This is a heartwarming cautionary tale about the external validation we seek from strangers when we reveal our lives on social media and the privacy we forsake when we post about our kids. It’s also a thoughtful, well told story that reminds us it is never too late to change and never too late to make amends to those we love and must protect. Very engaging and current in its examination of social media influencers and how their choices impact the necessary privacy of our children. Great book club read for contemporary women’s fiction audiences. Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the privilege to read.

I loved this debut! Erin Quinn-Kong asks the big questions we should be reckoning with. How much privacy are we entitled to and what are the long-lasting implications of sharing our children on social media?

I can't wait to read whatever Quinn-Kong writes next!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC.

I loved this book. I loved seeing the conflict from both Mia and Whitney's side. I even loved the posts from "Hate Follow". The best part about this book, for me, is the absolute reality behind it. I am certain that what happened to Mia and Whitney in this story will 100% happen to families in the future. Just so good.

4.5 stars.

It has been said that influencers will soon surpass movie and music stars as the new “it” celebrities. While the children of stars have often been considered to be “off-limits” to the media and paparazzi, does the same principle apply to the children of influencers with a huge following … especially when said influencers have built their brand on the backs of their children?

Erin Quinn-Kong’s Hate Follow raises some very interesting questions with real-world implications. What degree of privacy is owed to the children of influencers, or to any child in fact, in this age of social media? In a time when daily photo updates of children are posted on the Internet from the moment of their birth, chronicling their every milestone and embarrassing moment, what say do these children have in what is shared about them on social media for the entire world to see?

Such sets the background for the story Quinn-Kong tells in the absorbing Hate Follow. When a teenage daughter says “enough is enough” in regard to the personal family moments her influencer mother shares on social media, she throws their lives into a tailspin, threatening her mother’s livelihood and ability to support their family as a widow, while also setting a precedent for future cases that are sure to arise as more and more children express the desire to not be featured on their parents’ social media.

I love issue-oriented novels that shine a spotlight on current events or real world hot topics. Momfluencers have, in some ways, replaced the stage mom, no longer needing to live through and gain attention and praise through their children. Instead they produce the same high by building a platform that places themselves on a shiny pedestal while “likes” are heaped on them for their stellar (albeit carefully curated) parenting skills. Hate Follow’s thought-provoking narrative will have readers questioning the ethics of parenting in the digital age, firmly drawing a line in the sand and asking you where you stand.

I found Hate Follow to be thoroughly enjoyable and engaging. Told from both the point of view of Whitney, the mom, and Mia, the daughter, we see both sides of this controversial issue. Do parents have a right to share info and photos of their kids with the world considering said children wouldn’t even be on this Earth if it weren’t for them, or do parents have a responsibility to protect their children’s privacy at all costs? Go into Hate Follow prepared to face some tough questions as you tackle this issue alongside Whitney and Mia.

Hate Follow is an easy read, and I appreciated the extremely modern subject matter - the children of early influencers are a fascinating topic, and we are only just starting to get to the point where they have their own agency. That being said - this lacked a certain amount of nuance that I expect from an adult title. I actually had to check and see if this was YA, because I felt like Mia's voice was stronger than Whitney's was. It was also very easy to sympathize with Mia's issue, but it didn't in any way feel like she tried to see her mother's side of the story. Maybe I sympathize too much with the parental figure, but I feel like it's pretty out of line for a teenager to suddenly and capriciously dictate that a parent change the entire way that they are funding a single parent family, AND extended family members! Maybe try and walk a mile in your Mom's shoes first, and see what she is dealing with, before you try and take away her sole source of income.

So, great/interesting concept, needed some more nuance to really make it work for me as an adult title.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Hate Follow by Erin Quinn-Kong is a dual-POV contemporary novel following Whitney and Mia, a momfluencer and her oldest child, as Mia grows more and more concerned with Whitney’s career. There are also short intermissions from a blog called Hate Follow, which snarks at influencers but has strict rules to maintain privacy for non-influencers.

Mia raises good points regarding her right to privacy and I saw reflections in how she viewed certain things to the way I hear teenagers on social media talking about them. It helps to highlight the generational gap and put the reader in the POV of a modern teen. Because Gen Z is the first generation to grow up with social media, they are very often the ones feeling the ramifications and joys of it firsthand. Hate Follow helps to highlight this, drawing attention to potential consequences and how the law has yet to catch-up with the internet.

For Whitney’s POV, even if you don’t like momfluencers, you still do feel compassion for her. A great deal of her popularity is rooted in her sharing her feelings surrounding her husband’s sudden death. We speak often in social media spaces about how important it is to normalize mental health discussions and grief so Whitney doing just that felt timely. Where Whitney goes wrong is sharing a picture of a distraught Mia at the funeral without Mia’s permission.

