Such a Bad Influence follows a popular teen influencer Evie Davis who goes missing. Her sister Hazel, who doesn't agree with Evies life style, sets out to find out what happened to her.

The premise is strong but it just wasn't well executed. The story is very of the times with discussions around Reddit forums, podcasts transcripts, influencers, tik tok, etc. I thought the critiques of social media especially parents exploiting their children on socials was interesting and important.

Unfortunately it was kind of boring! While there is one twist at the very end, this wasn't all that thrilling or twisty. I would describe it more as a family drama. Its extremely repetitive in parts and a very slow burn.

I was so excited to read this book and I did not disappoint. There are so many twist and turns I was glued to my seat and read this and almost one sitting because I did not want to put it down and oh my God that ending wow what a great debut novel I cannot wait to read what comes next from this author!

Another early release to review! I really enjoyed this story. It follows an influencer who mysteriously goes missing while filming a livestream. The narrator is the influencer’s older sister, who has always served as the voice of concern about social media stardom at such a young age in comparison to their “momager.” Of course, the sister has some secrets of her own…I’ll admit that one of the twists really got me! This is a great summer read - not too spooky or scary, but you definitely want to keep reading to see what happens. I’m also really interested in the ongoing conversation about privacy and consent for child influencers/children of influencers, so this book was right up my alley. If you want to read more about that topic, I recommend this Teen Vogue article

✨Thank you to NetGalley, the Author and Publishing Company for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review✨

What price is there to be paid for Internet fame? Muenter’s novel Such a Bad Influence explores the ramifications of influencer fame, especially how it affects minors seemingly exploited by their parents and guardians. When social media darling Evie Davis goes missing during a live stream, her older sister Hazel returns home after a long estrangement from their mother to assist in the search. All of the people closest to Evie are brought to task and their motives and manipulations laid bare as the mystery unfolds. Muenter’s use of intercalary excerpts from internet forums showcases how strangers both love, and love to hate celebrities and Evie’s journey from viral toddler to adult influencer is bumpy but enjoyable.

Famous influencer Evie disappears and her older sister Hazel is determined to find her. Most of this book was Hazel’s internal commentary about her mother’s behavior and exploitation of her younger sister and it moved pretty slowly for me. While it was an interesting take, I expected more action in a book categorized as a thriller.

Social media mysteries and thrillers are my jam, and I loved Olivia’s spin on a missing influencer trope, told through the eyes of an older sister.

The first 30% of this book blew me away. I read it quickly and was heavily invested in the storyline. It dragged for me after that. Many of the twists were too wild for my taste (and I am not someone who struggles with suspension of disbelief).

However, I really enjoyed Olivia’s writing and will be very curious to pick up her next book.

SUCH A BAD INFLUENCE by debut author Olivia Muenter is an interesting social commentary on the consequences of children growing up in the age of mommy bloggers, monetizing one’s life and constantly living with an audience. I found the way the author explored consent, the way people seek to capitalize on tragedy, and influencer culture. Olivia has a large online presence herself and was able to offer a candid critique of the industry.

The novel is marketed as a thriller but I found it to be more of a slow-burn character study. The premise was great and I was hooked from the beginning but the story lost steam around 60% where not much had happened. The pacing felt a bit off for me because for a majority of the story the narrative drive was lacking, but the ending somehow still felt rushed. I also felt the ending felt out of place and not in line with a particular character. While I would have preferred a faster-paced story I believe many readers will still enjoy this book over the summer.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

I thought this book was super addictive and twisty. Surprisingly enough, it did take me a few chapters to get interested in the story. However, once the story grasped my attention, I couldn't put this book down. This book is both a thriller and an examination at child stars and social media influencers. It definitely tackles some hard topics, and at times this book was heartbreaking to read. I feel it might make a good movie one day. I hope Olivia Muenter writes more books in the future because this one was fabulous!


