Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter!

This is a smashing debut novel!!! The twists throughout were so good, but the one at the end? Unreal. I have so many questions. Was Hazel really the one behind SABI, or was Evie just being manipulative? At one point, it did cross my mind that maybe Hazel was the one behind it, but then why did she struggle with money so much? Everyone in this book was unlikeable and unreliable, but I ate it up! Please give us more, Olivia.

The book is a mix of thriller and social commentary, which I found pretty interesting. It starts off with a solid thriller vibe, but toward the end, it shifts into a more predictable, suspenseful direction. What I really appreciated was how authentic the author was in addressing social media, influencers, and momagers—it definitely made it a great YA read. But as an adult, I felt like it didn’t have the same depth or emotional connection that you get from reading articles or just observing social media in real life. The author's take on the topic was good, but I think the developmental aspect could’ve been fleshed out more. The middle part dragged on a bit, and the two-part ending felt a little drawn out. That said, it was still intriguing, and I’m curious to see what the author does next. The audio notes were a mixed bag—Evie's child voice was grating and kind of annoying, though the other voices were fine. It was also tricky to tell whether Evie’s voice was the main narrator or if it was a separate voice actor. Overall, the focus on social media and influencers was engaging, but I wish the author’s take had a bit more nuance.

Thank you to Netgalley

I have loved Olivia Muenter's work for a long time and was so excited to read her debut novel. This was SO smart and I absolutely was shocked by the ending. It made me think and gave an insider's view into the lives of a social media influencer, while also being incredibly unique. Olivia has such a great voice and I can't wait to read what she puts out next.

This was so good! It is about a child influencer who grows up, and then goes missing. I loved it, and it seemed incredibly realistic. This book is seriously the reason that I never lost my children online. Everyone should read this!!

There are a lot of valuable lessons woven into this book.
The pernicious poison social media can spread.
The addictive nature of online stuff including being an influencer.
Lastly, the boundaries that become blurred, broken, and bad.
I think there is a lot of relevancy to the book.

There's no doubt that at this point in history, social media is toxic and much of what you see is fake ... or at least heavily, heavily curated. This is not real life, yet people are drawn to the aspirational fake realities they follow on their phone screens, living vicariously through others more than they engage in their own life. No one perpetuates the myth of "perfection" more than influencers, that breed of social media user more often that not getting famous and rich off of the naiveté of their followers. They are the literal embodiment of "fake it until you make it."

Olivia Muenter's debut Such a Bad Influence, like many other contemporary novels these days, is about the influencer industry and how it dupes people to actively follow quasi-celebrities by way of influencers, while said influencers peddle them an unattainable life funded by ad revenue and collabs. When you are getting paid millions, you may just say anything, and it is up to the discerning of us to separate the wheat from the chaff.

But I digress. Muenter's engaging novel explores what happens when a child is literally raised up as an influencer, gaining her own account by the age of 12, and coming of age amidst the endless, unfiltered opinions of others. In the case of mega child-turned-teen influencer Evie Davis (@evelyn), she simply disappears during a TikTok live stream. Her socials subsequently go dark, stirring up a frenzy amongst her followers as everyone tries to figure out what happened to Evie Davis?

No one wants to solve the mystery more than Evie's older sister Hazel, who watched her little sister get launched into the social media spotlight by their mother at a tender young age. Hazel, who prefers a lowkey lifestyle, returns to her mother and sister's opulent home to dig through the dark and troubling truth of Evie's life. Did something happen TO her, or did she MAKE something happen?

Peppered with relentless reddit threads, provoking podcast episodes, and unhinged comment sections, Such a Bad Influence is a multimedia lover's dream, combining the technology of the digital age with a compelling story about social media gone wrong. Such a Bad Influence commences with a strong opening, pulling readers instantly into the disappearance of Evie and the frenzy created in her wake. Anyone familiar with the ways of the internet can imagine how the disappearance of a prominent influencer would serve as fodder for endless speculating and snarking on social media, and Muenter leans hard into our most unsavory tendencies to find gratification in watching the unraveling of someone who seemingly has it all. But has it all Evie does not, as it soon becomes apparent through Hazel's sleuthing. Evie might have portrayed one life to her adoring fans, but reality is something entirely different ...

