10 influencers you love to hate on an all expenses paid vacation in the Caribbean. What could go wrong? When I first picked up this book I was a little worried about there being 10 characters because that's a lot of characters to .keep track of (especially because I am guilty of reading 2+ books at the same time). Luckily the author only had us experience the events through the eyes of a select few. I'm relatively young but I HATE influencer culture and this book reminded me exactly of why it's so toxic. One had to wonder where are all the parents/adults in this book? Overall a good thriller that will keep you guessing who the Sponsor is and what secrets they each have to hide.

People To Follow is a great debut novel from Olivia Worley. This is a YA thriller about 10 teen influencers invited to a private island to film a reality show. The film crew doesn’t show up and they start receiving mysterious messages from the Sponsor. They need to figure out who the Sponsor is before they all end up dead.
This was a quick and fun read, thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for this eARC.

A group of influencers participate in a reality show called "IRL" but it should really be called chronically online.

Every single influencer shows up to this island with a secret that could get them cancelled, but they show up because the career of an influencer can easily become obsolete and they need the clout. There's Elody, a Instagram model; Kari, a fitness influencer; Max, a YouTuber known for exposing his fellow influencers; McKayleigh, Graham and Zane, members of a social media house known as the "Bounce House" and their former member/friend, Logan; Carinne, a growing video game streamer; Cole, a freshly cancelled social media star; and Aaron, a former child star trying to take his shot again at fame.

Does that sound like a lot of names and people to keep track of? It's because it is. And it's made even harder by the fact that this book is written entirely in the first person and not a single character has a distinct voice.

While this book was a fast-paced and (semi-)fun read, I could not get past the cringy dialogue, endless internet slang, and the author's diction. I thought this was an interesting choice to make on the author's behalf considering how quickly internet trends seem to come and go, and a lot of the reference made already felt old and cringy. There were references to Among Us, a near-chronic use of the word "yeet", and so many other quotes where I had to put the book down and stare at the wall for a second.

In other words, go in with low expectations and you might just enjoy the journey, but not the destination. Go in with high expectations? You're going to be disappointed.

This book was so fun! I really feel like this would make a great tv show! I enjoyed being immersed in the world of the influencers and didn’t figure out what was going on for a while!

2.5 stars rounded down.

I really thought I would love this one...a locked room trope, the main characters are influencers trapped on an island together...but the main issue is that I just wasn't the target audience for this book. First, there were too many POVs, and since there was no real clear delineation among all the characters, I often found myself confused as to who was who. Everyone seemed vapid, shallow, and almost a caricature. The incessant slang got on my nerves, and there were just too many moving pieces of the plot that never really came together in a satisfying way.

I think my high school students would enjoy this book, but it just wasn't for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the early read. PEOPLE TO FOLLOW publishes October 31, 2023.

Ten influencers go on a device-free retreat to a private island. And then they start dying. Turns out, everyone on the trip was chosen for a reason, and the villain was a complete surprise. This YA thriller was a fun read!

What I loved: the characters were realistic portraits of IRL influencers and lived that untenable influencer culture before heading to the island (hello, including the TikTok content creation house!) They were all completely unlikeable in a way that literally everyone is familiar with now. The book was written in present-day, with all the conveniences and tech that we all have now. And everyone had secrets. (It’s a thriller, of course everyone has secrets!) The clues are peppered throughout, but the mastermind behind the trip was pretty safely hidden until they were actually revealed.

What I didn’t love: a handful of the characters seemed more forced than others. McKayleigh, Elody, and Cole for sure. Or maybe I was just annoyed by their “hun” and “babe” speak because it was *so* condescending. There was also very little time for the group to settle into the house before things went off the rails.

Overall, loved reading this debut and can’t wait to read other books the author writes!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for a review copy!

Loved loved this one, such a great thriller and kept me guessing until the end. The influencer culture was so different than anything else I’ve read and I loved the twist at the end. Would recommend to anyone else who loves a good mystery

Debut novel by Olivia Worley

Cover- fantastic!
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thank you Olivia Worley, Netgalley and St Martin's press for letting me read this ARC!

I enjoyed the book, a lot of twists and turns. Some I saw coming and some I didn't.
I found the plot to be really interesting, especially in today's times of influencing and how it affects everyone differently.

The multiple points of view was interesting, I found it confusing at firsr, but once I got into it and knowing who everyone was it was good.

Can't wait to read more by Olivia!

