A very timely book about society's obsession with social media influencers. As a retired person I have become much more invested in watching YouTube videos and following Instagram and Twitter accounts by some of my favorite people, places and things. I can see easily how it becomes an obsession to check in daily and see what's new, I do it myself I hate to admit, so this book interested me a great deal.
It's a piece of fiction about just such an obsession, but I'm sure it's not far from the truth. Just imagine having a million people seeing every aspect of your lives played out daily. I can't imagine that so I'm wondering what motivates so many to do it. While this book is about the follower, it would be interesting to have a book from the point of the poster to see why they do it, is it money or notoriety.

Well written with a good plot, very enjoyable.

Unreliable narrators have been all the rage in the thriller market for the last decade and Charlotte Duckworth offers us a smorgasbord of instability in her new novel Unfollow Me. A cautionary tale about the dangers of social media and how interconnectedness can put us in touch with some people we definitely don’t want in our lives, this book takes us down a dark road with some unlikely villains.

Violet, the mother of three young children, turned her battle against Postnatal Depression into a million dollar industry through a series of vlogs, workshops, Instagram posts and a YouTube channel. Her subscribers tune in daily to catch glimpses of her beautiful life, the little pieces of her family she doles out in careful, attractively scripted portions with just the right touch of humility and charm.

When all her social media accounts suddenly disappear without a trace and without any kind of explanation, her devotees become concerned. Violet has been honest about her struggles with depression, about her lack of sleep and how she can feel overwhelmed by it all. Have these issues become too much for her? Or has her stalker, a troll who criticizes her every decision, forced her to delete all her accounts in order to protect her family? Many have never liked her seemingly perfect husband Henry, the kind of guy who seems more of a lady’s man than a dad. Does he have something to do with her disappearance? As all these theories are endlessly analyzed and talked over on mummy discussion boards, Violet’s silence is deafening.

If you’re someone who doesn’t want to read about kids and the struggles of parenting, this novel isn’t for you. The author does an excellent job of immersing the reader in the world of the young mothers and want-to-be mothers of the online mummy communities. The story mostly unfolds through three viewpoints: Lily, a young mother who follows Violet’s vlog religiously; Yvonne, a wannabe mummy; and Henry, Violet’s husband. Ms. Duckworth captures perfectly, through their eyes, the struggle of modern child rearing.

Yvonne and her husband Simon are desperately trying to have a baby. Her mother-in-law blames her for their difficulties with conceiving, and is harshly judgmental about Yvonne having waited so long to have a child. In fact, Yvonne feels all society looks down upon her for not having perfected the art of balancing a career, marriage and family at the proper age. Her desire for a baby is almost painful and her despair and longing leap off the page as we slowly learn just how far she is willing to go to make up for this deficit in her life. Watching Violet’s YouTube channel is a bit of torture for her but following the young woman who has everything in life Yvonne dreamt would be hers - gorgeous home, lovely children, doting, handsome husband - is a compulsion. And yet when Violet goes missing, Yvonne is sincerely worried about her, concerned that something awful has destroyed this seemingly perfect family.

Lily, a single mom with a young toddler, is another person who can’t stop thinking about the missing media sensation. Watching Violet’s videos while sipping (or chugging) a glass of wine (or more) is the highlight of her evening. Lily has had a hard last four years and feels like there is no way out of the pit she is in. She knows her interest in Violet can’t possibly be healthy but she can’t seem to keep herself from clinging to that obsession. She loves her son but she doesn’t love the many challenges he adds to her life. Lily’s clueless about how to fix her own world and realizes this is why she has attached herself to the artificially perfect family she sees on her computer screen. She misses the videos so much she begins to look for Violet in real life, digging up clues about where the family lives, where the children go to school, what parks they play at. She is certain that her genuine concern for the family means this isn’t stalking but researching.

