, there is a murderer among them and start dropping like flies.

Even though this is a murder mystery, it’s a very light read. I would consider it a BRIM (beach read involving murder )🙃 a spin off of @beachreadsandbubbly BRAD categorization.

The reasoning behind the murders’ motive was flimsy and felt a bit forced….I never guessed the ending. I must say I did really like the ending even though it was a bit of a reach and had a few plot holes.

Overall, I would recommend to my friends who are looking for a light murder mystery with a unique plot.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for providing a free copy to read for my honest opinion!

Interesting premise for this book. Really wanted to like it but just didn’t click for me. I felt like all of the characters were so unlikeable which I think may have been part of the point but it was hard to root for anyone. I also felt like there were too many POVs

Social media influencers sign up to appear on a reality show. They all want to gain more followers. They are taken to an island and the crew is not there. There is no way off the island and they must wait for the crew to arrive. They do not like each other and their is tension. However, when one of them turns up dead is there a killer on the island?

This is an exciting read told from multiple viewpoints. There are many twists and turns and you will not know who to trust. Neither do the influencers on the island. The book is suspenseful read and will keep you guessing. It is a wonderful vacation read.

Thank you to #netgalley, #OliviaWorley, and #WednesdayBooks for a copy of this book.
#PeopletoFollow

I received an ARC of this book from St. Martins via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. I am very impressed that this was a debut - it sucked me in from the first page and the plot was fast-paced. During some chapters, I did have to look back to confirm who was speaking in a couple of chapters. And being that I am long past the age called "young adult," I definitely had to look up some of the vocabulary (yeet? thirst trap?) But overall, I really enjoyed this book. I did not predict a single twist (and there were several!). I think it's timely given our current obsession with influencers and social media. The characters were spot on. I am definitely looking forward to reading more by Ms. Worley!

In this YA mystery/thriller debut, ten influencers are taken to an island to film a reality TV show about what happens when you disconnect and unplug from society (think Love Island mixed with The Real World). However, once the influencers arrive, they quickly realize that there is something more sinister at play underneath the beachy atmosphere.

From the first chapter, I was immediately drawn into this book due to the reality TV show premise and the fact that it included multiple points of view. Right from the beginning, it was evident that each character had a darker past than what they portrayed on social media. I really enjoyed trying to uncover the secrets and solve the mystery throughout the book. My one critique is that I found the pacing of the book to be a little challenging for me at times. I thought the beginning and end were the strongest parts and struggled a little with staying interested throughout the middle.

Overall, I liked this book and found it to be a uniquely unpredictable thriller. I think it would be perfect for a YA audience who enjoys mysteries and thrillers or for anyone who loves watching reality TV!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I could not finish this book. It seemed every character had the same personality with no real depth which made the different perspectives very confusing. I think the demographic for this book is on the earlier cusp of YA because this just seemed younger than YA.

What a fun, fast-paced read this was. Great for the YA audience. While I didn’t find much depth throughout, it’s still an entertaining read and kept me engaged to zoom through in a weekend read. I’d read more from this author. Thank you Net Galley for early access to this one.

This book kept me on my toes from beginning to end. I couldn't put it down!

This is a fast read that's great for binging. It's filled with mystery, thrills, twists and turns.

The plot twist at the end was awesome, I didn't see it coming!

If you're a fan of YA mystery/thrillers this is the book for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this book ahead of release in exchange for my honest review.

Sigh. People to Follow by Olivia Worley was a book I was so excited for and I am sad to say I was let down. Perhaps it is because there have been a lot of books about influencers on remote islands getting picked off one by one. There's always some overlap and connection, there's usually a host who bails, the boathouse with a useless boat, and of course an insane storm.

If all of that interests you, then this book is for you. Influencers are brought to an island for a reality tv show- In Real Life. They think they are just going to spend time on the island with each other. The book is told from multiple perspectives which I liked a lot. Each of the influencers has a secret they hope isn't uncovered. When their PA leaves them alone on the island due to some issue with the crew getting there until the next morning, things start to unravel. They have no phones and no access to the mainland. All they have are their sponsor watches telling them to do things.

I think the reason this book put me off was because of the unnatural use of teen slang. I work in education and am quite well versed in teen talk and it felt forced in the book and quite frankly sometimes used incorrectly. I also struggled to connect with the four characters from Bounce House. I don't know why, but all I could imagine was the Mickey Mouse Club, but in reality it was one of those like Tik-Tok Homes for influencers. Their "crimes" or bad deeds were all pretty horrible, but some of them felt too mild to earn them a spot on this hell hole of an island.

I will happily read other novels by Olivia Worley. I just think this was a miss for me. Thank you so much St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for granting me access to this title.

