10 influencers are sent to a private island to film a new reality show called "IRL", where they'll live without phones or contact with the outside world for three weeks. What could go wrong? Turns out, quite a bit!

When the influencers arrive, it becomes clear that not only do many of them have drama with each other, they all have secrets they're trying to keep. Once they realize that their production crew isn't coming, the influencers realize there's a sinister motive. And then people start dying...

I cannot say how much I LOVED this book. I read it in 24 hours, and it had me hooked the entire time. I did not see the twists coming (I read a lot of thrillers so this is saying something) and the characters were a lot more complex than I expected.

One thing that Worley did well was write how influencers and people on social media talk without being a parody of itself. I could tell Worley is Very Online from how a lot of the dialogue was written (and did I catch some Taylor Swift references?). She has very valid critiques of the whole world of influencing and social media, but it's apparent she also enjoys it.

I can tell this is a book I will NOT SHUT UP ABOUT.

I was originally drawn to this book because of the beautiful cover and the premise of the plot. I love reality TV so the idea of a murder mystery with influencers that took place while filming a reality TV show sounded very up my alley, as well as a fun twist on the thriller plot.

Regardless if this was written for a YA audience or not, I felt like the characters leaned a little too into each of their stereotypes. Maybe this was in order to help the reader to separate each character as it was difficult to tell them apart at first but it made all the characters feel very one dimensional. Every single character was also extremely unlikeable, which I think was kind of the point seeing as the culprit really just wanted to "expose" the entire idea of social media and influencers, but there were no redeemable qualities which made it difficult to continue reading.

I kept wishing for just a little bit more from the plot, it felt very surface level and basic at times, relying a little too hard on the suspense and thriller aspect and not diving deep enough into each of the "crimes" committed by each character and the overall idea of doing anything for fame and followers.

There were also some plots that made no sense and were unbelievable, especially at the end with the big reveal. Overall I enjoyed the murder mystery part of it because I always like to figure out who the secret killer is, but for such a promising plot I feel like this book unfortunately dropped the ball.

It was good. I really enjoyed this. It started out as a bit of a ‘teen’ book with all the influencers. But it quickly turned into a good mystery. It kept me guessing for the whole book. I do feel like the book would be better enjoyed by people who are on social media, following influencers, on tik tok etc,
Either way, great book. Good mystery. I liked the characters and watching their stories unfold.

Thank you to Alexis Neuville, St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. I really enjoyed it.

I liked this one so much than I picked it up and didn’t stop reading until I finished it. This is a great, fast, fun read.

It’s one of those suspend belief books, but that’s not always a bad thing. If you don’t look at the characters too closely, you’ll be fine.

The idea of influencers on an island sounded great and the story was really interesting. The POV switching between 4 people only tripped me up a few times. The ending wrapped everything up well, which is one of the things that I look for. I still wanted to know what would happen to all of them in a few years. I hope I get to find out. A sequel would be fun.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Trash reality television meets TikTok and Instagram reels...

I found this book to be a complete guilty pleasure. It kept me interested and engaged and I could not stop turning the page. Despite this being on the YA side (teens) it was still worth the read. The influencer life is not all it's cracked up to be - that is for sure! This story may just talk anyone out of considering this. The mystery kept me engaged and I felt like the writing flowed. I am looking forward to reading more from this author!

This was a great read that had me flummoxed til the very end! You never know what's going on or who's doing what. It's a great read from end to end that really had me glued to my seat!

I’m 50/50 on this one! I loveddddd the concept and am obsessed with locker room
Mysteries, however the dialogue and characters bothered me so I couldn’t fully commit to it. It felt like teens trying to be teens.

Incredible twists though! I thought I had the story figured out but I definitely didn’t! Bravo.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!

My 16 year old daughter would probably love this book!
A Locked-room, whodunnit read. A handful of messy, undisciplined, privileged teenaged “influencers” trapped on an island & things get sinister pretty fast…
The lingo used in this novel… well for someone my age, was like trying to read code! What the hell is Twitch anyway?🤣
People to Follow was fast-paced, chock full of vengeance & pretty fun to read!
Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!
Pub date: 10/31/23

Pretty Little Liars meets Team 10.

Imagine todays top twitch streamers, fitness gurus, insta influencers, and tik tok personalities under one roof on a reality tv show. 100% a YA read yet I was fully invested!!