Many Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers & Olivia Muenter for the ARC. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan-- I definitely wasn't the intended audience for the book & know nothing about influencer culture. 'Such a Bad Influence' explores the dangers of social media and how parents exploit their children by posting their pictures & videos all over the internet--without the consent of their children. There were parts that I found interesting, and made me think about posting pictures of my own kids on the internet. I used to post pics all the time, but now it's only every couple months. A big factor is that I'm lazy. Another factor is I don't care about social media. At all. While I will scroll Facebook & Instagram, I know that I could quit these platforms, but I would miss seeing updates from people I care for, but never see. However, the human interaction piece is so messed up. You can think you know people from all their posts--that you haven't actually seen or talked to since, oh, 2006. 'Friends' that you actively ignore in public. I am extremely grateful that I grew up & was a teenager where we had to use a computer to go on the internet. We had LiveJournal, AIM, and eventually Facebook--but that was when you had to be a college student to be on it & get a code from a member. Oh, how things have changed! I do think this book will relate well with the youth-- I just can't believe kids care so much about people they don't know on the internet. But, we (I) did care about things like NSync vs. Backstreet Boys (BSB sucks), loved JTT, had pictures of Eminem up on their walls. So, while this book wasn't for me, the youth might like it.

Well, hello social commentary! I have been a fan of Olivia Muenter for a while as she was a Philly girl for a bit and I loved getting her dining recommendations. When I saw she was writing a book about a missing influence it went immediately to the top of my TBR. I loved the parallels to real influencers (loved the “fictional” story about an influence locking herself in a high end Mexican hotel room) and definitely could see where Muenter was getting inspiritation from with various snark forums. While this is less thriller and more mystery, I enjoyed the suspense. This would be an awesome book club pick as it is ripe for discussion.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the best book I ever read about influencer culture. It's sharp yet tender, more of a fiction than a thriller.

I don't even use social media all that much, and yet something about the synopsis of this story really sucked me in. Maybe it was the drama of being an influencer from a young age and just up and vanishing that drew me in. The mystery of this was unfortunately a bit predictable, there are a few twists and turns that made me go "huh" but ultimately you can pretty much predict the direction that the story is going to take. The commentary was honestly more interesting to me than the mystery--especially in a day and age where child influencers, family vloggers and the safety of children and teens who are being posted online by their parents is a hot-button topic.
This was a good idea for a story, but I think that the mystery needed to be reworked a bit to give it some movement and a bit more stakes.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Hazel is older sister to famous influencer Evie and observes the life Evie leads, created by their mom Erin when Evie was only 5 years old, at an intentionally careful distance. Now Evie's 18 and living the life her followers envy...or is she? At the center of the story is Evie's disappearance from social media - unheard of from a leading influencer. Hazel's determined to find Evie and while doing so, the conscientiously crafted façade crumbles. What you expect happens with a couple twists you didn't see coming via an enlightening rabbit hole of influencer culture, even if it is fictional.

This was a solid debut about a famous influencer who grew up in front of the camera thanks to her mother and had her whole life shared online and the fallout when she goes missing. Told from alternating POVs this is perfect for fans of true crime podcasts and reality tv and considers questions of consent and child abuse/profiteering. I listened to this on audio and loved the full cast narration and the mic drop ending! Looking forward to more from Olivia Muenter in the future. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter is a very assured debut. The influence of social media is under the microscope in a very well written thriller with a great twist ending.

If you’re looking for a completely different type of summer read, there’s also Olivia Muenter’s SUCH A BAD INFLUENCE, out tomorrow, as well.

SUCH A BAD INFLUENCE, written by writer and podcaster Olivia Muenter (whom I follow and whose podcast Bad on Paper I listen to), is a mystery/light thriller that revolves around two daughters raised in the spotlight of their family’s internet fame, and particularly their calculating, career-influencer mother. There’s 18-year-old Evie, who has leaned into the family trade and amassed a multi-million dollar lifestyle influencing career of her own, and older sister Hazel, who loves her sister dearly but who doesn’t love the cost of her fame. (Fake friends, stalkers, suffocating momager, etc.) One day, Evie goes missing during a disturbing livestream, and Hazel, otherwise unenthused about her own life, commits herself to figuring out where her sister has disappeared to. Kidnapped, harmed, runaway? She sleuths through Evie’s life while reflecting on the sharp double-edged sword that is sharing one’s life on the internet, and resenting their mother for making it a compulsory part of growing up.

