While the concept for this book was interesting and very relatable in this day and age, I just had a hard time getting through this book and wasn't a huge fan of the ending. It felt like this book was dragged out and that it took forever for anything to really happen or work out. I think it would've been much more interesting and captivating had the author spent more time with Evie in the compound and it took on more of a cult like twist to it. As it stands I would not be likely to recommend this book to my patron.

'Such a Bad Influence' is not the type of book I would usually read, but the synopsis on Netgalley was really compelling to me and I wanted to find out how it ended. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, something that is half mystery, half cultural commentary-- a story about a young influencer who goes missing. The main plotline follows her older sister trying to figure out her disappearance, interspersed with commentary from Reddit and a mysterious newsletter reminiscent of Gossip Girl. A couple parts of the book dragged a bit; Hazel's personal life is dry and not really relevant to the plot, and for a section of the book you're not certain if the you're going to get a resolution on the disappearance. I don't know how satisfied I was with the ending.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and was super excited to read this book! It's about influencers and it's a thriller! I loved the idea of it, but I did start skimming through the reddit posts/emails sections so that I could get back to the "real world", but it was super accurate to what people do to influencers on the Internet! I love following Olivia Muenter on Instagram and Substack, so I'm so glad I was able to check out her book!

Wow! It's been a long time since I read a mystery with a twist that truly surprised me, but Such a Bad Influence gets better and twistier with every page.

It's easy to scroll and scroll and engage with influencers online, without giving it much thought. But I've never read a book that contends with the ethics of that world. The observations about family relationships are razor sharp here. Imagine being a child and knowing that you are your family's main source of income, you're afforded no privacy, not valued for your brains at all -- and on top of all that, you happen to be the family's youngest and therefore most vulnerable member. That's Evie, one of the internet's first viral children.

Okay, now imagine being Evie's protective older sister and watching Evie go missing on an Instagram Live. That's where the plot of SABI picks up, with Hazel driving from Arizona to California and beyond to search for her little sister, newly 18 and therefore an adult in the eyes of the law. But Hazel knows her sister wouldn't just pick up and go, so she's determined to save her.

Debut novelist Olivia Muenter is uniquely positioned to tell this story as a writer and influencer in her own right. Though the plot is fiction, readers will recognize the sort of language used in these pages from Instagram, Reddit, true crime podcasts, and our own conversations with friends. I can't wait to see this book take off this summer.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced review copy.

A good thriller that grapples with something that I have a lot of issues with: family vloggers. I really loved Hazel as a main character and was caught off guard by the ending. I didn’t quite understand why it happened, but I thought it was a clever way to end the book. Overall a really strong book!

Hazel Davis has had to leave her beloved New York where she hoped to work as a journalist and has been fired from her job in Las Vegas. Her much younger sister, Evie is a very successful influencer, managed by their mother. The family went viral on YouTube when Evie was five so this is the only life she has ever know. Hazel always resisted and wanted another life for herself, but all that has gotten her thus far is unemployed and deeply in debt.

Now Evie is 18, Hazel is 28. One day Evie is making a live stream video in a parking lot when she disappears. Now Hazel needs to explore her sister’s life to try to find her.

The text here is interspersed with social media messages (naturally), a format I love, and I actually wish there had been more of it here. The book was generally interesting with a bit of a surprise ending. Recommended if you think it sounds interesting.