Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of People to Follow by Olivia Worley!

This entire book read like a giant guilty pleasure. Reading it was sort of like ditching all of your responsibilities to get underneath a blanket on your couch and watch a scandalous reality tv show or a new thriller movie. I can't go less than five stars on it, because once I was invested, I absolutely tore through it like I couldn't put it down.

Here are the basics. A handful of young influencers agree to go "off the grid" to an island and film a reality tv show. The producer is called away and has to leave the island immediately, leaving all of the influencers alone on the island for an evening. Suddenly, the influencers are getting mysterious messages from "the sponsor", murders are happening, secrets are exposed, and one by one the influencers are *gasp* cancelled.

There was suspense. There were characters that were so abhorrent I loved to hate them. Multiple narrators made the book fly by and kept the reader guessing. This is a great book if you don't take yourself too seriously as a reader, it's certainly not out there to win any awards for thematic prose or thought provoking characters, but it's fun and it will keep you entertained.

First: loved the cover, love the idea behind it (10 social media influencers on an island that find them dying one by one), I even enjoyed the split of POVs which usually brings me into the book faster (esp thrillers or mysteries).

But….

It was just ok. I found myself skimming, annoyed by the language or rather slang used. The manyyy POVs felt too much 🙈 even though I normally love that.
Basically the characters were twits I couldn’t get behind. But the writing was fine 👌🏻 it was more of a “not the right reader” for this one!

I so appreciate the chance to review it though. Grateful and a huge lover of Wednesday Books so thank you to the pub house for the gifted arc.

This was one of my favourite debut novels in quite a while! This book has all of the stereotypical influencers - the thirst trap, the prankster, the dancer, etc… they all come to an island together for a reality show and people start dying off one by one, and their secrets are revealed.

The twist ending was so satisfying in this book and I LOVED the characters and alternating perspectives. I felt like the author did a great job at accurately capturing influencer culture and I loved her writing!

This was a 5/5 star ⭐️ for me! I can’t wait to see what this author comes out with next.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

While I really wanted to love this book, it honestly felt chaotic to me. Sometimes the different POVs is great in a book, but in this book, it confused me and I did not feel like I had a chance to connect with the characters because the POVs kept changing. I did enjoy reading this book, but I just didn't love it like I wanted to.

Review: What I liked: Fast read, current subject matter, and short chapters. What I disliked: Too many POVs (each voice was too similar), too predictable, no connection to the character or storyline.
Recommended For: This is a young adult that is meant to be read by young adults. I was too old for this one.

Ten influencers must go three weeks social media free. In exchange, a luxurious Caribbean vacation where they'll be filmed 24/7. Ten influencers cut off from society, all with varying degrees of success and egos. What could possibly go wrong? If you've ever read a thriller, you know there's plenty that could go wrong and will go wrong.
This is a fun and wild ride, so buckle in!

This is such a fun read with plenty of mystery that left me turning the pages as fast as I could to find out who the killer/s were. The setting makes this a perfect beach read. And there's substance to this book as well.
It provided some great commentary on the pressures placed on Gen Z, the negative aspects of social media, cancel culture and revenge. There's a lot of thinking points in this, all wrapped in great writing and an intriguing plot. Olivia Worley is definitely a writer I'll be coming back to read in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

People to Follow completely hooked me with the premise: a Big Brother meets The Simple Life reality show where influencers come together to go "off the grid" while being filmed 24/7. I would watch this in real life! The book centers on a murder the unfolds towards the beginning of the filming, and is told from multiple POVs. I had NO IDEA that the twists were coming- I did not predict them at all. This was such a fun read, it would be great to bring on an airplane or something where you have time to just whip through it.

I loved this book so much! I really didn’t know what it was about when I started reading it, but I quickly was obsessed! The characters are well developed, and I couldn’t help but love them all!

