Cover Image: Unfollow Me

Unfollow Me

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Member Reviews

This was a good book, but I felt that it had potential to be even better. I enjoyed it well enough and wanted to know what happened, but then felt it was a bit underwhelming at the end. With that said, the ending was at least realistic and I do prefer a realistic ending. It just wasn't quite up to par with the buildup.

This is the first book I've read by Charlotte Duckworth and I'm interested in reading more of her work. I liked the way the story was slowly revealed as you got closer to the 'big reveal'. It allowed the reader to piece together some of what happened before you got there. I also liked the way the characters were slowly revealed and how the reader's opinions may have changed somewhat throughout the story.

Overall, a worthy read. 3.5 stars

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When a popular social media mommy blogger suddenly goes dark, none of her followers can understand why. So they do only what followers should do. Go to social media to ask why and to give their opinion. But none of them could have ever imagined the real reason why.

Violet Young is a married mother of three who has a successful YouTube channel and blog. She holds nothing back. And because of this she has many mothers who follow her because they know she understands them. She is just like them. She is one of them.

So when she shuts down all her social media overnight her followers not only don't understand why, but go through a sort of withdrawal.

Lily has been following Violet's media since her son was born. She is a bit obsessed with Violet and her happy family. As a single struggling parent in a going no where job, no real friends and Violet's posts her only "real" companionship, she determines its her loyal duty to find out what has happened to Violet.

Yvonne is a photographer who is married to a handsome personal trainer. They have been trying to have a child for a while and have been unable. Yvonne follows Violet's comings and goings for other reasons, none which are healthy.

Henry is Violet's husband who although he lends his support to his wife on social media would rather keep their private life private. He would also prefer she give him some attention rather than her followers.
These characters all have something in common. They are all living with secrets and lies. Some unknown to the outside world and some even unrecognized in themselves. And just when you think you have them figured out another curveball is thrown!

Unfollow Me is a story about what social media can do to people from the media star themselves to their followers. It shows the entitlement some people feel once you have allowed them into your life. And how some followers can go from empathizing with their media "crush" to crushing them with their criticism.

Thank you #NetGalley #CrookedLaneBooks #CharlotteDuckworth #UnfollowMe for the advanced copy.

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What happens when you share too much of your life on social media?

A unique and fascinating fast paced plot where the characters and their deep secrets kept me guessing as to how they were all connected. I was drawn in from the first page.

Unfollow Me tells the story of a successful mommy blogger/influencer called Violet Young. She is married to her adoring husband Henry, they have three young children and a beautiful home. Violet has over a million subscribers on YouTube.

Overnight Violet’s online presence disappears and all her social media accounts have been deleted leaving her curious fans not knowing what’s happened. An ambulance is seen outside Violets home, is she in hospital? Did Henry harm her? Where is she?

Enter the crazy stalkers who become obsessed with finding out what has happened to Violet - firstly we have a young ‘widow’ Lily who’s a single mother with slight depression and a drinking problem and then we have successful photographer Yvonne 40, married to a younger man who is a personal trainer. Yvonne has been trying to become pregnant and is desperate to have a baby.

The twists in this modern and compelling read will render you speechless.

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Charlotte Duckworths’ work is a new and impressive read for me. First off, I always prefer a novel when told in multiple, first person narratives. While the whole social media scare has been, it doesn’t make this read any less of a twisty read. Thank you Netgalley; the author, Charlotte and its publisher for the arc in exchange for my honest review. Above opinion are my own and are unbiased.

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4.5/5! I really enjoyed this book - it had an intriguing premise and very relevant to our society today. It does make you think about what you post about yourself online as well as people you follow online. A good family drama/mystery overall.

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Unfollow Me is a fun British women's suspense novel that checks all the boxes. However, Charlotte Duckworth manages to throw in a few surprises, as well as a genuinely engaging mystery and interesting, albeit maddening, characters.