As I reflected on this one, I pulled open some of the influencer accounts I follow (Olivia included). What is it about the handful of them that keeps me coming back, even though I know — have reported on — how monetizing one’s following is another way of saying “making oneself into a one-person marketing agency?” There’s a lot of talk about authenticity and relatability in these spheres, but I think it may be more aptly put as a suspension of disbelief. What these — mostly beautiful women — are sharing is the kind of content that feels almost too real, so nearly real that I, as their follower, can lose myself in the narrative of their photos, videos, and stories and willfully pretend that I believe what they’re sharing to be the story of their lives. That’s my drink of choice, anyway: thrifting blips of other people’s lives and temporarily losing my mind in webs of vintage glassware, creative hobbies, and an aspirational intolerance to cringe. I too want to care that little and that much; I too want a sunset glass of wine over rolling hills. I am but a person online.

SABI is an of-the-times novel that asks philosophical questions about parasocial relationships and the commodification of the self in a whodunnit’s clothing. It’s probably not for people who haven’t been extremely online at some point in the last decade, or for people who say things like “I don’t really use social media.” But, good for those people, I love that for them. For the rest of us, suckers for a mystery and some pointed social commentary, clink clink.

This is a thriller about a girl who grew up online in the influencer world, her mother records her every move online from a baby and then When she’s 17 she goes missing. Her sister then goes in search for her.

Sounds like an amazing premise but I felt the plot fell short. It wasn’t thrilling, it was predictable and boring.

It did have a lot of interesting commentary on the world we live in with social media and influences and consent issues with children being shown online by parents.

But I feel like the author had that idea, and tried to work the story/plot around it and it didn’t work. It was soooo boring. There were parts I enjoyed like the comments from people on social media, the emails, and some of the commentary, but other than that the actual plot was boring.

Thanks to netgalley and the author for an arc.

📚 PUBLICATION WEEK REVIEW 📚

Such A Bad Influence By Olivia Muenter
Publication Date: June 4, 2024
Publisher: Quirk Books

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
(Rounded up to 5 Stars)

📚MY REVIEW:

Such A Bad Influence was a brilliant thriller that simultaneously left me on the edge of my seat and presented a scathing, judgemental look at the world of social media. A phenomenal juxtaposition that was both terrifying and entirely plausible.

What a fun and twisty read this was! From the start of the book when 18-year-old social media darling Evie is suddenly missing, I was intrigued. As the reader was given a deeper look behind the curtain at the unhealthy and toxic relationships between Evie's family members, my intrigue only continued. When Muenter brought in the host of supporting characters within this story, the mysteries deepened and I could not put this book down.

This book was twisty in all the best ways! I really enjoyed the intelligent writing style and the ways in which the layers of the onion were continually peeled back. Just when you thought one revelation was shocking, another secret would be revealed that was at least equally - if not moreso - shocking than the last!

And just when you felt like everything was coming to a satisfying end, there was a final twist that completely left me shook. As in, "wait... WHAT just happened?!" It was one of those twists that's going to rent space in my head for a little bit because it completely changed the way I viewed our main characters in the story. I kinda wanted to applaud as I read the last paragraph.

This is a unique and timely thriller, a must-read for anyone looking for their next bingeable book. Love social media or hate it -- this book will have you thinking. A huge thank you to NetGalley and Quirk Books for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! Don't miss this one when it comes out June 4th!!

#SuchABadInfluence #OliviaMuenter #NetGalley #ARC #PublicationWeek #bookreviews #bookrecommendations #booklover #bookcommunity #thrillerread #thrilleraddict

Hazel's younger sister has grown up online. Having gone viral as a child, she’s now a teenage influencer with a massive following, and all that comes with it… the good, bad, financially successful, and ugly. And now she’s missing.
Part thriller, part meditation on influencer culture and our part in it as consumers and viewers. I especially think the exploration of how money is earned/managed by and for the children growing up on social media. I really loved this and particularly liked all the references to current social media and influencer culture. I am excited to read more from this author in the future!

Before I say anything else about this book I need to start with this, WHAT. WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?! Still screaming.

When I found out Olivia Muenter, co-host of Bad on Paper Podcast, had a book coming out, I knew I needed it immediately. This is a slow-burn, realistic thriller that gets into your head. It makes you wonder about influencers' lives and what could be happening behind the scenes.

I had so many thoughts running through my head while reading this book. What has social media done to us? Where will it be in 10 years? Are any children of social media stars going to end up this way? And of course, Where is Evie?!

I loved the mixed media format that interspersed podcast interviews, Reddit threads, and more. I always feel more invested because it gives a bigger picture and feels like the real world instead of one created for fiction.

Once again, that ending was WILD. I could see this being a great book to discuss in a book club because I know we all have opinions about social media.