Have you ever been scared or freaked out by social media? Do you worry about your privacy and the security of your personal data? I think many of us can relate, and Kathleen Barber’s newest book, Follow Me, addresses this type of scenario in a thrilling way.

The characters and the story of Follow Me by Kathleen Barber feel like the book is set in middle school. That is surprising given the seriousness of the topic. The chapters are short, and nothing much really happens to develop the characters or the depth of the story. Overall, the book is a very quick read. A missed opportunity to showcase a very real and very serious hazard of living life online.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/01/follow-me.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

Great follow up to her debut! Kathleen Barber does such an amazing job weaving in elements of women's fiction that make you truly care about what's going on with these characters with suspense that makes you want to keep reading. Definitely makes you not want to be an Instagram Influencer.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I picked this up looking for an addicting thriller and I was not disappointed. I found myself lost in the book quickly and ironing everything else going on around me!

A thriller that involves a mysterious stalker and social media? Yep- that's right in my wheelhouse. I didn't love "Are You Sleeping" when I read it in 2018, but I'm happy to say Follow Me was much more my speed! This is the kind of thriller that keeps you turning the pages.

Told in alternating perspectives, we meet Audrey, her friend Cat, and the mysterious "him", who stalks his Influencer prey via her social media account. This made me suspect everyone and I definitely wasn't able to guess who he was. The "You" comparisons are pretty spot on- but Audrey was a lot more likable than Joe's Beck :) Recommend!

Audrey Miller moves from New York City to Washington, D.C. to take a position at the Smithsonian. She weaves her many Instagram followers into her professional life, with mixed results that sometimes get a little creepy. She runs into an old friend that’s now an attorney; an old lover; and a skeezy upstairs neighbor that has a key to her apartment. Oh—and she also has a stalker.

Thanks go to Net Galley and Gallery Books for the review copy, and Seattle Bibliocommons for the audio version. This book is for sale now.

I signed on to read and review this book because I was looking for some escapist fun, and that’s just what this is.

The story is told from three first person viewpoints, performed by three different readers on the audio version, which makes it easy to keep up with. In addition to Audrey, we hear from Kat, her old friend from college, and we hear from the stalker, whose chapters are playfully titled “Him.” Throughout the story, our prime focus is to figure out which of the several men that weave in and out of the narrative is the stalker. There are plenty of red herrings, and I was fooled more than once.

In looking back, two aspects make this story stand out: one is the terrific yet terrible museum exhibit that oddly mirrors Audrey’s life; and the voice of the stalker, which—if you hear the audio version, which is what I recommend, having tried it both ways—warbles wonderfully, making the listener feel he’s about to completely lose his shit at any given moment.

While not great literature, this kitschy tale is wonderfully distracting and easy to follow. I recommend it for those that need to take a break from their responsibilities and just wallow.

Follow Me by Kathleen Barber, 336 pages. Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster), 2020. $27.
Language: R (122 swears, 22 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
With over a million followers on Instagram, Audrey is practically a master of social media and branding. She moves to DC for a new job, bringing her closer to her dream job and to some of her fans. Audrey is about to learn that being followed in real life is less exciting than gaining followers online.
What a thrill -- I love the different points of view that Barber wrote so that readers can speculate about who “Him” is, and the twists at the climax are crafted so that everything falls into place believably. These real horrors, including the demented logic of the antagonist, add to the exciting horror of the book but also warn readers to be aware and careful of what they share online. The mature content rating is for implied sex, mentions of masturbation, and illegal activities; the violence rating is for attempted suicide, blood, attempted murder, and stalking.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

‘The internet is a weird place, full of unexpected rabbit holes. Follow them at your own risk—you might discover something interesting, or....’

In a world where social media is the day to day norm for many, myself included, it’s easy to get caught up in our follower count, the joy meeting new people brings to our lives, however, to do so without certain precautions can quickly turn into a real nightmare.

As a viewer of the show Web Of Lies, I knew right away that Barber’s cautionary tale FOLLOW ME (wherein the main character and famous Instagram blogger Audrey Miller becomes prey to an online stalker) would pique my parental interest.