Unfollow Me begins with the disappearance of Violet, a "mommy vlogger" with a large and devoted following. Not only has Violet disappeared, her entire social media presence has been scrubbed. Naturally, fans wonder what happened. Duckworth doesn't let us, the readers, hear from Violet either. Instead, she focuses on two women who wonder where Violet is: a struggling single mother named Lily who idolizes Violet in an unhealthy manner and Yvonne, a woman struggling to get pregnant who'd been hate-watching Violet. Interspersed with chapters about Lily and Yvonne's lives are creepy, stalker-ish emails to Violet from recent months. Could Lily or Yvonne have sent them? Or someone else altogether?

Duckworth writes her characters well, making the reader sympathize with them at some points and slap sense into them at others. The core mystery is fascinating. Duckworth dispenses tantalizing tidbits and scents her ground thoroughly with red herrings. Her setting Unfollow Me close to Christmas, a time that is already emotionally fraught for many, is a wise decision. Her fashionable and not-so-fashionable London settings are vivid. Her depictions of social and old-school media are realistic, amusing, and border on satire.

All in all, Unfollow Me is a great deal of fun. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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SO many twists and turns!! This book is amazing! Loved the writing style. I would definitely be recommending this book to everyone I know.

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I love the growing trend of thrillers that have a social media aspect to them, so I was really excited about Unfollow Me! After YouTube star Violet deletes her channel and all of her social media accounts with no notice, her fans are concerned. Unfollow Me is primarily told through alternating points of view between Yvonne and Lily, both who have personal interests in Violet, and who both have their own secrets. Interspersed as chapters told through emails sent from a troll account to Violet, social media threads about Violet's whereabouts on a website for mothers, and from Violet's husband, Henry. 

I was eagerly awaiting the reveals about so many things! It was clear that Yvonne and Lily had secrets, so I wanted to know what those were, and how they'd play into the book. I wanted to know where Violet went, and I wanted to know who was sending Violet the troll emails! All was revealed in due time, but the book definitely held my attention. 

While the book is not what I'd call a traditional "thriller", but was more of a domestic suspense or mystery. That was okay with me, because there was enough happening to hold my attention. 

I did feel like the ending was a little overwhelming, for lack of a better word. All of the reveals happened at once, so it felt like there was a lot going on all at the end of the book, where the rest of the book had more of a slow progression, so there was a lot for the reader to focus on, rather than having a little time to absorb each reveal. 

Regardless, I rated this one 4 stars and really enjoyed the overall story and plot. This was the first book I'd read by Charlotte Duckworth, and I can't wait to see what she writes next! I'd like to thank Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for my copy of the book. It was my pleasure to provide an honest review.

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4 Stars

Obsession over a popular Vlogger?! In the age of Social Media, it’s all the Rage. And I mean Rage!

What happens when popular Vlogger, Violet Young, disappears? When all of her channels go dark? Why Mayhem of course!

“Unfollow Me” by Charlotte Duckworth is a highly entertaining novel that had me from the get go. From, Lily, Violet’s #1 fan, to Yvonne, the woman whose obsession with Violet is more personal, I simply couldn’t stop myself from well, obsessing. (Giggle, giggle..)

This was another fabulous buddy read with Kaceey!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Charlotte Duckworth for the arc.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 4.5.20.

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I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A very fun read! I loved the mystery and suspense. It did get a bit predictable, but none the less enjoyable.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

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Violet Young is a popular mommy vlogger and online influencer. Married to Henry, with three young daughters, she has battled postpartum depression.
One day she suddenly disappears from social media. All her accounts are closed, her videos deleted.
We follow two of her regular and devoted viewers. LIly, a single mom and Yvonne, desperate for a baby and struggling with infertility.
These two fans become distraught after Violet vanishes, obsessing over where she might be or what could have happened to her.
Alternating viewpoints, the story connects the characters lives and profound secrets are revealed.
An entertaining psychological thriller with some unpredictable twists. The characters weren't very likable, but they did engender sympathy.
A fun read!
Thank you Crooked Lane Books for the e-ARC via NetGalley.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.

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Wow. This is a thriller from the beginning. I think because it hits home. It is centered around social media and what exactly you choose to share, or overshare, that exposes you to potential harm. This is a well done and entertaining, although creepy, view of this phenomena.
Thoroughly enjoyable. I will definitely watch for other books by this author.
Thank you for the early edition.
#Netgalley #UnfollowMe #CrookedLaneBooks

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As a teacher, I like these books that are centered around social media. This was great writing and a fast read.