Violet’s family life as depicted on her YouTube channel is fake, something with which her husband Henry is growing increasingly frustrated. The only time Violet is with the children is when she is filming them, otherwise she is endlessly working on her influencer career or busy staging scenes which give the appearance of familial and marital bliss that they just don’t have. He fears the trolls online may become problems in real life and given that they don’t need the money, he doesn’t understand why Violent won’t quit. Henry’s misery over his wife’s career has led him to want something good in his own life, to flash a smile that isn’t just for the cameras and he thinks he’s figured out just what how to do that. He knows it will come with costs, he just has no idea how high the price will be.

There isn’t a great deal of action here since this is very much a character-driven story. The author does an amazing job of slowly unravelling the truth about our three sympathetic narrators until we realize that in fact, these people are not at all who we thought they were. Almost everything I thought I knew about them had to be discarded, and I loved the process of discovering the truth behind the numerous masks Lilly, Henry and Yvonne wear.

One of the highlights of the book is that there aren’t any super creepy, psychotic villains. Many of the things the characters do aren’t that atypical, it’s just when you add them all together that a picture of dysfunction slowly starts to emerge. And they are unethical and immoral rather than criminal, reminding us that harmful actions don’t have to be illegal to be impactful.

The book does contain some elements that might be triggering for some readers. A sexual assault is described, not in detail but definitely with enough clarity so that we know how traumatizing it was for the victim, and several bad/dangerous things happen to children. I’m pretty squeamish when it comes to the latter and I wasn’t triggered but I wanted to warn people up front.

The story’s flow isn’t perfect, with some stops and starts that can cause it to drag at points but these moments are mercifully brief and the pace always picked back up before I grew bored.

Unfollow Me is the first novel I’ve read by Ms. Duckworth but it definitely won’t be the last.  Anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers should definitely give this book a try.

Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
Visit our Amazon Storefront

5/5 stars for writing a book that focuses on a relevant social topic while writing an interesting mystery/suspense thriller.
An overall 3/5 starts though because I both really enjoyed and didn't like this book.

"Unfollow Me" largely follows two main female characters POV after the disappearance of their favorite online vlogger, Violet. Violet is a vlogger that showcases her family while highlighting her problems with PPD (post partum depression)- she keeps an active youtube and instagram account, along with other social media outlets. When she deletes all of her accounts one day, speculation and stalking intensify in order to find out what happened to Violet. Enter the two female leads: Lily is 27 years old and a single mother that loves watching Violet's perfect life and imagines herself living that same "perfect" life. Yvonne is 40 and watches Violet out of jealousy- she and her husband have done an IVF treatment and desperately want a baby.

I am part of the main demographic intended for this book. I am between the two main female characters ages and I have small children. Even though I fit the age demographic for this book, the chatroom style conversations that these women partake in are all a bit too over-the-top for me (the chat format only took a few pages between chapters and wasn't the main form of storytelling). I understand that chatroom conversations are petty and celebrity gossip can be juvenile, but as someone who doesn't follow celebrity gossip, it wasn't appealing to see people portrayed this way.

I didn't like either of the female leads. In fact, I doubt most people will. I don't think anyone really wants to see themselves as the super fan that gets carried away on internet forums and ends up stalking someone else's life at the expense of their own family. That's what this book is about. Over and over. Unfortunately, the minor characters were dull. I was especially frustrated at the lack of characterization of Yvonne's husband, who seemed overly meek and boring.

There is something to learn here about sharing your information online though- whether in the form of video, pictures, or even comments. Strangers can so easily find out quite about about people based on what we post- and I think seeing this extreme, albeit fictional representation, is great insight for people today. This book has a lot of potential for conversation starters!

Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane books for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. This was a fast read, and I recommend it to people who like modern mystery/suspense storytelling.