Audrey’s constant dismissiveness in regards to being stalked and her view of those concerned about her, labeling them as ‘overprotective,’ kept pulling me out of the story.

It’s obvious her circumstance meant to be tension-filled; however, it didn’t feel that way at times. As the reader, you experience what Audrey does--seeing the world through her eyes. I have to admit I found it challenging to feign non-irritation as I bore witness to her never-ending state of denial, instead, focusing not on the severity of her situation, but rather on her love life.

Though Kathleen Barber’s FOLLOW ME didn’t tick off all the boxes for me, I am looking forward to reading her novel, ARE YOU SLEEPING.

Thank you, NetGalley and Gallery Books, for loaning me an eGalley of FOLLOW ME in exchange for an honest review.

‘Everyone wants new followers...until they follow you home.’

Having enjoyed Kathleen Barber's first book, Are You Sleeping, I was looking forward to reading this followup. Unfortunately, this book and I did not click. I found myself constantly rolling my eyes at how self-absorbed Audrey was, the "friendship" between her and Cat, and the absolutely stupid decisions every character was making. I know unreliable narrators are really popular right now, but it is too much to ask for just ONE likable character?

This is an interesting and twisty little story that will make you pause before you share your next post on social media.

Audrey is an Instagram influencer, sharing ever bit of her life on social media. At least all the polished, ready for photos parts of her life. Outside of the frame of the photo her life is far more messy. Audrey lands the job of her dreams working as the social media manager for a big museum, but it requires her to move from her beloved NYC to Washington DC. Though she’s lived in NYC for the last ten years, she quickly realizes she has some connections in Washington DC including Cat, her friend from college and fellow sorority sister, and Nick, her ex-boyfriend who she occasionally hooks up with.

Throughout the story we get multiple perspectives: Audrey, Cat, and a person known only as Him. He is a male who is obsessed with Audrey and has read and followed every bit of her online life for years. He also happens to live in DC, which works in his favor as he believes this is fate.

As we learn about each of the characters we find out they all have secrets including Cat, who is now an attorney, trying to get a promotion at work and putting all of her energy into work. But when Audrey comes into her life she has more reason to focus on her social life and the man in her firm she has a crush on.

Everyone’s lives become intertwined and this story will keep you guessing until the very end. And, as I said in the beginning of my review, it will really make you think about not only what you’re putting out on social media for the world to see, but it also makes you think more about the camera in your computer and who may be watching on the other end. Definitely a creepy little thriller that I recommend to anyone who loves the genre.

Thank you so much to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Chilling and disturbing. A well told cautionary tale about how much information you share on social media. Once again I am SO grateful that I was not a teenager or young 20 something when social media was around, I have a feeling I’d be the queen of over sharing. Audrey a very popular Instagram influencer with millions of followers has just moved to Washington DC for a job at a museum. Rather than living with her successful college Bestie Cat. Audrey is residing in a creepy basement apartment, complete with a malfunctioning lock and the landlord’s scary son. Seriously the first time that’s scary guy showed up uninvited in my apartment I would’ve been out of there. But not Audrey she continues to share all her life events on the gram. Not to mention the exhibit she is in charge of at the museum involves replicas of murder Houses. The creep factor in this book was definitely ramped up. I don’t scare easy, but I was definitely tense throughout the large majority of this book. Audrey has a stalker and he/she is bold. So who is watching over every move that Audrey takes? And is it done with love or is it done with hate?

Kathleen Barber has woven together quite the crazy tale. Told from the alternating perspectives of Audrey, Cat, and the stalker. Audrey came across as a very self-centered and self involved girl, but I just think she hadn’t quite figure things out yet. Cat she confuse me and I could not figure out why she was so darn insecure. There are so many potential suspects, so much misdirection. Was the stalker Cat? The ex-boyfriend? The new boyfriend? The creepy landlord’s son? Some unknown entity? I had no idea, and I was definitely shocked by the answer. A well done twisted tale.

