So what if your life actually depended on likes and followers? No, like literally. That is essentially what’s happening in Influencer Island. How far would you go to be famous?
A bunch of top influencers are invited to an exclusive island and a further 10 influencers compete to be chosen to also a tend a mysterious competition to held on this island by a mysterious artist akin to Banksy. But everyone quickly realises, this competition is darker than it seems and it ties in to a larger mystery connecting everyone in this scheme!
I want to start with the plot. I feel like this plot was unique and so relevant to the culture we all live in as a society. It has so much potential, however, I feel like there was just way to much going on for a book this short, and because of that, a lot of the links felt forced together. There was the Carrie and Tuck plot and then Carrie and Angel, and Cal and his father and then the Wyatt James and his cult and yet somehow all of these seemingly different things come together. In a longer book where each of these plots could be fully fleshed out, I feel like that link would’ve been mind blowing!! But because this book was so short I was just left feeling like the connections were flimsy and forced. The short length of the book and the many plot lines ensured that it was very fast paced which is great but I think it would’ve been even better slightly slower paced to really flesh out the plot.
I also feel like the characters weren’t fully fleshed out. You got to know them, but not enough of who they are and background knowledge, that you cared about all the crazy things that were happening to them or even understood their motivations for making certain choices. It felt superficial. They were also way to calm throughout this book. They weren’t showing the emotion you’d expect them to be showing within the situations. I know this is meant to be a commentary on how desensitized we are and how for some drama and sensation we’d look the other way but I’m not talking about the viewers, but more so the investigators and the authorities.
Carries reason for going seems to change throughout the book which also through me off a bit and made me not fully like her character at times.
I believe that if we got to maybe hear more from Wyatt James a lot of the reasoning and insanity would’ve made more sense. It would still be crazy, but If you could see into the mind of the crazy person, understand more of what lead him to develop this weird cultish mindset and methodologies then maybe I’d understand why certain links were made. The bit we got at the end was not enough. It explained what happened to make him snap, but not why he developed this cultish style thinking with the weird rituals and stuff.
On to the writing! I enjoyed the podcast transcript way the book was written in. Its akin to Taylor Jenkins Reids, Daisy Jones and the Six and it makes the book impossible to put down as it was such an easy read! I read this on like 4 hours!
One thing that bugged me slightly is that this is a written transcript of an audio podcast. All of the clips from the podcast are noted as Audio from whatever source. Now, if I’m listening to a video of an event playing, I’m only hearing the words and sounds. I cant hear actions like someone waving, or someone drinking something. So why choose to put transcriptions of those actions into the book. Listeners of your podcast wouldn’t have seen that and couldn’t have heard it either. So how can the written transcript include things like[MODELS CASUALLY WAVE IN THE BACKGROUND]or [TAKES SIP OF BEER] when that isn’t something anyone listening to the video audio would’ve heard? I can understand including sounds like laughing into the written transcript as that’s something listeners would’ve heard but there’s even a part where they added [GOES TO GRAB CARRIE’S ASS. SHE SHOVES HIM AWAY.]into an apparent audio transcript of what played on the podcast. No one listening to the audio via podcast would’ve been able to know that was happening…why include it in the transcript? Does that mean that during the actual podcast you paused the recording, and said that to your listeners for context and then continued the recording? A lot of those entries make for sense for video transcripts. Now I know a lot of the source material for the podcast was videos, but this wasn’t transcripts of those videos, these were transcripts of the completed podcast containing audio from the videos. I understand that maybe these “action” entries can give context in certain situations, like stating someone stared off into the distance, but if you’re claiming this is an audio transcript of something listeners hears, then you can’t just include these when it doesn’t make sense to the material you’re claiming this is from.
Other than this little nitty gritty fact I really enjoyed the writing style!
Overall, I enjoyed a large majority of the book as well as the social commentary about our societies obsession with getting likes and being loved by strangers. I would’ve liked this mystery a lot more if the connections and plot twists felt more believable but still a fun short read!