A very contemporary book on the pitfalls of living your life through social media.
The book is told through Lily, a single mum who is dependent on a 'social media influencer' called Violet. Lily is shocked when Violet suddenly shuts down all of her social media with no explanation. Lily makes it her mission despite her own precarious position with her 3 year old to find out what happened to Violet.
Yvonne is forty and desperate to fall pregnant with her younger husband Simon. But how honest is she being with everyone around her and how far will she go to get what she wants? What is her connection to Violet that she constantly feels the need to monitor her through social media?
Henry is the husband of Violet and has to endure all the speculation of his wife's welfare. Outwardly he and violet appear to have the perfect family, home and life, but how much of this is filtered to make it so,
I was truly hooked with this story and all of its twists and turns had me guessing right to the end.
A great book that I can recommend. Thank you Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this digital ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Another tale to warn of the dangers of social media - this time focused on a YouTube vlogger who suddenly deletes all her social media accounts - I mean shock horror what could be more suspicious!?!.

This book really wasn’t for me, I found all the characters irritating and unrelatable. We had Yvonne how spent most of her book uterus gazing which bores me to tears. As someone who doesn’t want kids, I sure do know a lot about fertility treatments and ovulation monitoring as this seems to be a recurring obsession in books at the moment and it’s just not interesting to me. Knew exactly where her storyline was going - sigh.

Then we have single mum Lily and get to hear the “woe is me being a single mum is so hard” bit, which I’m sure it is, but again not interested in the recurring theme. Yvonne and Lily both love to watch vblogger Violet on YouTube who is a mummy blogger and they flip out when she seems to disappear removing all her social media accounts. So that’s the mystery we move towards figuring out but I just don’t really care and I still don’t care once it’s all been underwhelmingly explained by the end.

I’m sure there are plenty who are as interested in these themes as I wasn’t - this book is for you - not me.

A very well written book on social media addiction, a different storyline.The story is told in the POV of three people, two are followers of a vlog and the third is the husband of the vlogger. The characters are well developed with their flaws natural, it is easy to connect with them. The narrative is seamless and maintains the interest of the reader. The conclusion gives every character its due for which I would like to give an additional star. Highly recommended.

The story begins with the famous internet sensation, mommy vlogger Violet suddenly missing from the world wide web! All her social channels are gone and her fans are going frantic. No one knows where's she and what happened to her and her husband Harry doesn't seem to be bothered by his wife's media-disappearance at all!

Amongst Violet's several die hard fans is Lily, a single mom of Archie who is obsessed with Violet as she believes it was Violet who inspired her during her darkest hours. She would do anything to find out what happened to Violet, no matter how close she must have to go to find out the truth. Even if it's called 'stalking'.

Meet Yvonne, a wedding photographer who is struggling so hard to get pregnant in her 40s and slowly going out of options. She is also equally obsessed with Violet's family, but for entirely different reasons. She would do anything to find violet, even if it means going against her husband Harry!

Told from the PoVs of both the women, Unfollow Me is a roller-coaster ride structured so brilliantly to hook the reader right from the first page. The author has thrown in several glimpses of what happens in social channels including comments from blogs, and newspaper clippings to induce the curiosity of the book. It gets very interesting as the reader is as clueless as Violet's fans about her disappearance and each chapter gives us yet another shocking suspense that's totally unexpected!

I lost count of the number of times the plot blew me away, but with the short and razor sharp chapters, Charlotte Duckworth brilliantly manipulates her readers. It's terrifying to realize what the social media could do to your life if not treated properly. The author has touched some very sensitive matters including late abortion, sexual harassment at workplace, postnatal depression, deceit and infidelity. The narration might be a tad bit confusing to the readers at some places as it goes back and forth between the characters and also to their past and present.

I'm so glad I chose to read this book and very easily became a fan of the author. For sure I'll be following her and what she writes in the future. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC. All opinions mine.

First of all: I liked the idea of this book, about the danger of presenting your private live carelessly to everyone to see on social media.