Listen, most people will probably read this and call it cringe but I enjoyed every bit of it. There were so many components that stood out to me that made it a 5 star read for me. Some of us are outsiders to the influencer “culture,” but some of us have also tiptoed into the world and have seen firsthand what goes on behind the scenes. This book lets your imagination run wild with the “what if this really happened?” At one point I thought it became too predictable, but I was surprised to see I was wrong. In fact, I was wrong in so many ways. There was so much more to what I thought was leading up to the twist.

Although there was multiple POVs it was easy to follow. Each character was developed and distinguished enough for you to make out whose pov we were reading. I found myself invested in a lot of the characters and their backstories and can definitely see this made into a series with prequels. If only, right? The ending was well fitting considering the storyline and there was very little to dislike about the book for me!

Thanks so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

This was such a fun, light thriller - think Hunger Games meets the Circle! I would have loved to have been able to read this while laying on a beach or in a hammock with a nice drink🍹 There are many POVs to follow in the beginning and it was a little rough to keep all the characters straight, but as soon as there was a murder accusation each character’s traits became more contrasting. This book had a few cultural references, but they were so subtle they didn’t seem as cringe as when an older author tries to relate to the youths. I thought I had the plot twist figured out probably 5 different times in this book and was still wrong by the end🥲 Overall an amusing 3.75 star read🌟

I received this book as an ARC through NetGallery. I really enjoyed the storyline of the book as well as the plot twist at the end. I thought that the story worked well and was believable. It was fast paced and captivating. I felt like the plot twist at the end was believable and added to the story. That being said, I think the influencers' part was focused on too much. I think the story would have been better if it was just normal people, or if it didn't repeatedly mention things about them being influencers. It did mention at towards the end how it was clique on purpose which did help. Overall, I really enjoyed the story, it was engaging and interesting. I will recommend this to others if I think it is in their genre of interest.

People to Follow by Olivia Worley was one of the best thriller debuts I’ve read all year!
Who wouldn’t love a story about ten teen influencers. A reality show on a remote Caribbean island. And one dead body?!

Propulsive and thrilling.... A page-turner that will keep you glued until the very end.
This is a well constructed thrilling novel that is well written, well-paced and with lots of surprises.
Olivia Worley superbly ratchets up the tension over the course of this fast read.
An unputdownable page turner of a read… I didn’t want to miss a single second… Had me gripped from start to finish.
A true thriller!… All of the secrets. All the lies. All of the unknown. When you finally think you know what is going on, there is a major plot twist! It is perfect
Phenomenal pacing, twisted characters, and a captivating prose Worley has created a scintillating new psychological thriller that was unputdownable!
I seriously can’t wait to read her next novel. Because if it’s anything like this… I’m ready.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Wednesday Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This is a murder mystery with a fun setup: a bunch of problematic-for-different-reasons influencers arrive for a retreat on an island and then start dying one by one. It’s really overly dramatic, sometimes in an entertaining way and sometimes not. I thought this book had potential but didn’t fully succeed. One major problem was that it had too many POV characters. I had a hard time telling the voices apart and keeping track of who we were following. I also felt like it got a little repetitive in the middle.
This book definitely feels YA, but it is YA, so that’s not a fault, just something to keep in mind before you pick it up.
I’d read something else from this author, but this one didn’t totally meet my expectations unfortunately!
2.5 rounded up
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you, Wednesday Books and Netgalley, for the arc!

PEOPLE TO FOLLOW is a thriller that will be talked about, especially by influencers, since they are used to being by their phones 24/7 and always thinking of what to post next. Olivia Worley created a great cast of characters with an excellent premise that I couldn’t stop reading until I knew whodunit.

It starts off innocent, but maybe a little catty, with ten influencers, and then there is a body. Suddenly it’s not the free and fun vacation they thought they were on. Each character is unique, with interesting hidden secrets, making it fun to read.

For a debut author, Worley has written a book that I couldn’t put down. Excellent characters that I wanted to know more about. A thrilling mystery with plot twists that I didn’t see coming. I will definitely be picking up whatever she writes next.

If you’re a fan of The Glass Onion, And Then There Were None, and locked door mysteries, definitely pick this up! It’s a super fun read!