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Great writing. This story quickly grabs your attention and doesn't let go.
Thank you for the ARC. This is my honest review.

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"Unfollow Me" was an interesting thriller. The twists towards the end took a bit of an unexpected turn, but that is not a bad thing.

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Well written and full of suspense this fits in well with the genre of ‘unreliable narrator’. Moving forward quickly and always keeping the reader guessing, if is such a strong read. Very highly recommended.

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Here are my pros and cons for Unfollow Me:

Pros

1. I am a HUGE unreliable narrator fan. I love wondering if what I am reading is real or not, and when unreliable narration is done well I am in heaven! The two lead characters in this book (Yvonne and Lily), while perhaps not 100% unreliable narrators by definition, at least had a propensity to omit information and skew truth to their benefit. I enjoyed the uncertainty.
2. The pacing in this book is spot on! It moved along quickly, but critical elements to the story were scattered throughout randomly and slowly (see Pro #3). I thought the tension and mystery of what was going on was developed very well. I was definitely engaged with the characters and intrigued by the story.
3. I love how the author dropped new little nuggets of information into a seemingly boring moment in the book – nuggets that revealed a whole new dimension to the story. These sudden, but powerful, revelations really made the book interesting to me.
4. Yvonne and Lily were fantastic characters. I thought their character development was well-done. Oddly, I found myself sympathizing with them, but I was also just a bit scared of them, too.
5. I thought the intimate and emotional observation of motherhood was interesting. We learn about issues facing single mothers, women trying to conceive, and a vlogger mom who some believe exploits her children for the sake of internet revenue and fame. There are multiple motherhood/parenting issues that are included in this book and I appreciated how the author treated the issues seriously.
6. This is also an interesting look at the influencer and social media culture we live in. How much “sharing” is too much? What happens when fans don’t know how to maintain a distance (physical and emotional) from internet famous personalities? Is it normal behavior to be obsessed with a YouTube personality? Interesting topics for debate and this book delved into all of them.

Cons

1. Remember when you were a little kid and you are watching someone set off fireworks – like bottle rockets or roman candles – and you were just fraught with anticipation waiting for that flame to reach the firework and explode into a burst of color in front of you? So exciting, right? BUT… occasionally there is a dud and nothing happens. No explosion, no bright colors, no pop… just nothing. Super disappointing! That is how this book was for me. I was getting revved up, wondering what was going on, reading way past my bed time anxious to get to the end, dying to discover the big reveal, craving that exciting conclusion I just knew was coming… and then POOF! Absolutely nothing exciting happens. The ending was banal, ordinary, unimaginative, and so incredibly disappointing. All that build up with potentially TWO unreliable narrators and all I get was basically a “reasonable explanation” for what is going on all along. I was so angry at the end of this book. I really felt let down.

Summary
I loved this book. I really did… until the last 20 pages or so. It went from a solid 5-star read for me down to a 3 in one fell swoop. Maybe I should have only dropped it to a 4, because I really did like a lot of things about this book… but I’m still kind of angry about the boring ending so I’m sticking with 3.

I likely would recommend this book to others, not only because of all the Pros I noted above, but also to find out if the ending affects others the way it affected me. I often wonder if I am being overly critical, but I committed to writing reviews that include honest feelings and thoughts about what I read and I was honestly disappointed with the conclusion of this novel.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Violet Is Blue. That's the name of Violet's YouTube channel. A channel where millions of people connected with her over her honesty about the struggles of her Post Natal Depression, and just general life in trying to raise children to be kind, healthy and happy little humans. However, when overnight, all of Violet's social media sites disappear, two women find it difficult to grasp.

Lily, a widowed, single mother who struggles to make ends meet and sees Violet's vlogs and blog as an escape, doesn't know what to do now that Violet is not around to help her forget about her struggles. She becomes increasingly obsessed, and worried, that something serious has happened and that Violet is in trouble, or worse, dead. She is determined to get to the bottom of it all, she has to, for her own sanity.

Yvonne, a successful, married woman who is struggling to fall pregnant. Her obsession with Violet is quite different to Lily's. It's almost become a love/hate thing. As she struggles to let go of her past, Violet was a way for her to escape, and now she is left wondering how bad things are that Violet has disappeared.

