People Like Her

DNF @ 28%

yeahhhh no. the characters (especially the husband!) are way too insufferable for me to want to finish this

I can see why this book might not be for everyone. It's heteronormative and the narrator is a bit annoying at times and it, obviously, treads to the whole “tech is ruining our lives!!1!” angle a bit, but I couldn't put it down from start to finish. It truly was a THRILLER. The unlikeable main characters made the story much more three dimensional and the plot twists literally had me gasping. The ‘dangers of tech' angle actually ended up being used in a really authentic and chilling way, and the ending gave me shivers. I'd recommend giving it a shot!

It was OK but a bit too slow for me. Felt like it didn't get exciting until about three quarters of the way into it. Could have even been 50 pages shorter. I read it for a reading challenge I'm doing.

Revealing as to what social media can be really like and gripping till the end.

2.5 stars! A little better than ok!

Talk about the dark side of social media -and then some. Not only did I enjoy this read but it seriously pulled me in- I wanted to know how her social media stalker was going to reveal herself and how bad that was going to be. Turns out- pretty bad. The main character is super unlikeable in a WOW sort of way. But the husband's narrations are compelling and honest and I really enjoyed his parts. What is particularly great about this book is how of-the-moment the subject matter is- which makes for sharp writing in my opinion.

That was a very interesting read into the world of social media influencing and the potential dangers it can pose to you and your family, if you're not careful! Whilst this was a work of fiction, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in real life.

I didn't really like, Emmy, the instamum/social media influencer in this story, more so after the way she treated her best friend! Without giving too much away, it was appalling! At some points I had to wonder if she cared more about her Insta followers, then she did her own family.

I found myself feeling sorry for Dan, although admittedly they did decide to get into the whole social media influencer thing together. I can't imagine it being much fun being dragged from a photoshoot, to a party, to other similar events, especially with a couple of kids in tow.

The third narrator, was someone who blamed Emmy for the death of her daughter and grand daughter. Initially she didn't seem too harmless despite her obsession with Emmy and her family, but as you went further in the book, she started becoming more menacing and you started worrying for Emmy and her family.

It was a very good read, with plenty of twists and turns. It definitely made me want to keep reading.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Ellery Lloyd for the chance to read this book.

Such an amazing read! Goes deep into the Instagram family world and shows how truly vile it is and can be. Some parts even have you rooting for the antagonist — mainly because the instamom was so terrible.

I'm not squeamish at all but a couple times I felt myself wincing.

Just wish the ending wouldn't have been so quickly paced and wouldn't have had such a jump into the future.

The last chapter felt like a daunting warning to all the families that post their loved ones online for followers.

I was so excited for this book. It sounded so interesting and I had hoped I would love it. Unfortunately that was not the case. This book was PAINFUL to get through. It was so boring. Every time anything happened and I got excited about something it was all wrapped up in a few pages and was back to boring. Absolutely nothing happened until the last chapter. It was so many words to say absolutely nothing. I wanted to know what happened so I kept reading until the end, it was not worth it. The end did not pay off, it was not exciting. Even the plot twist was over within like two pages and I did not care. I'm just so disappointed.

My only notes while reading this book were, “I hate them,” and “angry/sad.” None of the characters had any redeeming qualities, which was intentional, I'm sure, but it also made me not enjoy reading this. There were a lot of plot decoys thrown in to make you think that the italicized baddie was doing more than she was. I didn't really understand why they were written in though if there wasn't a twist at the end. It was just unrelated extra crap. I understand it was a husband and wife team writing this book, but it felt like they just tried to fit in too many ideas or they couldn't find a clever enough way to incorporate them together cohesively. I also felt that the ending was slapdash. They were going for cliffhanger or something, but it didn't work for me.

The book follows an instagram influencer who posts primarily about her family and her life as a mother, but we also get to read from two additional points of view. Her husband who seems to hate instagram but couldn???t support the family without it and a unknown third point of view who follows our main character on instagram.

I enjoyed the combination of the three points of view. I think one of the areas where the book excels is how these points of view intermingle and throw you off the scent of the plot. the writing also surprisingly managed to keep me equally engaged with both parents. They are both difficult characters to like. There were times where I sympathised with each of them and I felt like the parents were written more as real people rather than over the top villian/victim caricature.

I liked the depiction of influencers, especially when the book looked at the running of their accounts as brands. I had never really thought about the way being an influencer would affect your friendship groups, familial relationships and the way you stop enjoying events the way you would if you weren???t using it for social media.

The other points of view were enjoyable to read from. The third, unknown, point of view kept the plot propelling forward. I thought I???d figured out who the character was a few times throughout the book but when the reveal came, I was completely surprised.

I was on the edge the whole way through the book. It kept my glued to the page, updating my other half about plot progressions as I went through them and ranked highly for me in terms of enjoyment. There was a non-linear timeline, sub plots that threw me off the scent of any major twists and overall was an enjoyable experience to read.

My only disappointment was how the ending played out. Reading as an ebook meant I had no idea how many pages there were until the end so I felt like I???d reached the final plot event and was so hooked. It was so shocking and well laid through the reveals the third point of view gave us. Unfortunately instead of leaving the book on a brutal cliffhanger with an open ending, the author chose to come back and tie up loose ends. This did mean that the ending was less shocking and brutal, but I felt it ultimately ruined the effect. If the author was looking to avoid the admittedly harsh ending choices I think it would have better served the book to avoid going in that direction entirely.