Allow Me to Introduce Myself

And possibly more stars ...

This book absolutely knocked me for six. I'd been reading a few books but this was the one I looked forward to most. Then I got to two thirds through and had to stay up half the night to finish because I couldn't bear not knowing the outcome.

We follow the story of Ańụrị and her step-mother Ophelia. Anuri's birth mother died when she was born and Ophelia, first her nanny then her step-mother had fallen I'm love with the little girl before falling for her father. Yes, wonderful, everything is happy happy.

However we meet Anuri much further down the line. She has rejected both parents and now just wants a relationship with her half-sister Noelle. She is also desperate to rescue her little sister from the pain she has gone through in her formative years.

And why all this pain? Because Ophelia has curated Anuri's image almost since birth and now has a thriving social media mumfluencer presence at the expense of her daughters wellbeing. Anuri wants it all to go away and she doesn't want Noelle to suffer either because it's looking very much to Anuri like Noelle's online presence will be even more profitable.

To add to the distress, her father Nkem only ever backs his wife. In not dealing with the grief of loss he also rejected the child of his late wife. Anuri has lost out all ways.

Thankfully she has good friends, a stubborn nature and a determination to get hers and Noelle's images off the internet for good. It won't be easy and for every thrust she makes, Ophelia parries.

There are dirty tricks galore which all serve to feed in to Anuri's deteriorating mental health. But with the arrival of a cease and desist order at Ophelia's door what will be the outcome of a potential court case?

This book will make you sit up and think about all those "innocent" pictures that are posted. Who owns the right to your image? And what if you are a child? Can you say no? And what happens when you do?

To say I yelled at the parents a lot would be an understatement. This book is horrific in that this is an extreme example but it certainly makes you think about the laws surrounding the use of images - and where they might end up if they are of a small child.

Brilliant. Excellent writing. Gripping story. I'd recommend this to anyone even if you know nothing about social media it still brings up a whole host of parenting, self-esteem, child "abuse" and mental health issues.

Thankyou so very much to Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for the advance review copy.