This book in emojis 🚉 📱 📸 🥀 🤳🏼 💅🏻 👀

*** Big thank you to Gallery Books for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

As a female, I found this book incredibly creepy. As a reader, I found it an enjoyable read. Sadly, as this book highlighted, there is a very dark side to using social media - you can be tracked or rather, stalked and it's much easier than you think. The most disturbing part of the book was the installation of the RAT on Audrey's computer. YIKES! Despite the harsh realities presented in the story, I still found it to be a quick and entertaining read.

Thank you to Kathleen Barber, Gallery Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. This review was also posted on Goodreads.

Follow Me is the highly anticipated follow up to Barber's bestseller, Are You Sleeping. This timely thriller deals with social media, technology, and our society's need to overshare.
Our main character, Audrey is a popular Instagram influencer with a new job and new life in Washington DC at a prestigious museum working in their social media department. A perfect real job for a girl who is told she is wasting her time taking selfies. But although Audrey has over 2 million followers who hang on her every word, share, or post, she has a real-life that is lonely and disappointing living in a basement apartment with a creepy landlord's son. Is he the one breaking into her apartment? Who left the flowers? Is it the creepy guy from the museum or her old boyfriend? What are the risks when we overshare?
This thriller wasn't as thrilling as I expected but was still an engaging mystery. Audrey's relationships and actions aren't always easy to support but in the end, you don't want Audrey hurt and that kept me reading to find out just what exactly was going on. I personally enjoyed the twisty ending and would have liked more of a backstory for her friend Cat.

I loved this book. So relevant to the world we live in. Are you sharing too much online? Do you really know everyone who is following you on social media? It was creepy and thrilling and overall a great read.

Audrey Miller is a popular Instagram influencer. She documents everything — her entire life shown in a series of pictures and Instagram stories. Her move from New York to Washington DC gives her fresh opportunities to gain new followers, especially since her career at an art museum centers on increasing its social media platform. She also reunites with Cat, her college friend who — a serious and hard-working lawyer — could use some loosening up. She also hooks up with a former flame, a guy she’d never date seriously, but is good for the occasional fun.

What Audrey doesn’t know is that someone’s looking forward to her move to DC. A man has been following her social media page for years now, biding his time to begin the ultimate seduction. He’s unhinged, an obsession so deep that even Joe Goldberg would pause and take notes. This man tracks Audrey, stalks her, triggers her paranoia, all the while he wines and dines her — or tries to. Three men are vying for Audrey’s attention, but which one is her predator? And what role does Cat play in all of this, if any? Audrey doesn’t know Cat all that well, or the resentment she’s harbored for years.

FOLLOW ME is so relevant and relatable. We know narcissism exists. There’s malignant narcissism and healthy narcissism. Audrey’s is somewhere in the middle, the look-at-me, I’m a star type. These people make their lives so public — their information so accessible — that I’m surprised there aren’t more stalkers out there. Truth be told, if you use social media to expand your career, like many of us do, then you’d also know how to maintain some form of privacy. Not so with people like Audrey, who constantly crave praise and attention. This novel focuses on the dangers of TMI on social media, and how people embrace their online personas so much, that letting go of it is almost impossible. This is a great suspenseful novel, and the stalking is terrifying. You don’t know whether to feel sorry for Audrey or to want to whack her in the head and shout, “Snap out of it!” The woman gets thorns delivered to her home, gets an obvious threat with subliminal messages as a comment, and she's still posting stuff on Insta! It doesn't even occur to her to stop. Come. On. The other characters aren’t as well-developed as Audrey, but they add the right amount of “what if it’s her or him” element that keeps you reading.

Downsides? It gets laggy towards the middle. Almost every chapter consists on Audrey getting scared or being paranoid or finding something creepy. It gets repetitive after a while. The great reveal is disappointing as well, but I won’t unpack it here. All in all, FOLLOW ME is a great read for those who enjoy stalker thrillers like YOU, THE WIFE BETWEEN US or THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW. I give it four out of five salted caramel cold brew iced coffees!

This book caught my attention because, nowadays, most people (myself included) are almost constantly updating their lives online. You can find yourself seeing what someone had for breakfast, what activities they did for the day, what they bought at the grocery store, even sometimes "checking in" to places in real-time. With everyone doing it, it's easy not to give a second thought, but the news has been filled with articles and clips of people taking over webcams, baby monitors, etc. Talk about SCARY.