This was a fun YA thriller about influencers stranded at a retreat where they are being killed one by one. I enjoyed the modern take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, and it was definitely reminiscent of Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, but it kept me guessing. The characters were a bit outlandish at times, and the pacing was off in the middle, but overall this was a fun summer read.

This book had the ingredients for a great thriller read: mystery on an isolated island, a cast of TikTok influencers, multiple POVs. However, it fell flat for me. The characters felt more like caricatures of real people. I thought they were vapid and one-dimensional. I didn’t connect to any of them, even the supposedly “better” and less self-centered characters. I also found myself questioning the characters decision-making and actions a lot of the time. Someone gets ousted as a serial groomer, but then they play a gave of spin-the-bottle with him??

The story could have been more fast paced, but it dragged at many points. I didn’t ever really get pulled in to a point where I was flying through pages, which is what I look for in a mystery/thriller. That said, it was still a quick read.

By no means did I hate this book, but it wasn’t everything I was hoping it would be.

This book was good but definitely for the younger crowd. I didn’t realize what I was getting into. I do think it’s a great YA book, perfect for gen Z. I would recommend it to my younger followers for sure.

Wow, twist after twist! A really well done debut novel. People To Follow is a YA mystery and the language and slang used in the book are definitely targeted towards that demographic. The references to different social media trends is very current which I fear could date this book pretty quickly.

The story follows 10 influencers disconnecting from social media on a reality show. In the beginning, it is hard to keep track of all 10 influencers and what makes them unique/different from each other. We get POV’s from 4 of these characters but honestly the voices sound so similar that after a few pages, it was easy to confuse whose POV you were in.

Once you get deeper into the story and start to learn more about the characters, it does become easier to keep them straight and the story kept me guessing! There were lots of puzzle pieces to put together but the writing kept me intrigued. I really enjoyed Worley’s writing and would definitely look for books by her in the future. I think teens and young adults who are really into social media (especially TikTok) would enjoy this twisty thriller!

(Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for a digital copy of this book!)

In a 2023 twist on the And Then There Were None style mystery, our author puts a group of influencers on a private island with no access to the outside world. Each of them has secrets and connections to each other that they are trying to hide, but what will they do when all of it is about to be exposed. This book is a reminder that not everything that we see on the Internet is true, and that everybody has secrets. This book was great. I was turning pages as fast as I could in an effort to find out who was behind it all. They were definitely plot twists. I did not see coming. I finished the book in a day.

I will say, however, that I have red several other books in the last year so that follow this exact same type of plot line. It didn’t make me like the book any less but it did give me a sense of déjà vu with some of the other books that I have read

Such a good book! I truly enjoyed the various point of views of each character and all the twist and turns this book takes you trough. There’s drama, murder and the enticing pull that makes you keep reading. Highly recommended read.

This book started out a little slow but overall it was entertaining to me. Just enough suspense and intrigue, with a lighthearted spirit to keep it from being too dark. I enjoyed it but it felt like something that had been done before and because of that only gave it 3 stars.

This book was full of turns and had me guessing “whodunit” nonstop. Absolutely loved the story line and the switching perspectives. Great read!

I never knew what was coming next in this book. So many plot twists and never ending drama made this book a quick and easy read

Reviewed for NetGalley:

This didn't work for me. The idea of "Teen Influencers" lost me before they all started dying on the island.

Just not my thing.

Thank you to NetGally and the publisher for this ARC!!

This is a book that is made for Gen Z, the characters are relatable and funny. I think the story definitely benefited from the multiple POVS throughout the story, I definitely did not see the twist coming in the end!

Also if this book has the possibility to still be edited can Elody calling everyone babe every 2 pages PLEASE be taken out, drove me crazy the entire book.

Overall would definitely recommend to young Gen Z readers to check out!

I'd like to thank Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Olivia Worley for the ARC of People to Follow.

I had a genuinely lazy day with this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was an easy but suspenseful read. It took my mind off everything I was trying to avoid which was the end game, right?

A murder mystery on a Caribbean Island? Need I say anymore? I will say that this books main characters are younger social media influencers. It has all the young slang in it. If today's lingo drives you crazy then this might not be thy book for you. As someone with 4 teen boys, I wasn't bothered.

I believe the audience for this book is probably late teens to mid 20's, and this book addresses some heavy topics so please keep that in mind.

This book didn't wow me, but I did read it all in one night.