I am a fan of Anna-Marie McLemore's writing and read as well as taught from her YA books for many years. Their venture into writing for adults is very intriguing! At first, the subject of a Kardashian-like influencer family surprised me. However, a social satire that takes on privilege, wealth, race, and the gendered pressures of society is absolutely the type of story McLemore takes on; they usually do it through the retelling of a fairy tale or a compelling rewrite, such as their take on The Great Gatsby, SELF-MADE BOYS: A GREAT GATSBY REMIX, which was fantastic. Seeing this wealthy influencer family through the eyes of the author made for a great read and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I did struggle to keep the characters clear in my head and it took some time to acclimate to the short chapters from so many POVs. Maybe one or two fewer POV characters would have been helpful, but I'm not sure whose perspective should be cut; they all added something to the THE INFLUENCERS. This book is not my favorite by McLemore, but I look forward to seeing what they do with adult fiction next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House / Dial Press for providing a digital arc.

I had high hopes for this, but sadly, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I initially hoped I would. It is a semi take on the Kardashians and really had a lot of promise but found the story dragged. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if it just hadn’t been so bogged down in length.

This probably deserves closer to 4 stars, but the difficulty level is definitely a 10, so I’m pretty impressed that the author was as successful as they were.

This is my favorite Anna-Marie McLemore novel so far. I have not hated anything they’ve written, but nothing has impacted me as much as this did. It’s a social satire centered on May Iverson (a reality star/social media influencer who is a combination of Martha Stewart and Mother Kardashian. But she manages to be even less likable than that description implies). May is among the first generation of influencers, and her 5 children are on display for all the world to see through every aspect of their lives. The mystery part of the story, (there’s a murder), isn’t nearly as interesting as the way these 5 children react to their mother’s manipulations.

There are a couple of issues, mainly being that it’s too long and there are way too many POVs. But I don’t know whose POV I would cut, so I can’t complain too much. At first it was confusing to figure out who was who and which child was responsible for which action. But once I got familiar with them, I was wholly invested. The ending was so satisfying.

Social satire tends to be polarizing, but I think McLemore did a great job asking tricky questions and making often unlikable characters worth rooting for.

📚 ARC BOOK REVIEW 📚

The Influencers By Anne-Marie McLemore
Publication Date: April 15, 2025
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group | The Dial Press

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Random House, The Dial Press, and NetGalley for this #gifted e-ARC of the book in exchange for my honest review!

📚MY REVIEW:

The Influencers is a whodunnit mystery involving a fictional influencer family, offering a behind-the-scenes perspective into our society's obsession with the influencer culture and our inherent need to cultivate perfection through our online personas.

“Mother May I” Iverson spent twenty-five years building a massively successful influencer empire with endearing videos featuring her five mixed-race daughters. But the girls are all grown up now, and the ramifications of having their entire childhoods shared with the world are starting to spill over into public view, especially in light of the pivotal question: Who killed May’s newlywed husband and then torched her mansion to cover it up?

Initially, this one was shaky for me. The book almost felt like it began its story about ten chapters in, with very little context or backstory to understand how we got to where we were. It took a while to get into this one because I felt like I was supposed to understand more than I did. However, the pace of the book settled in about 30% of the way in, and I was sucked into the salaciousness of this story. It was like watching a slow motion implosion of your favorite reality-tv family, you know the reality family you've always loved to watch while also kinda secretly hoping there would be a huge scandal. It was tough to find a consistently likeable character here, but there was depth to some of the characters that - at the very least - evoked empathy.

The book was told in alternating short chapters of multiple POVs, which took time to get used to. There was the perspective of the general public who obsessively watched years of the family's online vlogging, interspersed with the alternating perspectives of each family member. Once I got accustomed to the way the POVs were shared, it was a really enjoyable way for the story to be told because I got to know the inner thoughts of each family member, while simultaneously watching the effects of the situation on the family's devoted followers.

There were some twists and surprises in this mystery that I didn't see coming, as well as a few I did. While this is definitely more whodunnit mystery than thriller, I believe a huge strength of this book is its intelligent and insightful commentary on the impact the influencer culture is having on our society today. This book may not be everyone's cup of tea, but overall, I really ended up enjoying it.