All of that aside, Follow Me is a pretty easy read. Everything flows together nicely, though, at times, the three main POVs seem a little too much, but it all made more sense at the ending. You'll follow along with the lives of Audrey (the main protagonist), her BFF Cat, and "HIM." The chapters switch back and forth between characters and are short enough to keep your attention and keep the story moving along. At times, the characters seem a bit over-exaggerated, and I didn't find myself liking them very much or seeing them as "real."

The beginning was great, but the characters quickly started getting on my nerves a bit. Just a few chapters in, I started getting "YOU" vibes. If you've read that or watched the Netflix series, this is very similar. The similarity wasn't necessarily offputting, but you can see where the storyline is headed if you've read both.

I wasn't a fan of the ending and found myself skimming through the last few chapters. The big twist seemed rushed and hard to follow exactly what was going on.

First line: Everyone on the internet is a liar.

Summary: Audrey is an influencer. She has over a million followers on Instagram. When she decides to take her dream job at an art museum in Washington D.C. she is excited but she does not know that someone waits for her in her new city.

Cat is Audrey’s friend from college. A young lawyer looking to make a name for herself in her law firm. Her best friend arrives from New York. It seems like things are going right for her but maybe everything isn’t as bright as it seems.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed the first 80% of this book. I could not wait to find out who the mysterious “him” was. I loved how the stories interweaved and the hints about Cat’s secret. I was creeped out by the stalker and his methods. This book makes you realize how dangerous social media and the internet can be. It lets someone into your life that you do not know or cannot trust. I kept hoping for some big reveal that would blow my mind but I figured out the stalker fairly early. I hoped that I was wrong and the author was trying to psych the reader out. However, the story fell flat at the end. It was pretty obvious how it was going to end up. It was a four star book until the last 8% of the book. Oh well. It was a still a fun read.

But my favorite part was the art exhibit! The dioramas sound so cool. I would love to see something like this. I like to wander around art museums.

FYI: Beware of who you let follow you on social media!

I've discovered I'm a sucker for a good Instagram influencer thriller. I don't know what it is about that subject, but I just find it fascinating. Follow Me by Kathleen Barber was no exception. I absolutely loved this story. I could not put it down, and when I did finally manage to stop reading and go on with my life, I found myself constantly thinking about the book-the sure sign that you have a real winner. I never saw the ending coming, but what I loved the most was how the author created a cast of potential suspects in all of the main characters. I knew it had to be one of the limited people that we were exposed to, yet I was still floored by the conclusion. Highly recommend this thriller. So good!

A man becomes obsessed with a public figure. He finds ways to stalk her on the internet, taking incredibly creepy steps to make her as uncomfortable as possible while simultaneously trying to make her fall in love with him. This is a stereotypical trope for many, many stories, and while this is an interesting read, there's still just too much going on that lines up with stereotypical tropes.

The main aspect that makes this story interesting, however, is the split POV between three different characters. A lot of authors have a hard time pulling this kind of style off, but Barber nails it through the entire book. There is, of course, the ultimate struggle with every author: there isn't a strong voice with all three characters. Cat seems to be the most interesting of the three, and Audrey has a self-involved feel due to her popular status on the internet. She's not as likable as preferred for the character that's being stalked and should be receiving the sympathy throughout the story.

The ending was predictable. This book would have been a 4 out of 5 if not for the complete downhill spiral of the end. Overall, the read was enjoyable, but it wasn't a huge hit in my eyes. I do like Barber and her style, however, so I'll be reading anything she puts out.

3.75/5, but rounded up to 4 stars. I enjoyed this book more than Kathleen Barber's first novel (which I did enjoy, but didn't love), so I feel like her next book will be even better. I didn't love either of the main characters, especially Audrey. I understand she was supposed to be a vapid, Instagram star, but she was a very unlikable protagonist. It's hard to sympathize with someone who is supposedly terrified all the time but also regularly leaves her door and gate unlocked. Maybe I have read too many thriller novels that I always double-check my locks for no reason. The twist with Cat at the end was a surprise, which I enjoyed. Overall, a solid new novel from Barber but I would have preferred a more likable main character.