The book is about mommy vlogger Violet who deletes her social media accounts without warning and leaves her fans wondering what happened to her. In the start I was confused how the different perspectives play together and have to do anything at all with her disappearance and it hold my interest steady for the first half of the book. After that I kinda just wanted it to be finished already. I kept reading to find out what the hell happened to Violet but i wasn't that engaged in reading the second half anymore. So it was not super awesome read from start to finish but it wasn't totally bad either which makes up 3 starts for me in the end.

Thanks Netgalley and the publishers to give me a chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Violet Young is a popular figure on social media and YouTube. She is a journalist-turned-mummy-influencer. She has millions of followers until one day she disappears and all the social media are deleted with no explanation. The mystery begins to find out if Violet was tired of living on-line or something more sinister happened. Two obsessed fans, Lily and Yvonne, are determined to find out. There are many twists and turns leading to a surprise ending. Very well written! A must read.

Violet Young is a mommy vlogger who openly shares her struggle with postpartum depression. Like an good social media sensation with an influencer following, Violet shares sneak peeks into her personal life, including her beautiful house, well-behaved kids, and handsome husband, but overnight, something sinister seems to occur. Violet's legions of adoring fans awaken to find ALL of her social media accounts have vanished. They fear the worst has happened, and they are determined to find out what that might be.

Unfollow Me by Charlotte Duckworth is the first book I've read from this author, and she did not disappoint! This was a fast-paced, entertaining thriller, with quite a few LOL moments thrown in via expertly placed dialogue. I thought this was a unique story with an interesting POV strategy that was really fitting for the digital age we live in. Over all, this was a wonderfully written thriller that held my attention and threw in quite a few twists I didn't see coming. I highly recommend this one!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. This is my honest, unbiased opinion.

Violet, a mummy vlogger, deletes all of her social media accounts overnight, without a word of explanation.
Her fans are desperate to know what happened, and some of them even take it upon themselves to find out if their favourite influencer is not in trouble.

This is an absolutely fantastic book. It grips you right from the very first page and doesn't let go until the last one. I raced through it with bated breath and had to stay up late to finish it. There was no way I could put it down.
The plot is full of surprising revelations, and each time something new was revealed I literally gasped in shock. When I thought I had it all figured out, the twists shattered all of my theories into pieces.
The story has multiple narrators: Yvonne, who is married to Simon and desperate for a baby; Lily, a single mum, and Henry, Violet's husband. Their seemingly unconnected stories blend slowly together. The characters aren't particularly likeable, but the author does an excellent job of making the reader feel for them.
If you're looking for a fast-paced, unputdownable, and intriguing read then look no further.
This is my first book from this author, but I already added her other novel to my tbr list. Solid 5 stars.
Thank you NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Charlotte Duckworth for an opportunity to review this book ahead of its publication day.