#TheInfluencers #AnnaMarieMcLemore #RandomHousePublishingGroup #TheDialPress #NetGalley #NetGalleyReviews #ARC #whodunnitmysteries#thrilleraddict #thrillerlover #booklover #bookreviews #bookrecs #bookrecommendations

The exploration of a mommy influencer’s unintended and callous influence on her children was a fascinating and relevant topic in this social media obsessed day and age. However, the characters were mostly unlikeable; it was a pretty depressing book. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book and excited to pick it up. It grabbed my attention right away, and I was invested. I did have a few issues that made this book not the best for this reader. There are a lot of characters, yes, but it was so hard to keep track of who was who because their names are all names on months - May, April, June, July, August, January, and March. While a cute premise, it made it difficult for this reader to remember who was who, especially considering three of their names start with J. A minor quibble, but it did take away from my enjoyment of the book a little bit. My other issue is that it just felt much longer than it need to be. The middle really felt like a slog, and by the end, I didn't care that much about "who did it." Overall 3 stars for me.

I am on the edge of my seat in this one, and I will say while reading this I kept thinking of all the mommy bloggers out there. I am obsessed, so great. I loved all the POVs in this.

Thank you to the published and author for gifting this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Ahhhh I really wanted to love this one! It had a lot of potential in the synopsis but just ended up falling flat for me unfortunately. I felt lost from the beginning with all of the characters introduced and it couldn’t keep my attention. The premise was interesting and I appreciate the highlight of social media influencing, especially related to child exploitation. There were fun parts to the writing. The mystery component was never clear to me. Unfortunately this was just not a book for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC.

I think I need to slow down on the social media/influencer books. Had I read this book at a different time, I may have enjoyed it but it just fell flat for me. So many characters, I was never really invested.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately this was not a book for me. There were so many characters right from the beginning that it was hard to keep track. It was definitely giving Kardashian vibes, but in the worst possible way. Overall, this bored me to death, and I'm still trying to see where the mystery part of this book was.

Ultimately this wasn’t for me although the concept was one I’m interested in. I’ve always wondered about the long term effects of mommy blogging and this fictional story presents a possibility. However I got bogged down early in the story with the sheer amount of siblings introduced and the fact that they all had month related names didn’t help with my confusion.

The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore tells the story of May Iverson, "Mother May I", and her adult children (April, June, July, January, and the missing March) following the murder of May's recent husband August. At the surface, the story appears to be a fun murder mystery about a family of social media influencers. It begins that way, but as the narrative continues it reveals the manipulative lens of social media and how it allows influencers to show only what they want to, while leaving the truth out of the picture. The story is told through the first person narration of May, her children, and those who are watching May, and her family through their social media presence. Definitely an interesting imagining of what life is like behind the scenes of the posts we see on social media. The mystery part of the book fell a little flat for me. Overall, a thought provoking read. Thank you Random House Publishing House and NetGalley for an ARC of this book for my honest review.

This reminded me of The House of my Mother meets The Kardashians. I was very excited about the premise and it had a lot of potential, but I felt like it lost my attention toward the middle and I didn’t want to pick it up as much. 3 stars- good idea, could have been edited down.

This was pretty interesting. Although I use social media, I do not know anything about the behind the scenes. May, the mother who built their influencer empire, and her daughters are suspects in the killing of May’s husband. I am sure that May’s success was partly on the backs of her children and who know what damage this did to them.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was drawn to the cover and the Kardashian like story, but found it just okay. It felt longer than necessary and I didn't feel very invested in the characters.

Thank you for the advanced reader copy Netgalley & Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press.

"Mother May I" Iverson has built a reputation on the backs of her 5 kids. Now that they are grown and on their own, they are fighting about that past and how they move forward. This is a novel about what can happen on socials.

As a dissection of influencer culture, The Influencers doesn’t just ask whodunnit—it questions what happens when a life lived online unravels offline. Throughout the book it felt as if we shifted gears unexpectedly. While it delivers an interesting exploration of how social media twists our perceptions of relationships and reality, that wasn't the whole point of the book, at least it's not what I expected. The story’s ending leaves some threads frustratingly loose. Either way, it's a compelling, if slightly uneven, mystery and worth the read.

I'll be reviewing on Instagram on April 1st.

20/100 or 1.0 stars

I was excited to start this, as the premise was interesting, and I wanted to know how McLemore told the story.
This did not work for me at all, unfortunately. The characters were all one dimensional and it was hard to get into the story. I was hoping as it went on that it would change my mind, or do somthing interesting, but that didn't happen.