And Then There Were None for teens - this was a super twisty read that dealt with a lot of issues having to do with social media and influencers. At times I got a little bogged down because there were so many characters/POVs, but by the end I felt like their voices had really developed. The last few twists are exceptionally wild. A fun, fast read!

You guys, I knew I was going to love People to Follow, by Olivia Worley. I love reality TV novels, I love stories of social media performance, I love influencers in fiction. Also, I love locked-door mysteries in which everyone gets cut off from civilization. So good.

"Welcome to “In Real Life,” the hot new reality show that forces social media’s reigning kings and queens to unplug for three weeks and “go live” without any filters. IRL is supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, watched closely by legions of loyal followers. But for these rising stars–including Elody, an Instagram model with an impulsive streak; Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Logan, a disgraced TikTok celeb with a secret; and Max, a YouTuber famous for exposés on his fellow creators–it’s about to turn into a nightmare."

It was a little hard to keep track of all 10 influencers at the beginning of People to Follow, especially the crowd of famous-for-being-famous types. I think that’s intentional, because it starts the novel in an island party house full of interchangeable attractive, entitled people. Once the story gets moving, the infighting and secrets help develop the characters.

As the story goes on, the mysterious Sponsor of their free influencer getaway asks them for secrets and promises to cancel anyone who lies. The worst secret, or refusing to participate, gets someone voted off the island for a dark reality show feel. Oh, I forgot to mention that everyone’s left their phones behind for a social media detox (to be filmed and shown on TV, love it), and that a terrible storm has prevented the crew from arriving on the island, cutting the influencers off completely. My favorite. As bodies and dark secrets mount up, it becomes clear that the deaths are not tragic accidents and the guest list isn’t random.

So, there are definitely some parallels with Agatha Christie‘s And Then There Were None. All the baddies have been tricked onto an island, where their dark secrets come out and the body count keeps rising. It seems impossible for anyone to be doing all these murders, since there’s no one else around. Such a great premise. The weak part in And Then There Were None is how much of it feels too contrived for me.

In People to Follow, we have a similar feeling with 10 people on an isolated island, facing murderous revenge for their past actions. Mostly I loved it, with all the elements of twisty drama, what’s not to love? But, again, the weak parts for me were moments that felt contrived and forced. I absolutely bought the overall story of influencers going on a trip, leaving their phones, bumping into their enemies, and discovering it was all messed-up Revenge Island. But there were still a few moments that felt like too much coincidence and too contrived (spin the bottle? right now?), and some uneven moments. (We have a collection of backstabbers, liars, scammers, and literal murderers on the island, and then one influencer whose “crime” is basically not personally dismantling weight loss and diet culture?)

Still, even with a few heavy coincidences, a murderwall of interlocking secrets makes for tense reading and so many possible motives and suspects.

Good book! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, intrigue, murder, mystery, a few killers,, A great who done it, and a few crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle! A storyline that definitely made you think! I will definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Honestly, this falls under the caption of like.... a perfect beach read? A little contrived, a little on the nose, but genuinely a deeply fun book to read. The mastermind reveal had me rolling my eyes a bit, which is why it lands somewhere in the real of 3.5 stars, but the author had a way of nailing first person character voice for all of the narrator's in a way that was really delightful. Honestly, this would makes a great film in the vein of Bodies Bodies Bodies, so fingers crossed that the movie deal mentioned in the acknowledgements goes through.

All of that being said, I think some of the lower ranking lies in how dated this book will probably feel in 5 years. It's very of the moment of TikTok hypehouses, of burns at Harry Styles, etc etc. Like! Genuinely something is fun to read, right now in 2023, but not something where I feel like "oh I want to immortalize this." Also, some of the discussion of holding people accountable is... very done? Like if Gossip Girl also had murder, I guess.

Anyway, great beach read if you're looking for one!

I don’t think I was the right audience for this book, since it’s geared towards YA. I think it was too much of a riff of the tiktok house and just fell flat for me. The twist at the end was nice though!

Olivia Worley’s People to Follow is an exciting adventure. Ten influencers head off to spend three weeks on a private island. But not all of them will be coming home. Lots of twists and turns throughout the entire book.

This was a POV book and I sometimes forgot whose viewpoint I was reading from. It is a good thriller, though! I was kept guessing and second guessing myself the whole time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Booms for this copy!