What happened to Violet? Where is she? How do the characters connect. This book kept me flipping pages until I got my answers. This author is a masterful storyteller and I recommend this book.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book intrigued me with the title. Unfollow Me. I have an odd relationship with social media. Most of us probably do.
I love how you can stay in contact with family and friends who are far away. That’s what sucked me in. I had moved across the country, leaving behind everyone I knew and loved. It was lonely. Seeing everyone on social media made me feel closer to them. Like I hadn’t lost everything. I saw it as an amazing tool. Then games became big and I accepted friend request from people I didn’t know. From there, I found a book community. An introverts heaven! I still have a lot of those people on my social media. I can tell you quite a bit about them. I’m positive they can do the same. They became real friends, some very close.
A few years ago social media expanded. More options became available. I started playing on a game site, meeting people there. Writing a blog, I started reading blogs. Some were awesome. I was still innocent, though. Believing everything people said about their lives. It didn’t occur to me to lie or that others would. How can you have friendships if your lying? I did notice that some people started living glamorous lives. Some people changed. A number, the bloggers, worried about numbers of followers. Then my world was shaken. Someone I had met on the game site lied about who they were. Actually two people did and it resulted in the death of a young man. I played games with them. I didn’t question who they said they were. After that, I changed. I became more wary of the Internet. I knew people lied and it could go horribly wrong.
So when I saw this title on NetGalley, I was prepared for it to be a story about people who lie and it goes horribly wrong. I wasn’t prepared for all the twists and turns. I wasn’t prepared for how close to reality the writer was going to take us. I wasn’t exactly prepared for a thriller to give us a reality check message in the form of entertainment. Because it is a cautionary tale. We leave clues all over social media of who we are, where we live, what we have and what we want others to think we have. It is what Violet did. As an influencer, she opened the door. I’m not certain yet how I feel about her and Henry. I like Yvonne’s sense of humor. She has some of the best lines. There are also Simon, Lily and Luke. I’m not going into the story more than this. You know who the players are. You know someone lies and you know it goes wrong. There is so much, though, that you don’t know. Put this book on your TBR. It’s what you know combined with all the twisty turns that will have you turning pages.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for offering the book for review consideration. All thoughts on it are mine. I’m delighted I read this book. If I hadn’t been so busy analyzing the characters and the situations I would have probably finished it in one sitting. I’ll most likely read this again. Flawed characters and social media are a huge draw for me.

Oh, my!

I’m not going to pretend that this is anything but a popcorn read, but what a popcorn read it is!

Relentlessly addictive, it’s one of those books you just can’t look away from.

Do our characters get up to some sordid stuff? Sure, but it’s not so sordid that you hate them and read it. It’s just scandalous enough that you need to see where it’s going.

This is a fun read.

Thanks to the author for writing such an entertaining story!

*ARC provided via Net Galley.

Wow what a read! Violet! This book speaks of post partum depression and our use of social media. What is the price to pay for putting yourself out there on social media? This story was a thriller and I highly highly recommend it!! I love how it is told from the different characters!

3.5 STARS

I think this is the third book about the dangers of social media I've read in the past few months.

I really enjoyed the beginning and the mysterious disappearance of a hugely successful mommy/wifey vlogger. Her followers were caught off guard and devastated to find all her accounts and posts deleted without explanation. They had no way to feed their obsession with her and her family.

I'd describe this one as a light psychological thriller with potential. The story line became somewhat repetitive and had me wanting more plot around the 25% mark.

It is entertaining and I wanted to finish it to see how it would wrap up, but was hoping for a bit more.

I was quite confused throughout most of this book which, coupled with all the characters being unlikeable, meant that I did not manage to finish. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC egalley.

The life of an online vlogger is dissected as she and her family seemingly become the property of others. The story centers around the women who follow Violet’s vlogs and social media, and who are obsessed with her in one way or another. At times this seems insightful, yet downright stalker-ish at others.

Yvonne is trying to conceive with her infertile husband, and she has some unfinished and leading history that entangles her in a mess. Lily is a single mother trying to stay sober and have something that passes for a life. They and the countless other women on GoMamas that are devastated when Violet suddenly ghosts them all from her media feeds leads the story into what really happened. What began as a group of women following a vlogger turns into a network of detectives to find out what happened to Violet, and nothing is as it seems. Lies, manipulation and cheating are swirled together into the maelstrom of these women’s lives, which makes for an interesting read! Duckworth definitely makes you think about what you put online for everyone to see, and who is actually seeing it!

Charlotte Duckworth has crafted an engrossing page turner of a read in Unfollow Me. Well worth the read!

Fairly average domestic thriller (ish). Maybe it's not so much of a thriller as it is a cautionary tale? I don't know. It was a quick read and the storyline fell into place, although it was a bit to follow along at first because the alternating points of view don't really seem to go together until about halfway through the novel. I will say that none of the characters are likable, which usually really turns me off. I would have quit based on that fact alone, but I wanted to know what happened. There are lots of better books out there, but there are also LOTS of not good books out there also!