~Contemporary, Mystery, Adult, and more!~

The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore follows the Iversons; social media influencers who grew up under the spotlight and in front of the camera. The five Iverson sisters have spent over twenty years being filmed for their mothers channel, 'Mother May I.' The once small channel became an empire with their lives plastered everywhere: from online videos to social media campaigns, the girls have done it all. So when their step-father ends up dead, and their mother's house ends up torched, they turn into lead suspects. The sisters have changed since the early years of Mother May I. April, the oldest, is now a successful businesswoman whose life isn't in the spotlight. The twins June and July have their successful channel called 'The Summer Girls,' which is projected to become bigger than their moms. January is living her own life away from social media as a theater tech. The youngest, March, hasn't been seen in 2 years. The girls have changed, but their mother hasn't. As the murder case goes on, resentment and secrets start to bubble over, and tension gets high. But that doesn't mean one of the girls really committed murder, right?

4.5|I enjoyed this book, but I had a hard time rating it. I think a terrific job was done showing the parasocial relationship between fans and influencers. This topic of child exploitation is so current, with countless stories coming out each year. The negatives of growing up this way were perfectly shown and described throughout this book. The pressure they felt to constantly perform and the want to just be kids was so compelling in this story. The building of resentment they felt for their entire lives being shown, especially personal moments being capitalized on, was strong—a fantastic job capturing this side of content creation, especially when pertaining to children. For the story itself, I enjoyed the number of twists throughout the book. The use of different perspectives was genius and allowed me to see both sides of the story. The characters themselves had good and bad points. At times, I empathized with them, while at others, I got frustrated with their decisions. The balance made the characters feel realistic, especially given their odd circumstances. I enjoyed the description of their world. The constant cameras, unrealistic expectations, and their hectic life greatly affected how I viewed the characters.

My biggest complaint in this book is about the pacing. It felt too slow at certain points especially in the beginning when I wasn't too invested in the characters or the story yet. As for the murder mystery aspect, it was a tad predictable. I won't judge too harshly, mainly because I read many murder mysteries and because this book focuses more on the influencer aspect, not the murder. I enjoyed learning about the sister's relationships with each other. I also loved the different perspectives we got to see; it showed how each Iverson viewed their upbringing. I will say my favorite perspective was May herself. Seeing how she justified her actions and viewed her children was interesting. The ending was a great wrap-up and showed how bittersweet it was for the Iversons to finally live their life how they wanted. The only thing I would have liked added to the end was an explanation of what happens to their neighbors' land.

Overall, this was a great book that dealt with the current issue of child influencers and the lifelong effect it has on them. This book could have been an easy 5-star for me if the pacing was easier initially. While some parts of this book were quite light-hearted, I got a melancholy undertone. That was primarily due to my understanding of this happening in reality so often. This book was enjoyable; the story itself was unique and unlike anything I had ever read before. I am definitely interested in reading more by this author!

This book is SUCH a good concept - it just wasn’t executed very well. I would have loved to give this 4 stars. A whodunnit centred around adult children who resent their mother documenting their entire lives online. I think this is something we will begin to see more and more in real life in the coming years, so I was very excited to read this story. While the parts that focused on the dark side of family influencing were very well done, the book as a whole was not written well. There were so many tedious sections of “telling instead of showing” that it was a chore to read at times, despite wanting to know what happened. So overall I consider it a really good concept, I just wish it had been written better.

This is the first book I've read that was written by Anna-Marie McLemore and it was fabulous! I really enjoyed the different perspectives the book was written in and I did not expect the twists that took place. The detailed descriptions of the characters made it so easy for me to envision this as a tv series or movie.

What drew me to this book was the fact that so many children are constantly posted on social media today and their entire lives are online for the world to see, so this book is sort of the reality for a lot of those children (minus the murder mystery....I hope). This was a really fun read and very unique because it is from the POV of the fan base. I haven't seen that done before so it was cool to be on that side of the "spotlight."

Someone has killed the husband of May Iverson, an influencer EVERYONE knows. But who did it? Did May, or one of her five daughters?

You get to see how growing up in the spotlight was like for the daughters, and how if affected their lifestyles. It was easy to get invested in this book.

This is the first time I’ve read something written in a style where you also get to see a fans point of view but like collectively. Seeing how famous people in the spotlight are seen and how fans pick a part every single thing that happens is interesting too. They started pointing fingers at who did it and what their motives were. They would find “evidence” as well to say who they thought did it. It’s honestly wild because this happens a lot in reality and seeing it written was definitely interesting and eye opening.