While generally intoxicating and true to the nauseating current state of social media, Such a Bad Influence does meander through the middle of this story, making the novel much longer and tangential than it needs to be. I also wasn't a fan of the truth behind Evie's disappearance, perhaps because it was written in at the end so hastily and seemingly out of place.

Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter is a timely exploration of the dangers of social media and the impact on the lives of young people.

Hazel and Evie are sisters, Hazel is older, struggling to get by, whereas her yonger sister Evie is a mega-viral influencer and hugely popular. Hazel adores her sister and is protective of her. She does not want any of Evie's money, but she wants to be sure noone in Evies orbit is taking advantage. However, when Evie's live-stream cuts out and Evie disappears, Hazel has to go against everything she belives and jump out of her comfort zone, deep diving into the world of social media to discover what happened to her sister and moreover, where she is

Love love love this book! So on pointnt for these times and an essential read for anyone making a living from Social Media. Awesome flow, powerful narrative, great dialogue and extensive references across the SocMed spectrum. Brilliant

Thank you to NetGalley, Quirk Books and the author Olivia Muenter for this ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

An interesting take on the dangers of social media, as one of the main characters suddenly goes missing after posting a live video. Will be recommending!

I haven’t had much time to read lately, but I have had a lot of late night pumping/feeding sessions so I grabbed this audiobook by @oliviamuenter. Olivia is one half of the podcast @badonpaper and I wanted to be able to listen to their monthly book chat.

Such a Bad Influence is about Evie, a social media star almost from birth. Her mom filmed a video that went viral when she was only five and ever since, her mom has broadcast their family lives. This also includes Hazel, Evie’s older sister by 10 years. Hazel is removed from the spotlight, but still follows her families movements on social media. She also hasn’t spoken to her mother in years.

Evie suddenly goes missing from a live video stream and sets the internet on fire. Everyone wants to know what happened to her. Hazel is worried and reunites with her mother to see if maybe she knows what happened. Does Evie’s influencer boyfriend know? What about any of her other influencer friends? Hazel won’t rest until she finds Evie.

I really liked the dark side of influencer life in this book. It seems so fun and easy, but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes. (We know this as Bookstagrammers!) I listened to the audiobook and I enjoyed the full cast. I also like how the book included Reddit threads and tweets wondering what happened to Evie.

Thank you @librofm and @quirkbooks for my gifted ebook and ALC. Such a Bad Influence is out now.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #QuirkBooks for this ARC. WOW, the twist and turns of this book kept me reading. I enjoyed the instagram connection between a mother and her young daughter becoming influencers. We see it all the time, are parents exploiting their children for views and money and how this effects the family dynamic. You will never see the ending coming, I sure didn't. The only reason it was not a 5 star is because, at times the story moved slow. I will defiantly read more by Olivia Muenter.

This book was a really great debut novel. I was really excited to read it since I have been a fan of Olivia a Bad On Paper Podcast. This was intriguing without being too scary and. Really good beginner thriller for anyone starting to get into the genre. I also found th influence of so interesting!

Hazel Davis is stalled out: her career sucks, she hates where she lives, and she can’t help but compare herself to her younger sister Evelyn, who is a bona-fide influencer with millions of followers. Ten years younger, Evie came of age on the internet and now that she’s eighteen, she’s set to fully take over her multi-million dollar career from her momager. But then Evie disappears in the middle of a livestream, and Hazel’s worst instincts about the darker side of fame appear to come true. As Hazel tries to find her sister, she must confront the darkest parts of their family’s relationship - and the darkest parts of the internet to uncover the truth. This buzzy thriller, from one of the hosts of the Bad on Paper podcast, was pretty good! I loved the exploration of what might happen to a child influencer who came of age on the internet and thought that Muenter did a particularly good job of skewering the terminally-online (the snippets of commenters snarking on influencers on Reddit posts is pitch-perfect). What worked less well for me was the way the “mystery” of Evie’s disappearance dragged on, and the book’s “shocking” reveal in the final pages that I saw coming a mile away. Still a really fun read and perfect for the pool or beach.

For this being the author's debut novel, this was a solid little mystery! Less “thrillery” than I expected but more gripping than most thrillers I've read lately.

I loved the commentary on social media and it's impact on children- something I've thought about for awhile. I liked that it was largely female characters, critical of police, and the mixed media format kept it fresh.