I have read many of Anna-Marie McLemore's books over the last years – this is actually my ninth book by them, wow – and their new releases always have my attention. They are the author of lyrical, magical YA trans stories for me, and I was very excited to see how this translates to an adult fiction book. The book follows a rich influencer family consisting of the super famous Mother May I and four of her daughters after the murder of May's second husband August. I saw "The Influencers" tagged as mystery / thriller on Goodreads, but it's really not. It's more of a rich people drama where there is also a crime, so don't go in with the wrong expectations. While there is the question of what really happened to August and who killed him, this book is less about solving the mystery than about painting a family picture. First, there's May Iverson: former mommy blogger turned lifestyle influencer, now rich and internet famous and thinking that firing the staff of her mansion makes her a minimalist. May has five daughters from her first marriage – January, March, April, June and July (don't get me started on these names) – and she pretty much got famous through making their childhood public. All the daughters are adults now, and some followed into their mother's footsteps while others feel exploited by her. Everyone gets their own POV in the book, so a lot of different perspectives are presented. None of the daughters liked their stepfather much and many had problems with their mother, but who actually had the motive for the committed crime? It's not really a thrilling read, but I liked the way how the story unraveled with each new chapter. There's also this interesting collective POV of the family's followers that shows how the Iversons are perceived on social media. It's an observing perspective that doesn't necessarily show the truth, only constructing a picture from online content. These chapters were very well done in my opinion. It's where McLemore's lyrical writing shines the most and a lot of commentary on current issues regarding social media is offered. I'm talking about carefully constructed online personas and fakeness, about parasocial relationships, about privacy and publicity, especially when it comes to children. It's not a deep or analytical exploration of these themes, but I liked how they were interwoven with the narrative and how they were part of the everyday life of the characters. It was a good read, but some minor things also bothered me. There were five siblings and all had different personalities, but their respective chapters didn't really have a unique voice, so I was sometimes mixing them up. And if you name twin sisters June and July there's a 100% chance that I can't remember who's who, I'm sorry. I also think that the book could have wrapped up a little faster or be shorter in general. But these negative things don't weigh down my overall positive opinion too much and I'm glad that I enjoyed Anna-Marie McLemore's adult debut. Every time I read a book by this author I kinda want to re-read my old favs by them and "The Influencers" was no exception. I don't think that fans of the author have anything to worry about with this new release and I hope that many new readers will find them through the new genre.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Random House / Dial Press for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Having previously enjoyed Anna-Marie McLemore’s YA books, I was excited to see they were branching out into adult, and into the thriller space. And while age group and genre pivots come with mixed results, I feel McLemore did a great job with The Influencers. Influencer culture, from fans’ parasocial relationship with them to the intense toxicity among influencer families, from reality-TV families like the Kardashians and the Duggars to family vloggers like the Frankes. While there isn’t a direct analogue between the fictional Iversons and any real influencer family, McLemore seems to have a finger on the pulse of the issue as it’s been discussed of late, and we see that reflected in both the interpersonal toxic dynamics among the family and the fan responses.
And in terms of the writing, I love the way the book conveys this. Following the passage of time since the murder of the new husband of family matriarch May, I loved the mix of more intimate perspectives from the various family members, interspersed with “fan” (and eventually “ex-fan” perspectives, and it really gives the impression of consuming a juicy gossip blog.
In terms of characters, I can’t say they were all that well-fleshed-out. The POVs aren’t super distinct, so I didn’t find myself feeling much for these people. But I do think McLemore did the work of capturing the intense dysfunction that comes from broadcasting your family’s lives to the world, and the conflicts that might naturally arise from the resulting discomfort (and more). And while the lack of individual investment made the twists a little less impactful, I’m not shocked I found the characterization lackluster, as this has been a complaint I’ve had with many thrillers.
And while I definitely was consistently intrigued with all the drama, the uneven pacing impacted my enjoyment, at least somewhat. There were some parts of the book where the story dragged, and the timeline of the book felt much longer than it was, with everything occurring in just under a month, not to mention the book clocking in at around 448 pages.
However, in spite of these flaws, I enjoyed the reading experience overall, and would recommend it to readers who are interested in books that explore the darker side of celebrity and fan culture.