What a great novel! I could hardly put it away and finished it within a day: A group of young influencers travels to a remote island to participate in a reality TV show. Only then one after another dies, and the Sponsor forces them to make their biggest secrets public.
I enjoyed how the whole story unfolds. The chapters are told from the point of views of several influencers, which makes everything even more mysterious. On the one hand, the reader gets to know much about the young people's jobs; on the other hand, we get to know them as people who have the same insecurities and issues just like everyone else.
The style of narration is fast and gripping. It drives the plot forward, neither the reader nor the protagonists get a break. But everybody wonders who is responsible for the mess, the killings - and how will they resolve it?
Without giving much away, I loved the plot twist at the end and how everything unraveled. While there are clues from early on, I did not guess right who was behind all of it.

A group of influencers travel to a Caribbean island for a reality TV show - but then one of them is found dead and they realize there is more at stake than just their online careers.

This locked-room style thriller was engaging throughout. It's definitely geared more towards a YA crowd but still interesting enough for adults. The multiple POVs were written in different styles which helped add dimension to the characters. Overall it reminded me of One of Us is Lying and I enjoyed it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my complimentary ARC!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book. I feel like this book should have been published in the summer because it has more summer vibes. If you are a fan of off-the-wall crazy reality tv shows, this book is for you! The first few chapters took a while to get going because it was the introduction to the characters and what brought them to the private island. For a little while, some drama unfolded but no one was killed. Once the first murder happened, things got so wild and bizarre. It becomes clear that the characters are being punished for crimes that they committed and you feel like these characters are so complex and complicated. There were three characters that did not deserve to be there because their supposed "crimes" are so minuscule that it is laughable. I enjoyed it for the most part but the last five chapters were just so unbelievable that it took away from the rest of the story.

I thought Worley played the line really well of the characters being scared and focused on that fear while also not letting the fear consume them. There was still a plot of secrets, betrayals, and emotions outside of the fear that brought the situation back down to earth a bit.

Many of the POVs sounded similar since most were hiding secrets or afraid to speak their mind, with one being distinct for calling everyone and anyone "Babe," but I think it made the story flow easier to quickly understand the plot moving forward. There were small differences to give you clues to who was each person in how many thoughts came out of their mouth compared to what they were thinking, or if their anger showed or was perfectly hidden under a mask.

Overall, I thought this was a fun, quick thriller. The setting and the characters were a good mix together and it was quite the take on a remote reality TV/influencer trip.

This was quite a page-turner! I have seen a lot of books lately with the same topic of social media influencers trapped on an island together, but this is the first I've read so far. I was eager to see what would happen next and read this pretty quickly, but I actually really disliked the turn the story took towards the end as the mystery unraveled. There's a lot of sexual assault and grooming and it all felt very victim-blamey. It's impossible to guess who the real villain is, as a faceless/nameless entity picks the influencers off one by one, but the author made it very simple to guess who was going to die next. So in some ways it's super predictable, but in other ways it's not. If you like a solid mystery that keeps you constantly on your toes, I think you might be a little disappointed. If you like a good endgame plot twist, though, this one's pretty shocking.

The setting is fantastic (a mansion on an island with a tropical storm on the way) and the author seems to keep good track of all the pieces on the board when it comes to setting up the mystery and how the story will play out, except telling us where the bodies are. lol When people start dying, the group moves the first body to a secure location and cover it with a tarp, but after that they just leave them where they fall. It's almost hilarious but I'm not sure if it was intentional or if the author just forgot about them... Like there's a body on the porch and they are constantly coming in and going out of the house. Are they just walking overtop of it??? lol!

I'm really torn about this book. I would have rated it more positively if it didn't like like it frequently shamed and blamed girls who were groomed and sexually assaulted. Other than that facet, I enjoyed it a lot. I'd be interested in seeing what else the author has to offer in the future. This was, on the whole, a fun time.

This was a perfectly acceptable beach read, but I don’t think fans of thrillers will fall in love with this one.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced digital review copy.

Fantastic book that had me reading as fast as possible to find out what happened next. There are a lot of characters that are introduced in the beginning but I didn't find it overwhelming. My favourite chapters were Elody's and she was probably also my favourite character. Even though I don't think I'd have anything in common with someone like that in real life! Loved the island setting and the creepy messages from the Sponsor. It gave me flashbacks to Pretty Little Liars! Would highly recommend.

Ten influencers decide to take a break from influencing and participate in IRL, a new reality show. Dark secrets come out and bodies start piling up, but is it one of their own? Or someone else? In the age of digital everything, this book hits relevancy on the head!!!

This was a great teen slasher. I liked the modern twist with the influencers. This book certainly wasn’t perfect but it kept me up late reading into the night and I didn’t figure out the twist so five stars from me!