Maybe I'm just too old and disconnected, but the subject matter made this feel pretty young. Hazel didn't read as a woman nearing thirty and I forgot that we weren't reading all about teens for a bit (could lead us back to impact of social media attention at a formative age though). The “big reveal” was pretty easy to spot coming, again making it feel more YA than adult. I don't know how well this will age with all the topical references.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

As a non-thriller reader, this was the thriller for me. I've heard the author talk about this book for quite some time on her podcast and her insider view on influencing is sooooo interesting. the twists were unpredictable, the story felt feasible (which is sometimes not the case in thrillers). Excited to read what she writes next!

Thank you so much for the early read; I enjoyed unraveling the mystery along with the main character. It felt like a fresh take on a story we see play out all too often in the headlines. The pacing was excellent and the characters well developed!

Such a Bad Influence's premise and marketing immediately caught my eye - I love a good thriller, and approaching a mystery through the lense of influencer culture was an intriguing hook. That being said, I'm sorry to say I wouldn't recommend this book. The entire novel felt incredibly heavy handed with its commentary on social media, to the point that I felt like I was reading a thesis or a think piece rather than a thriller. Although it had clever and creepy moments, to me, the mystery itself never reached a crescendo, and it petered out a bit disappointingly. In my mind, the best element of the novel was the relationship between the two sisters, and how well that was portrayed - but even that got distorted by the eleventh hour. Great concept, great cover, but the execution left a little to be desired. Thank you to Quirk Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

OLIVIA MUENTER’s thriller debut, SUCH A BAD INFLUENCE, takes a hard look at influencer culture, when one of its darlings, Evie Davis, disappears while she’s in the middle of doing a livestream. It’s up to her older sister Hazel to find out what happened to her, even if that means returning to the life she ran away from.

At just eighteen years old, @evelyn is a powerful force in the lifestyle influencer world, with a slew of followers and a multimillion-dollar career. As a child, her family had a popular YouTube channel and when a video of Evie dancing with her father went viral, it launched the Davis family into a whole new world of online fame.

Hazel was 15 at the time and had zero interest in leading a public life. She’s worked hard to stay deep behind the scenes, but as theories and internet gossip around Evie’s disappearance grow, Hazel makes the reluctant return home, to find her sister and to confront her own past. And it turns out that while @evelyn may have a huge fan base, there is a dark side to fame and it seems to have come for Evie.

SABI is a slow burn of a thriller, interspersed with Reddit threads and podcast transcripts. OLIVIA MUENTER’s strong writing is infused with an authenticity and behind-the-curtain look at influencer life. And while a wholly enjoyable thriller of a story, it also raises questions about living an online life and the trappings come with it.

It’s no secret I’m a massive fan of OLIVIA MUENTER. Her podcast @badonpaperpodcast and Substack are staples in my life and I was so excited to add this thriller to my collection of things to fan over.

I've been really into books (and documentaries) about the effects of influencer culture — whether you're a creator, viewer, or both — and this is an interesting one. I don't want to give too much away, but it's interesting to read a novel about the experience and effect of being involved in this culture from a young age and what that can do to a person, whether a willing participant or not.

This was an unusual book. Several times I was questioning what the hell was going on. And then I got to the end and now I don’t know what to think.

The main thing that stood out about this was the characters. Literally all of them were terrible. The mom was an asshole and she I’m not gon lie she freaked me the hell out lmao All those boxes? Absolutely not. The podcast? Again, NO. And then there was the sister. She really tried to act all high and mighty but still did the exact same thing. Evelyn seemed like the only sane one to get tf outta there, but the ending determined that was a lie lol just like I said in my initial reaction on Goodreads, the whole family was just one big yikes.

The thriller part of this took a bit of a nose dive tho. It started good, but then it just got weird. And then once the questions started yettting answered it got weirder and then boring. The ending was good, but it was quite literally the end. And y’all know how I feel about things that end that way.

I did enjoy the social media aspect of this tho. Some mommy influencers that read this might be a little mad lol But I’m here for it. This is a side they have undoubtedly never even thought of. So maybe they might make them thing differently later on.

This was a weird little ol book. But it was so accurate that I can’t say I didn’t like it? Idk how i really feel about this lol I did wish some things were different, like a better ending, but again, that’s subjective I know. But just like I asked about the other thriller I just read the other day, CAN WE STOP ENDING BOOKS LIKE THIS?

Real rating 3.5