What do you get if you send ten influencers on a deserted island somewhere in the middle of nowhere? Survivor comes to mind, or a tropical edition of Big Brother maybe.
But what if there is a killer amongst them?
Then you will get the thrilling debut novel by Olivia Worley.
People to Follow depicts the story of ten influencers that agreed to be sent to an island with no contact to the outside world. Tensions are already running high, as some of the participants have complicated pasts with each other, but things really start to take a turn when one person winds up dead.
Who is the killer amongst them and how are they going to make it off of the island alive?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought it had just enough twists and turns to keep me engaged throughout. I kept guessing who the murderer could be with every chapter and was not able to figure it out before the reveal.
The chapters are written from different people’s perspective, which adds a great dimension to the book.
Worley does a great job at giving the characters distinctive voices during their chapters.

People to Follow will be released just in time for spooky season and very much reminds me of late 90s horror movies.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC of this book!

Such a fun thriller & such a good read - I really enjoyed this book. This could potentially be in my top list of the year. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

The idea of this book is a good one but it was a lot of characters to keep track of. Didn’t realize it was YA so had a little bit of a hard time staying interested.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. For a debut novel, this wasn't bad. Multiple POV's from different Influencers on an island for 3 weeks. I was intrigued. It is obvious who was not going to make it to the end of the novel. However, this ending is not obvious at all. I did not see any of that unfolding.
Some scenarios in the story are a stretch when it comes to the character's responses and emotions. As mentioned, Worley came up with a very good, yet sneaky and clever ending. Moderate swearing. Moderate Sexual content but not descriptive.

This book annoyed me. The characters annoyed me. I was just irritated the whole time. Ugh why are they so annoying

*thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my eARC"

3.5 stars

I REALLY enjoyed this book. I think it was a super unique twist on the blend of influencer critique/murder mystery, and I was genuinely surprised by the plot twists. I did find the multiple POVs to be confusing at times, and had to circle back to figure out which character was voicing which chapter at points, but I do think it solidly led to the overall chaos and mystery of the plot. I'm super excited for this title to come out and to hear what others have to say about it!

2 stars
I almost DNFed the book :(
The book is GEN-Z tiktok era and one of my pet peeves is when the characters are annoying and this book has annoying characters :(((((

PEOPLE TO FOLLOW by Olivia Worley is a crazy step into the TikTok generation that I certainly don’t want to take!
When a group of competitive TikTokkers are invited to a private island to compete in a reality show, their content will be earning them a lot more than hearts and likes.
Part of the contract says that they need to leave their lives behind and cease all communication with the outside world. No phone, no internet, but the ever-present cameras throughout the house and a sponsor no one has ever met. On their very first night, things begin to go horribly wrong when their only contact, the production assistant needs to return to the mainland for problems getting the crew to the island. Needless to say, she never returns as things keep happening and contestants keep ‘dropping out’ as it were. Eventually, those remaining contestants need to decide if they want to work together to get off the island or fend for themselves.
Although the story is more than fantastical (I mean, what are the chances), it was somewhat entertaining. Ms. Worley writes in a clear, concise hand and I could hear the wind howling and the rain pelting my face as I waited through another storm with the contestants.
Personally, I’m too old for the TikTok craze, I mean, who cares whether you ‘like’ what I’m eating or where I am. With that in mind, it may be clouding my rating somewhat. If this story is how it all ends up in the end, you can keep it!

This book just wasn’t for me. I felt like it was a story that I’d read before but with the twist of influencers.
While I finished it, it wasn’t an easy smooth flowing read.

I had a hard time getting used to the language/writing style. As it was for YA there was definitely a differentiation between the slang and such. I suppose I'm getting old. However, the beginning was a tad confusing and it took me awhile to get a handle on the novel.
I enjoyed it for the most part, but it also wasn't my favourite concept.

What's not to love? Paradise gone wrong AND social media commentary. What a fun book!

10 teenage social media influencers are invited to put their phones away and spend a week on an island filming a new show called "In Real Life." Not long after they arrive, a death occurs and all hell literally breaks loose.

Who is after the influencers, what are their secrets and who can they trust? If you social media stories, vacations-gone-wrong and of course love a thriller, People to Follow is for you!
#stmartins #PeopletoFollow #OliviaWorley

A group of teen influencers go to an island for a reality show. They are deserted there and start being killed off. They all have dark hidden secrets that are being revealed. This was an exciting read and I’d like to thank NetGalley and St.Martins for this ARC that will be released October 31,2023!