My goodreads review contains some spoilers where I talk specifics about what bothered me but the spoiler is tagged!

Rating : 2.75 out of 5
Blurbs :
Welcome to Influencer Island, an experience for ten competitors to travel to paradise and compete for social media glory. Overnight, millions of users send off their submission videos, hoping for the chance to party with the biggest influencers and celebrities in the world.

Or so they thought…

By the time the contest went offline, over a dozen influencers were declared dead or missing. No winner was announced. The only hope for a conclusion lay in an unaired podcast produced by Cal Everett, a young reporter with his own mysterious connection to the murderous contest creator, Wyatt James.

As listeners will soon discover, James designed Influencer Island to be more than a battle of social media wits. If the contestants hope to survive, they will have to answer the question at the very heart of the competition: How far would you be willing to go for fame?

Thoughts ; Great concept but not for me. It's always been hit or miss to me about psychological thriller and it happens again. I know people will like this book more than me. It's on me anyway. A little bit slower on the pacing but overall, still enjoyable read. Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!

Thank you, @netgalley for this ARC! Very rarely does a book keep my attention enough to be read in the duration of one sitting, but THIS one did. I knew within pages of Kyle Rutkin's newest work of art, "Influencer Island," that I was in for a wild ride! The description of this title holds up to the hype, as it truly is a Hunger Games-ish setting with a social media twist. I would also compare this title to Gretchen McNeil's "#MurderTrending."
"Influencer Island" is a brilliant idea, and shows just how far young adults will go in order to be famous online. This was terrifying in the BEST way.

4 stars.

Influencer Island had a premise that I was super excited to read - I love anything to do with the dark side of technology and social media, so this was perfect for me. I'm glad to say that this book did not disappoint!

The reader is thrown into the drama from the beginning and the fast pace throughout the book kept me absolutely hooked. Dark undertones are present right from the start, and every reveal - particularly involving Cal, the protagonist, and Carrie, one of the influencers - was unexpected, which I really enjoyed. There wasn't a dull moment, nor did the narrative start to drag at any point. The podcast format of the book was also very interesting to read, with interviews and audio transcripts littered throughout that made a somewhat unrealistic competition seem believable.

Whilst I loved the rapid pace of the book, it made it hard to keep up with all the names of the characters that are in the book. It was a little difficult to connect with some of the side characters, and I found myself questioning decisions made by certain characters due to how extreme or surprising they seemed.

Nevertheless, a thrilling read that had me hooked all the way through. I'd definitely love to see more by this author!

I thought the concept of this book was very compelling and really drew me to read it ASAP. I think this book markets itself well as tapping into the dystopian themes that so many readers (myself, included) are always looking to read, I love atypical narrative styles, so I thought the podcast transcript format was super unique. I really liked the character Carrie. And I found this to be a very quick read. However, I felt the plot was a bit muddled. I almost wish the book was longer and took more time introducing different plot points rather than jumbling them together. I also noticed several typos/ missing words. Overall, I appreciated the opportunity to read this book, and I would read more from this author.

“May fame and followers be upon you”

I literally read this book in less then 24 hours. Let’s just say as a social media influencer if anyone sends me a invite to a island competition, I’ll be denying it.
This book is written like a podcast script so it’s not like a traditional book. I was a bit confused in the beginning of the book since I’ve never read a book like this.
But I can say once I got the hang of the writing style I was hooked! I was drawn into the hunger game like plot. Only one influencer was leaving that island.
I do wish there was more competitions in it but overall I liked the book and might purchase a physical copy to actually read again.
I’ll always be reading his over works.

“We’re going to hunt each other for sport. Shoot and skin each other like animals. Maybe look pretty while we do it.”

“A wave doesn’t care about your intentions. It won’t give you a break or play games with you. So, if you hesitate even in the slightest, you’ve already lost.”

I enjoyed this book, the format fitted well with the storyline I felt, modern and relevant, I just wish I could say that the story line was beyond belief but with today’s influencer culture I’m not sure it is