As someone who works in influencer marketing "The Followers" was a great read as it really resonated with me! I really enjoyed diving into a darker side of social media and the implications of showing your whole life online. I got some Haunting Adeline vibes from the hunting aspect of this thriller. If you like fast paced stories that give you the chills I would highly recommend giving this book a read!! I finished this ARC in one sitting and could not put it down - I love a good fast paced thriller so it was perfect for me.

Thank you the Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

This was a great thriller that reminds you to be cautious of those that really don’t want you to post pictures of you together online. This time, it’s not about cheating….it’s murder. Molly is a single mother that is a social media influencer. She thinks she has met the one, even though he is so insistent that he is off the grid and prefers to be private. Until that picture is posted. The book will take you on twists and turns, and you will keep guessing how it ends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

i really enjoyed this book! i liked the social media parts and following different POVS of
each. i did not expect the twist at the end! whew! what a wild ride.

Molly Sullivan is an influencer. She is one of those women obsessed with being online, with revealing her "true self" to her over 1 million followers. She shows off her 5 year old daughter and every aspect of their life. Nothing is off limits, including her pap smear. Nothing to hide.

She marries a man with everything to hide, and has trouble understanding boundaries.

Is this the start of a romcom? Because I'm pretty sure there has to be 25 romcoms you could list in the comments of this review with that same premise.

But I bet those romcoms don't have a woman many hundred miles away spotting a fleeting glimpse of "Mr Sullivan" and recognizing him as the man who murdered her sister and stole her niece, now do they?

I cannot relate to Molly, and not just because of her influencer status. She's perpetually positive, obnoxiously optimistic, crushingly cheerful. But she's also, seemingly, honest. In her POV, she talks about the trials and tribulations, what led to her starting up this online presense and what causes her to keep it going.

Now, who I do relate to is Olivia, the sister to Christina, a woman murdered when Liv was just 17 years old. The story opens the night Christina is killed and it is, quite frankly, infuriating. Grandma should've known better and done better, but it's Olivia who lives with the guilt of not making a middle of the night phone call to her soon-to-be-beaten-to-death sister.

All Olivia wants is her niece back, and the man who murdered her sister brought to justice. To accomplish this task, she ends up befriending Molly, and finds out way more than she anticipated.

This story starts strong, but meanders in the middle. I really liked Molly in the beginning, and her straight forward personality didn't allow any room for those "miscommunications" that so happen here, or the "I'm hiding things from my husband and looking hella suspicious the whole time." Nope. Molly's like, hey, I opened this safe and found these super shady documents what's up with that?

Which is so refreshing!

But ye gods, mid way through I was siding with the Molly hater forums featured at the start of some of these chapter. She's just too fucking positive, naive, and trusting.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut that being said, once I barreled past that point, it picked back up again. I was trying not to fall for the red herring but still kind of sliding down the hill. Then I got worried we were about to have a nobody as the big reveal because I absolutely could not see who it was.

As I said on the last thriller I read, I am very rusty and my ability to spot the whodunnit has atrophied. So, I don't know if this really was as good of a reveal as it was. Because at the moment it was revealed, I said, aloud, in my car, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

I am a weirdo and I am fine with it.

Despite the meandering, I really did enjoy this. And I can see other people liking it, as well. Though the negative reviews have some points I can't argue with. Still a solid 3.5 stars. I'll round up to 4.

This book was so good! I stayed up late just to finish it because I HAD TO KNOW how it ended! The characters were better than I had imagined and I loved the plot!

This gave me Gone Girl vibes. From the first chapter it hooks you and makes you curious about what's going to happen on the next page. You want to cheer and question the characters all at the same time. The past isn't always the past and secrets aren't always buried like everyone thinks. Stay tuned for an up and down ride and what secrets unfold. You think you have an idea of what may happen but social media is as creepy as it sounds.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

The Followers is told from several perspectives as a woman, Liz, tries to befriend influencer Molly in order to find out if her elusive husband is involved in Liz's sister's death. Godfrey's choice of a very on trend topic, plus realistic characters and a fast paced plot make The Followers a fun read. There was some corniness here and there, but nothing that detracted severely from my enjoyment of the book.

This has been a banner year for thrillers centered around social media influencers but that alone isn’t enough to make a novel take off. Bradeigh Godfrey knows that, and she wisely didn’t fall into the common tropes but crafted a page-turner that upends your expectations and keeps you glued to the story.

The story center around Molly, the influencer, Liv, the sister of a murdered woman, and Scott, Molly’s husband and a man who’s a big of a recluse and may be hiding secrets of his own. I found all the main characters likeable, and felt I knew where the story was going, but then the author went a different way and twisted the narrative, leaving me admiring her plotting skills.

The ending could have been a bit more punchy but it was still satisfying and I’ll be looking at what Godfrey writes next in this genre. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers, cat and mouse stories, and like spending time on social media, this one’s definitely for you.

a fast-paced influencer thriller that’s also a warning about how much you share online

I was a huge fan of Bradeigh’s first thriller, “Imposter,” and could not wait for “The Followers.” Influencer thrillers are one of my favorite subgenres, and this one married in a good dose of domestic suspense, which is also a favorite.

Influencer Molly Sullivan has built a following sharing her life as a single mom. When she posts an Instagram story about her new fiancé, Scott’s he freaks out and makes her delete it. But it’s too late — two people who were looking for him have already seen it. One of them is Liv, who’s certain Scott killed her sister and took off with her niece nine years ago. Liv uses Molly’s robust social media to track her down and befriend her — while in the background, someone even more dangerous now knows where Scott is.