As the story unfolds, secrets, lies and deceptions come to the surface. What happened to Violet? Why has she gone radio silent? And does someone know more than they're letting on?


I'm a sucker for a psychological thriller, I really am. This one appealed to me because in today's world, social media platforms are IT. It's very rare to meet someone that doesn't have some form of presence on the world wide web, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, or any number of sites that are now readily available at our finger tips. And having a story where an influencer disappears overnight? Well sign me up, Scotty, I am here for it. And let me tell you, it was quite a ride.

The book is told in different POVs between Lily, Yvonne, and Violet's husband, Henry. The story itself is fast paced and kept me glued. I just HAD to know what was going on and what on Earth was going to happen next. I found myself thinking about how CRAZY these two ladies were. Yvonne is trying to fall pregnant, and is having difficulty due to her husband's sperm (we find this out extremely early on), when this woman thinks she MIGHT be pregnant she actually goes a bit loopy. She starts buying baby clothes, and telling people she is pregnant even though she has no idea if she is or not. And Lily! Oh my Lily. She stalks children just to try and find out what's going on with Violet. At first I was blown away with how crazy they sounded, and in Lily's case, I realised how people like this actually exist. Some of the in between parts of the book, well, the bits between chapters, we're treated to a layout of a web discussion on a mummy forum of sorts. The speculation and obsessiveness that these people have for someone they don't know is astounding, and I realised that there are actually people out there like this. Take for example, I think it was the end of last year, I love a certain makeup brand, and when the creator who is also an influencer on YouTube, disappeared for a couple of weeks, the speculation from the fan base that I was seeing in different groups on Facebook was insane. These people are just THAT obsessed with someone that they don't even know and it was kind of scary. Yes I like the IDEA of this person, and their product as well as their content. But I don't claim to KNOW them. So it goes to show that there are really people out there who are actually like this, and it is TERRIFYING. That someone's world can be so consumed by a person that they don't know is scary to me. So I feel that this really added to the dynamic of the story because it is actually real and does happen, it made the story feel INCREDIBLY real to me. As for Yvonne, I've got no doubt that there are women out there who want a baby bad enough that they will start doing the things that she did, and ultimately the reveal near the end, I believe it.

The characters were really well rounded, I actually really disliked both women but also felt a bit of pity towards them as well. And if I met these women in real life? Yeah, I'd be running the other way for sure haha. I feel like it really shows that Duckworth is brilliant at her craft, being able to create characters that have a lot of depth, so many flaws, characters that I really didn't like but I still NEEDED to know what happened to them.

The mystery itself was really well thought out an executed, I honestly didn't know things were going to turn out that way at all. So this is a win for me because I hate it when I work stuff out way earlier than the characters, it takes the fun out of it. Even though we were reading chapters from Violet's husband's POV, it didn't really give anything away and honestly created more twists and turns than I had been expecting.

If you love a good psychological thriller that really keeps you guessing, give this one a go, you won't be disappointed.

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Unfollow Me is well written suspenseful story about a social media influencer/blogger named Violet. She's a mommy blogger. Her husband's rich and has three kids. Out of the blue she shuts down all her sites and her fans go a little cra cra! This was a timely theme and a great story with interesting characters.

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3.75*
You may be ready to power off your online presence! But maybe your followers aren’t ready or willing to let you go?

Violet has it all. An adoring husband and three beautiful little girls. She shares every last detail of her life and that of her family’s online. And apparently it’s intriguing enough that she’s gained over a million followers on her YouTube channel. So what happens when she suddenly vanishes? Or more accurately, her on-line presence disappears! YouTube....Instagram...Facebook, all gone! It’s as if her entire online life has been shut down.

For her devoted followers nothing could be worse! How can they get through their own lives without tuning into hers!

Told from multiple perspectives. Each character with their own bizarre agenda hoping to find out what happened to Violet!

I’ve read a number of social media thrillers lately. And they continue to scare me to no end! Strikingly realistic. A friendly piece of advice…careful what you share because there just might be someone out there following just a bit too closely!

A buddy read with Susanne!📚

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Charlotte Duckworth for an ARC to read and review

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