People to Follow

By Olivia Worley, Pub date 10/31/2023

4*s. Best enjoyed when you need a good murder mystery.

Publisher’s Synopsis:

“A reality show on a remote Caribbean island. Ten teen influencers. One dead body.

Welcome to “In Real Life,” the hot new reality show that forces social media’s reigning kings and queens to unplug for three weeks and “go live” without any filters. IRL is supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, watched closely by legions of loyal followers. But for these rising stars–including Elody, an Instagram model with an impulsive streak; Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Logan, a disgraced TikTok celeb with a secret; and Max, a YouTuber famous for exposés on his fellow creators–it’s about to turn into a nightmare.

When the production crew fails to show up and one of their own meets a violent end, these nine little influencers find themselves stranded with a dead body and no way to reach the outside world. When they start receiving messages from a mysterious Sponsor threatening to expose their darkest secrets, they realize that they’ve been lured into a deadly game…and one of them might be pulling the strings.

With the body count rising and cameras tracking their every move, the creators must figure out who is trying to get them canceled–like, literally–before their #1 follower strikes again.“

Review:

It’s not often I come across a YA thriller that catches me a little off guard. I didn’t expect this to take the twist it did, but I was happy to be on the ride! In the last two years there have been a lot of influencer survival horror novels, the kind with what basically amount to the MCs being more antihero than hero. I’m a sucker for survival thrillers where isolation or the elements are involved and modern technology is out of reach. I’ve actually devoured three influencer-specific titles like People to Follow within the last six months alone. 

All that to say, this is a genre I’m really loving right now and People to Follow was no exception! It takes a lot for an author to hide the twist from me. I usually suspect it early on, but Worley got me off my game with this one. 

It has the same general premise as most of its counterparts like The Island or Never Coming Home, except the plot for this is brings in a new element entirely: a reality show where influencers with huge followings unplug for the camera. It has all the elements you would expect with a reality show—people finding themselves on an isolated island with their peers, some of which are decidedly not their friends—with no outside contact with the world. Makes for great TV, right? Except…something here is a little off. 

When a storm delays the film crew, leaving the influencers or “creators” stranded by themselves on the island, that’s bad enough. Then one of the least liked people on the island is found dead the next morning. They discover that not only have all ways off of the island been sabotaged, but someone is watching them through the cameras…and they want to play a game. 

Packed with dark secrets and pretty corpses, this one is bound to be the perfect thriller for those who love drama, fear, and big reveals you didn’t see coming.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced ecopy in exchange for this fair and honest review.