The murder of Liv’s sister unfolds in a small town very much like the one I’m from, and Bradeigh expertly crafted a crime that was authentic to a small town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. I loved that this plot was a wild ride but easily could have been yanked from the headlines. It felt like one of those stories that happens in a town you’ve never heard of but is so insane that People magazine picks it up.

If you haven’t read Bradeigh’s first thriller, “Imposter,” also check it out. It’s fantastic, too!

I found this to be a really fun, popcorn style read! It had me hooked from the beginning and although I guessed some of the twists I still couldn’t put it down! There were some parts that felt a little unbelievable but I was having so much fun with it that I didn’t even care! Perfect book for when you’ve got time to binge read; would make a great vacation read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝘼 𝙥𝙨𝙮𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚, 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩.

I requested this book on NetGalley without knowing anything about it. I had just heard great things from early readers so wanted to pick it up. I’ve seen so many good reviews ever since so I might just be in the minority here.

This was a quick read, I found the plot to be super intriguing. I’ve also enjoyed books in the past that focus on the dark side of social media, that was probably my favorite element of this story.

There are multiple POVs (Molly, Olivia, and a minor POV from a mysterious character) and I found each one entertaining. There was so much drama with one of the characters being an influencer mom.

However, the book just felt so over the top in my opinion. I think there was so much potion, but I didn’t like how unrealistic it felt. It took me a while to get hooked on the story, but I’m glad it sped up after a bit. Also, I think the twists were entertaining but I didn’t love the motivation with the villain.

Overall, this is just an average thriller for me. I’ve read so many thrillers over the past few years so it’s difficult finding unique ones, but this was still an enjoyable read.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the review copy and Libro.fm for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!

A fast paced read with a good premise for a thrilling read! Well done on this one it kept me turning those pages for sure.

I feel really bad about this one but this book is just not good. There is some really cringey dialogue about Taylor Alison Swift (to which she is referred to in the book. barf. and i'm a Swiftie!). That cringe only foreshadows what is yet to come. The writing is very amateur but not in the kind of way that is just sometimes found in debuts (which this is NOT) but in a way that makes me wonder how this person published two books. There was a podcast transcript included in an early chapter and the dialogue was the worst podcast I've ever read. It read like a celebrity magazine Q&A that's done totally via email where there is a simple question followed by PARAGRAPHS of writing. No podcast that could be considered moderately popular could operate like that. It was obviously a convenient way to info dump some context for the reader but come on, do it in a more subtle and enjoyable-to-read way.

There are much better books about influencers and podcasts out there. Check out Dark Corners by Megan Goldin, which is a podcaster investigating an influencer who disappeared and has a mysterious connection to a convicted murderer, or Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier, which is about creating a podcast about a woman with a secret past who is accused of murdering her celebrity husband. Both audiobooks are excellent productions are well. Highly recommend.

There are some books you just can't put down, even though you know you should - even if it's very late or you have to wake up early or you have a big presentation the following day. "The Followers" by Bradeigh Godfrey is just one of those books.

Molly, a highly successful social media influencer, posts a picture of her highly reclusive new husband, then quickly takes it down. But it's too late. Liv has seen the picture and is convinced that Molly's highly reclusive husband is the man who murdered her sister and took off with her niece, nine years earlier.

Liv moves to the small Colorado town where Molly and her husband live, and slowly inserts herself into Molly's life in pursuit of the truth.

What follows is a quick paced and engaging peak into a social media celeberty who has trouble making friends, and a pain-filled sister who only sees the worst.

Although you may stay up late reading the Followers, you will never regret the lack of sleep. Thank you so much Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.

We live in a world of "Influencers" and where we think nothing of posting even minute things on social media. I found this book very timely in the way it explored social media, and how it blends the real world and social media and what happens and what happens when those two worlds mesh. This had a lot of twists and turns I didn't see coming. This kept me guessing and glued to my Kindle right up until the very end.

This book is about that imperceptible line between what you share on social media and what is stolen from you by social media. Molly is a perfect example of that influencer who posts her house, her things, and all her favorites (i.e. her passwords) - and then wonders how her house was burglarized 30 minutes after posting from her vacation. Liv is a perfect example of that social media sleuth that orchestrated the burglary. This book explodes with accurate commentary about so many topics, including red flags, hate watching, toxic group think, and living in the moment instead of living to create the moment. There's a good mystery, multiple points of view, and a thrilling ending.

This story was a fun exciting ride that kept me on the edge of my seat! The character switching with the chapters had me engaged and didn't want it to end! If you enjoy social media stories with suspense this one is for you.

Now in a world of social media, it was interesting to read a story following that world. I have yet to dive into any novels involving influences or social media, but I really enjoyed it. I liked how there were a couple chapters within the novel with a POV from a character we didn't know. IT had me guessing who the original "bad guy" was, but gave no hints at who it could have been. Each character was relatable, even if you're not an influence, the reader can relate to Molly and of course Liv was very relatable.

Oof, I love a novel that uses social media to make the story interesting. And that's exactly what Bradeigh Godrey did in this book.

First there's Molly, who, when she was alone with just her infant daughter and penniless, turns her plight into a way to make money online. Molly quickly falls into the online world and prides herself as being very open and honest with her followers.

Then there's Liv, whose life has been put on hold since the death of her sister. After the death of Liv's sister, her ex Sam took their baby and disappeared into thin air.

Until Sam, whose name is now Scott, appears, and then disappears, on Molly's social media.

Liv develops a simple plan - go to Colorado and run her own investigation to figure out if Scott's daughter is her lost niece.

This novel was smart, fast-paced, and a really good read.