The Influencers is a fascinating book. Popping back and forth between perspectives of the Iverson family - May Iverson, the mother; and her daughters, April, June, July, January, and March, who got famous through May's mommy blogging under "Mother May I" - and their fans, who helps us learn more about the family through the family's posting history and their own "relationship" with each Iverson. The structure created this back and forth between the reality and the facade. How much do we really know about the influencers we follow? Who gets to say what's real at the end of the day?

I loved discovering who the Iversons were through the lens of their fans - the idea that "we who know XYZ" was explaining each member of the family to the reader as if we had the same opportunity to judge them as the police, or the law, resulted in a sort of intimacy between us and the fans, almost more so than what I felt when living in each Iverson's POV. Like, of course the fans have a good gauge on who they've been following for years. Of course, they'd be able to make judgements on this family based on photos and 30 second videos of their lives.

I did guess some of the twists, but even with that, I loved how things unfolded as we got to see the cracks in the veneer of the Iversons' perceived perfection. I also loved how some things fed into the social commentary of the toxicity of child influencers and the downfalls of being chronically online.

As we delve into the aftermath of the death of May Iverson's new husband, everyone who's ever stepped foot in the Iverson mansion is called to be questioned, but only one person did it. Now it's up to the police (and us, as readers) to figure out who. An incisive look at influencer culture, the impact of social media and mommy blogging, along with discussions around race, culture, and tradition, The Influencers had me absolutely glued to the pages!

TW: PTSD, toxic relationship, sexism, sexual harassment, racism, fire/fire injury; mentions death, murder, pregnancy, stalking

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
World Building: 4.5/5
Writing: 5/5
Pacing: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

Finished copy gifted by Dial Press via Colored Pages Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

I love anything about influencers and influencing but the characters’ names (January, April, May, June, July) had my head spinning. It’s also 448 pages which I feel is a bit of a stretch for what is supposed to be a fun and campy read.

Published by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, on April 15, 2025

Someone murdered August Ingraham and set fire to a wing of his mansion, although not the wing in which his body was found. The prime suspects are five sisters: April, June, July, January, and possibly March, although March (the youngest) hasn’t been seen for a while. Another suspect is their mother, May Iverson, August’s wife and the creator of Mother May I.

August was only married to May for a couple of years and wasn’t in the picture when May’s five daughters were born. Their biological father, Ernesto Iniesta, had an argument with August a couple of weeks before his death and is also a suspect, at least in the eyes of true crime podcasters. A neighbor who had a reasonable grudge against August also had a motive, but he became an unlikely suspect after his dead body was discovered outside the burning house.

The Influencers is presented as a whodunit, yet as the title implies, it is more a sendup of online personalities. The novel skewers a certain kind of “influencer,” internet celebrities or wannabes who place their enviable lives on display for the world to see, except for the parts they try to conceal.

Chapters written in the third person generally narrate the actions of family members. Other chapters offer first-person thoughts spoken collectively by followers of the family members. The followers are obsessed; their obsession contributes to the humor. They believe they are best positioned to solve August’s murder, as they know more about the family than the police will ever learn.

May is “famous for picture-worthy after-school snacks and homemade costumes and glamorous New Year’s Eve parties,” as well as lifestyle and fashion advice, product lines (such as Mother May I dish towels), and product endorsements. On her Mother May I platforms, she posted daily videos of her children growing up, sometimes to their displeasure.

The non-identical twins, pale June and dark July, made a career of their mother’s career. They “followed their mother into the world of making money off polishing and posting their daily lives. June and July each had their own personal brands,” but they post some content collectively as the Summer Girls. According to their fans, “It was June we loved for having no filter, no brakes, and July we loved for her gentle way of moving through the world.” June is even a bit motherly in her relationship with May. “If June didn’t keep an eye on her, she was going to fund a line of vitamin-infused nail polish or an independent film about reverse racism.”

Growing up, April was the problem solver, the replacement mom who stepped in to help the other girls when May was busy hawking products. Now April has a fabric store and, in the collective opinion of Mother May I fans, is too competent to have burned down a part of the house while August (presumably dead at the time) was in a different wing. “Rather than such scattershot arson, she would have set the fire close enough to the corpse to turn all evidence to cinders. She might have even been able to make both look like accidents.”