This book is a captivating murder mystery that’ll make you wonder who did it. The ending though!! 👀👀👀

Unexpectedly poignant, deeply entertaining, and mildly prophetic: The Influencers is a real stand out, one I'll be thinking about for much longer than I would have anticipated.

I enjoyed the concept of the book and the way it was written. I did get a bit bored when I found it to be uneventful and wordy at times. Overall though the insight and intriguing content about influencers and social media was enjoyable. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

when my mom enters a worst mom in the world competition and May Iverson shows up :///

What I loved?
The writing felt natural and realistic for the subject matter.
It was SO funny!!
I LOVE love the Iverson siblings and I truly wish we got more of them. Just more background and more of their lives in general
This was such a great take on mommy bloggers, true crime bloggers AND watchers, out of touch influencers, and the worst of the worst - gym bros.
THE ENDING HAD ME CRYING DA HELL

What I wasn't a fan of?
Not much if I'm being honest! My only complaint is that the mystery / murder plot fell flat but that's only because I cared more about the drama with the family and the family itself.
the timeline towards the end got confusing as hell.

Would recommend, would read again.

Very interesting book on influencers who are all online all the time shown in the spotlight of their social media. This book covers a murder and the 5 suspects are the 5 daughters. This book has a pacing issue, It was lacking at times. Overall it was an interesting read!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this advance readers copy in exchange for my honest feedback! Really enjoyed reading this one! Interesting take on the dangerous of being an influencer especially in today’s world!

I have a feeling that this book will be a lot of young people's reality in the upcoming years, especially those who were raised in front of a camera and constantly posted online for "content" In this book we follow a family of social media influences and there is a mystery of who killed the matriarch's second husband. Was it her or the five daughters she raised in the spotlight? This was an interesting read but I felt like the pacing could've been better.

This was a fun read. Social media and technology has taken over everything and to see it from a family of influencer was interesting. I was curious as to who could have killed the husband. The "fans" on social media are scary and what you post online can live there forever. This was fascinating and I enjoyed reading this book.

Someone has killed the second husband of family influencer May Iverson - did she do it, or did one of her five daughters, who grew up in the spotlight she cultivated, do it?

This story had such an interesting premise and did not disappoint. Seeing how growing up in an influencer family affected each of the children was incredibly interesting. I was sucked into the story from the first page.

Also, seeing the story unfold from the perspective of the fan base was such an interesting experience - and so fitting given how social media works. Public figures are picked apart constantly and discussed on multiple online platforms in the exact way that the fan base perspective unfolded. Seeing how fans immediately started pointing fingers, placing guilt, and gathering “evidence” on people they don’t actually know was poignant, fitting, and incredibly realistic.

This was a solid mystery, but even more so an amazing look into the digital realm and how it affects those who grow up in it as well as a look into family dynamics. Four stars from me. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I really really REALLYYYY wanted to love this. I could see so much potential in it, but it just didn't hit the mark for me.

I found this book to be so lackluster, dragging and a bit all over the place. I found it kind of hard to follow what was going on and to discern what was relevant information. A lot of the content of this book felt like filler to me at times.

This book has such an amazing premise that so much can be done with! The dangers of child influencers and the power given to influencers in general...and that leading to murder?! Such a fun murder mystery concept.

Weirdly, I think this would make such a good tv show! I kind of really want this to be a tv show. I really think it would work so well in that format.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

This was such a sharp take on influencer culture wrapped in a fun murder mystery. The husband of an extremely famous influencer is murdered and his wife and her five daughters are the prime suspects. The daughters have had their entire lives broadcast on social media and while some continue to make their living off of their social media presences, others resent what this exposure has created in their own lives. I loved the way this story is told - through the perspectives of May, the mother and original influencer, and her daughters, and then alternating chapters told in a sort of greek chorus of the rabid fans who follow May and her family on social media. Through the chapters told via the followers and fans, the writing slyly pokes at the ramifications of posting your private life for public consumption ; the parasocial relationships, the nonexistent boundaries, the obsessive fans who feel you owe them. I felt that the daughters and May were well-developed characters and it didn’t take much time for me to become familiar with each woman, with one (intentional) exception. The book was a quick read, easy and entertaining, even when making a serious point.

loved this, anna-marie’s adult debut is a delight, i had a great time reading this, influencer culture is frankly harrowing and thought this was an incredibly fun and also harrowing look at that via fiction.