One of the best parts was how there are snippets of conversations regarding how the children of momfluencers should be paid for their work. Mia originally doesn’t view it as work and I’m sure many other children don’t either, but the point is made clearly that if the children’s lives were used to make content to bring money into the house, they are owed a cut of that profit. It’s a much needed conversation that we should be highlighting more.

I would recommend this to readers looking for a work exploring the impact of social media on families, fans of contemporary novels that focus on social issues, and those looking for a book that highlights the POV of both the mom and child in momfluencer spaces

I enjoyed the start of this book but feel it fell a little flat. I didn't really agree with Whitney or Mia. And I found it a bit far fetched that adults would help a 15 year old girl sue her mother. Overall it was a good read with some thoughtful commentary on social media. Thank you to net galley and the publisher for the ARC!

This one is sure to get book clubs talking! Full of characters making excruciating choices, and lots of questions at the end. The plot follows the story of a family torn apart by social media, diving deep into issues from multiple perspectives. A great read!

Hate Follow is such an important and timely book. Without judgment, and with nuance and care, Erin Quinn-Kong highlights the pitfalls and repercussions of sharing so much of our lives, and our childrens' lives, online. Hate Follow highlights and adds to the discourse around whose story you are allowed to tell online, and what it means to create an online footprint for our children without their consent. You will fly through this book, and empathize with each of the fully drawn characters as they weigh the moral issue tearing their family apart. Hate Follow will make you think, and rethink about your own relationship with the internet, and will be the book you will want to discuss with everyone you know as soon as you finish.

I hate giving negative reviews but Hate Follow just wasn’t for me. I love the premise of the book, especially in a social media/internet world, but to me this book fell flat. The characters were likable but the dialogue between the teen characters seemed forced, there were a lot of repetitive details and sentiments in each chapter and the ending was a little lackluster.

Overall a decent book but I found myself skimming some pages because I was bored of reading practically the same sentences rewritten in each chapter.

Thank you to GoodReads and the publisher for the ARC.

This book tells a story I think we will see a lot of in the future-children of influencers fighting for their privacy. As someone who does not like influencer culture when it involves kids, this was right up my alley.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing this book, with my honest review below.

Hate Follow is a book I’d recommend for parents and especially influencers (or wannabe influencers, especially those with children). Following momfluencer Whitney and her family, we see teenaged daughter Mia rebel against her very packaged and curated for the gram and blog life. I thought all perspectives were fairly represented, leaving me as the reader suitably conflicted. I also found the plot believable until the end (influencers pull in a lot of money, is all I’ll say).

This may not be for everyone’s interests depending on whether you are intrigued by the premise, but in an internet world where we all share far too much, a very real issue has become how much we share of our children outside of their control, and this was a great piece on that.

Hate Follow is a propulsive, thought-provoking novel that will spark a much-needed conversation about children's privacy and the Internet. 

From the outside, momfluencer Whitney Golden seems to live a charmed existence — four darling children, big beautiful house, new boyfriend whose identity everyone is dying to learn. But underneath the glossy filter, she's struggling to pay for her mom's retirement home, her sister's college tuition, and her brother's gambling debts. And then her teenage daughter, Mia, decides she's had enough of her life being plastered all over Instagram. Whitney can't just STOP being an influencer—her family's whole livelihood depends on it—but when Mia sues her for privacy violation, Whitney's life spirals out of control.

I tore through the pages of this book, eager to find out what would happen next to these incredibly relatable characters. The genius of this novel lies in how Quinn-Kong makes you sympathize with both Whitney and Mia, even though their goals are directly at odds with each other. Most importantly, Hate Follow begins a conversation that's long overdue—what *are* children's rights when it comes to privacy and the Internet? Is that cute photo of your toddler on the potty or your grade schooler with underwear on his head as innocent as you think it is? What happens when these over-documented children start applying for jobs and college, or simply decide they deserve a say in how their story gets told? There's so much to discuss here; perfect for book clubs and reading groups!

Be prepared to buy some extra copies of this powerful debut. Fast-paced and compelling, Hate Follow is one of those books you’ll read and then immediately want to discuss with everyone you know. The mother-daughter relationship at the heart of the book is both deeply emotional and relatable, with two female characters you’ll root for even amidst their missteps and struggles to do what’s right. Erin Quinn-Kong does a superb job weaving a riveting plot with a complex modern-day parenting topic of which we’ve only begun to understand the implications. You won’t be able to put this book down—or stop talking about it once you’re done. I loved it! Quinn-Kong is a writer to watch!