January works in theater as a lighting designer. She keeps to herself and away from cameras. Maybe she’s never gotten over her mother filming them as they shopped for her first training bra or her mother’s broadcast about her “many feelings” when her daughter had her first period. I’ve never had a period (wrong gender for the curse), but I can imagine being mortified if my mother discussed her feels about my bodily discharges with the entire world.

The followers debate the potential of each Iverson to be a killer based on what they know of their personalities (or on how they dress or wear makeup). They dissect new footage of the family that a true-crime blogger has posted to her site while the Iversons try to discover the source of the video clips. The videos appear to be candid camera recordings, some of which portray May and the girls in a negative light, the kind of recordings that May would never have posted. Who took the videos and who released them to podcasters is another mystery the followers want to unravel.

Sharp-eyed followers identify a guy lurking in the background of certain videos who might be named Luke, who always wears a sweatshirt, and who may or may not be dating June or July. Luke Sweatshirt is another murder suspect.

Like many fans of celebrities, the Mother May I followers are fickle. When they like what they see, they can’t get enough of it. When it seems the family is about to melt down, they are just as happy to be cheering against them. That seemed like a particularly telling observation about the nature of people who become absorbed in the details of Kardashian-type celebrities.

As the novel nears its end, the central mystery — who killed August? — is temporarily overshadowed by a second — what happened to March? Both reveals are surprising, although the explanation of August’s death and the fire in his mansion is underwhelming.

The novel is long and the pace sometimes drags, in part because endless descriptions of the Iverson family’s fashion choices become a bit wearing (no pun intended). Anna-Marie McLemore’s central point is the importance of children building their own identities and the damage caused by mothers who shape their children with the intent to monetize them, but the story suffers from redundant reminders about all the ways in which May failed her kids. Still, the story always maintained my interest and a steady diet of comedic moments kept me smiling.

RECOMMENDED

4 ⭐️

General vibe: cozy mystery meets quirky, semi dysfunctional family
Could I put it down: for the first bit yes, but it picked up when the pieces came together
Do I recommend? Yes 🙌

I love a cozy mystery and this definitely checked the box. I’m a weenie and can’t handle suspense or anything scary but this felt like sitting and watching a Netflix limited series (think Knives Out). Had the family drama and quirky family dynamics that we all have with a little mystery inside. Every time I thought I knew who did the deed, I was way off. I’ve never read anything by this author but will certainly read her again.

DNF. This book did not grab me or pull me in. There were a lot of characters and many just had a few generic traits. I am skipping the Goodreads review. Just because it was not my cup of tea, others may like it. I wish this author the best!

This book had an interesting concept but the book was slow . It was difficult to keep track of the characters , their names were odd. I didn’t find it much of a thriller .
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. The Influencers was pretty outside my typical ready and not only was it a breath of fresh air for me, it was just so intriguing. We have all fallen prey to becoming obsessed with public personalities or deep diving into a true crime. This boom built on that deliciously obsessive feeling and spun a story that kept me captivated and guessing. While there were some twists I could see coming, I ultimately didn’t know how things would truly unfold until the very end. I enjoyed the ride and would readily recommend this book to so many of my friends.

**Thank you to The Dial Press and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

The overall plot of this book was very interesting but the execution was dry and so drawn out. There were so many pieces of information that I could have absolutely could have gone without. So much seemed to be happening while nothing was actually happening.

I did think the reflection of mom influencers and the relationships they have with their children was done well. How toxic that type of environment is, especially for kids.

Thank you for NetGalley and Dial press for this ARC!

i wanted to like this more than i did but unfortunately it did fall flat for me a bit. the start was super slow, and by the time it did finally pick up, i was left wanting. the drama of it all was super addictive, though, which i really liked.

Oh wow. The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore was such a deviation from other works by the same author, with so much tension and mystery from each page to the next. Right from the beginning, I could see how the story was different, and was immediately hooked. There was never a time I could figure out the next turn we were taking and was eagerly along for the ride.

The different sisters were unique and fascinating, however, my own name blindness got the best of me with all of the month names. However, I could tell who we were following based off of their vibe. The different types of chapters, switching from different POVs, the sisters, the audience....other nameless characters. It was such a fast, hard to put down read with how I desperately needed to figure out the ending.

Truly, a jaw drop worthy, stellar novel.

this was a fun, easy read with a lot of interesting things going on — i liked the pov being from the audience, the twists in the second half, and the concept of how insidious family influencers can be — although i sometimes had a hard time feeling invested.

I did not find this book as interesting as other readers. It was good but it dragged for me. Halfway through I started putting it down for longer periods of time. I enjoyed the murder mystery parts but May and July, the major "influencers" in the family just became very shallow to me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary digital ARC. This review is my own opinion.

This could have been something special. The pace and the prolonged vagueness of the "missing" sister and the "estranged" sister took too long to clarify. It felt like work to read when it could have been fun and mysterious. Thank you, NetGalley.

The Influencers is what it sounds like and the setup to the reveal was many POV's which I liked. With influencers taking over our feeds and lives, I have been reading more books like this. There was a mystery involved but it's not one you can help figure out, even though some tried. Influencer kids are involved and of course they all have ridiculous names. I did like the getting to know each child bits and loved that the reveal was not predictable. Thank you NetGalley, Random House, and Anna-Marie McLemore for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I did decide to wait for the audio to come out and listened to the audio as a tandem read. Which I recommend as the narrator is Brittany Pressley. The book did feel more Lit Fic with many POV's, with a mystery as a background/resolution to the story. Pretty fast read and was able to finish in a day.

I had a fun time with this rich people family drama I thought the writing was unique and easy to follow. This book follows the Iverson’s a family of a mom, stepdad and 4 daughters and a mommy YouTube channel. We follow the Iverson after the daughters have grown up but the step dad ends up dead. This family drama almost had a mystery as its setting while it was taking place it didn’t feel like the main point of the story and I loved that. This felt more like a slice of life in the craziness of an influencer. Being a huge fan of reality tv this one hit home for me, some of the characters felt like a villains on real housewives, the social issues felt a little heavy handed at times but I still enjoyed the viewpoint. This is my first book by this author but hope to read more in the future. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance reader's copy of this book. Unfortunately at this time I will be unable to give it my full attention, so I will provide a starred rating and return when I can give it a proper review.

This was really too long, which made parts of it feel quite repetitive. I did like the premise and I did have a fun time reading it, but it wasn't anything special. I also think the daughters were too similar, I would've liked it more had the girls been more unique.

What I liked:
* The family- it took me a minute to get used to the names but once I did, I really enjoyed learning about their individual perspectives on their situation.
* POV’s- it was interesting to get to see the viewpoints from viewers, haters and fans, as well as the family.
* March Iverson- that’s all I’ll say and let you read it yourself.
What needed a little work:
* There were times when the story felt like it was getting repetitive. All the “behind the camera” scenes were great at first but there were too many.
* May’s outcome- realistic but frustrating.

Overall, this was a great look at the toxic side of influencing and where it can lead if you lose sight of what really matters.

Lily May Iverson aka Mother May I’s seemingly perfect life is turned upside down when her husband is found dead and her house is on fire. May is known as an OG (original) influencer who documented motherhood for decades. This included constant coverage of her five children’s best, worst, and everyday lives. Now, May’s brand is in shambles with her children April, June, July, January, and March as the prime suspects of her husband’s murder– but maybe she could spin this?

Each character has their own chapters (and there are a lot of characters). We, the readers, get to partake, too, during the chapters referred to as “we the viewers of the influencers”. I found this a unique way to not only put the reader into the story, but to also highlight how we can be participants in the insidious environment of influencers who make a version of their lives consumable. We can’t look away. My favorite part of this was that it critiques influencer culture. Yes, so many of us partake in this phenomenon but how do we protect the children who have little say in their lives being scripted, crafted, and constantly on display?

Fans of reality television will love this. Especially the reality tv where you kind of become obsessed and form parasocial relationships whether from the invite to elite lives or the drama that you just can’t help but want to witness.

3.25/5 stars! This is a "what if the Kardashians killed their mom" mystery novel and I was here for that premise. For that alone, I found parts of this story really fun. I didn't like the kids all having month names and the dialogue was a bit bland at times. But overall and enjoyable read.