This was really hard to get into for me. Some of it seemed a little far fetched. Would try the author again, but found myself picking up other books while reading this one.

3.5 stars. This book was pretty entertaining and a good listen on audio but I’m not really sure it had anything new to say. I’ve read a number of books in this “expose the influencer” genre and after a while they all seem be saying the same thing. The mystery in this story was lackluster (and tbh, after listening to the entire book I’m not really sure who killed the stepfather) and it just seemed like a device to explore the different Iverson sisters and their mother. I did enjoy the different perspectives of the different sisters and how they each reacted differently to their mother’s narcissism.
Thank you to Netgalley and The Dial Press for an advanced copy of this book.

The influencers by Anna-Marie Mclemore is a fun but surprisingly timely exploration of influencer culture-more explicitly family influencer culture. The family of influencers has the names of the month, headed by matriarch, May, and her daughters-June, July, April, January, and her missing daughter March. May has remarried August who has been found murdered and sets the action in motion. The short chapters alternate between the family and the followers on social media documenting their lives and the murder.

I enjoyed the structure of the narrative and the commentary on the influencer culture-especially the lens of the family influencers. I did find the characters to be somewhat similar in their characterization (I almost feel that it was a choice and added to the commentary of the culture) but it does add to some confusion and a lack of investment in the characters and plot. The book does drag a bit and could have been cut as it does seem redundant hitting the finish line. Overall though, I did enjoy this and thought it was a strong and fun mystery that had something to say! I would be interested in more from this author. More 3.5 stars than a straight 3.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I just cannot resist an influencer novel. This one really looks at the impact of children growing up as content for their parent(s) which definitely is a timely narrative. This used social media viewers POV well and looked at the parasocial relationship some people have with influencers. I enjoyed the big mystery surrounding the death and didn’t figure it out which was fun. This was a big too long coming in around 440 pages and started to get repetitive at times. However, this would make an excellent limited series so I need Netflix or Amazon to get it on it.

This was kinda fun! Social media influencer May Iverson (aka Mother May I) has built an empire on the backs of her daughters (I regret to inform you their names are April, June, July, January, and March). When her husband (August, sorry) is found murdered, her now-adult daughters are all suspects.

I loved the writing style of this and it was a fun read, but it did take me a while to get into it. I felt like there were sooo many sisters and they were all vaguely similar so it took some time for me to be able to remember who was who.

Overall it was a fascinating commentary on influencer culture (more specifically, influencer family culture). I will say that I had no idea where the story was going but I enjoyed where it ended up.

A solid three stars from me - thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I've been waiting for a plot line like this ever since I first told my teenage daughter she could not post pictures of any and everyone without their permission.......some people don't want their lives lived in public!!!!
While THE INFLUENCERS does have a murder mystery at it's heart, readers are first introduced to the suspects.....er.....characters. And what a cast of unique characters they are. A Mother who has become rich and famous by "sharing" every detail of the lives of her four daughters. The daughters are now adults and have a few opinions on how exposed they felt and whether their mother has the right to continue the "show" their lives became. Along the way, we meet the stepfather who was universally disliked and is murdered, stirring up popular opinion on who killed him and why. The answer is shocking!!!
Anna-Marie McLemore has skillfully built the family from hell and named them after the months of the year!!! A winner of a book that is an easy 5 star read.

This was difficult to follow. The back and forth with all of the characters got a bit confusing at times. Also, I just didn't really connect with it. Someone might enjoy this premise of what happens when kids thrown onto social media by their parents grow up, but it wasn't for me.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely.

The Influencers gives Kardashian vibes. The mother swears everything she’s done is for the girls, to make their lives better. The daughters all push back in their own way, whether it’s following closely in Mom’s footsteps but not quite, or disappearing once they turn 18. It feels like you’re reading a dumpster fire of a story. And I mean that in the best possible way. I struggled to put the book down, I had to keep reading, I needed to know what happened next.

The only issue I had with the book was at the beginning, when meeting the daughters. At first, they all seem similar; there doesn’t seem to be much difference between them. But the more you read, the more you learn that there are differences, especially between the twins, June and July. That’s right, all of the girls are named after months of the year. That alone feels wrong, but it fits with the image of May Iverson.

There are a few mysteries in the book. One who set fire to the house? Two, who murdered August? Three, what happened to March? Four, who’s sharing the old footage of the Iverson family? Five, why are they sharing the footage?

I figured out one of the mysteries early on and felt vindicated when I was proven right. As for the others, I was surprised by the answers. I had my suspicions, but wasn’t 100% certain until McLemore spelled it out on the pages for us.

I haven’t read any of McLemore’s other books, so I can’t compare this to them. But I do know, if they write more books like The Influencers, I will be clamoring to read them. This felt like reading a tabloid magazine, one filled with stories of the rich and famous. But better, as it was full of so many juicy details.

This book was a struggle for me to finish, and I LOVE this author which is why I wanted to read their adult debut.

There are 6 MCs, which was a lot. Even with the length of this book, which felt too long, I didn't get invested in them or learn much about their lives outside of the family. I was very interested in what happened to March, the missing sibling.

The subject matter of social media influencers and how they feature children (who can't really consent) in online content to make money didn't draw me in. You do start to see how it has shaped the adult children individually but I wanted more development.

I did not like the public audience perspective which became a narrator called "we who were watching" and shared a lot of the twists and action. I think this impersonal viewpoint (and even not connecting to the characters in a deeper way) was purposeful to show how parasocial relationships can develop.

The author's original point is an important one. I think they show it throughout without needing to state it the way we read from the public audience narrarator.

What happens when an influencer family’s children grow up and rebel against the ideal that their parent has set? We’ve seen a lot of news recently about influencer kids and the abuse they endure. I was very interested in this fictional whodunit mystery about a family of influencers, but unfortunately this wasn’t a win for me. I REALLY loved the premise of the book and really enjoyed the actual plot. At the heart of it is a thought-provoking look at what social media is doing to families. The family drama itself was really interesting and could have been compelling if I hadn’t been hung up on the character names and the POV. The mother’s name is May Iverson and her brand is “Mother-May-I.” In an attempt to be thematic, she names each of her five children a month as well - June, July, April, March, and January. She even marries a man named August. I’m sure it was supposed to be funny, but it was completely confusing and took SO much away from the book, in my opinion. I also found the changes in point of view hard to keep up with. There was so much back and forth that it seemed difficult at times to keep up with. Overall, it was just ok!

Thank you to @netgalley and Random House - Dial Press for the opportunity to review. All opinions are my own!

Loved the premise, however one dimensional characters and a plot line full of holes made this a chore to finish.

The names of these characters got so annoying that I didn't finish this book. I know the names were supposed to be a play on the mom's name, but honestly, this was a mistake and took away from the story.

I was totally down for a fictionalized Kardashian saga, but this one just fell flat for me. I couldn't connect with any of the characters and I found it a bit of a slog. DNF'd. Thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I will not be reviewing this for Goodreads or Instagram.

Anna-Marie McLemore’s The Influencers is one of the most interesting, frustrating, thought-provoking books I’ve almost not finished in a long time. We start with a chapter title telling us that there has been a murder, but before we hear anything about the crime or the victim, an anonymous chorus called “we the followers of Mother May I” tells us about May Iverson, mommy vlogger and influencer, and her 5 adult children, who she named April, June, July, January, and March. The murder victim is May’s second husband, August, who is not the father of any of her children. The Influencers has several mysteries, but it isn’t really a who dunnit. It’s a family drama, a look at motherhood, a study of the impact of turning a family into a consumable product and the parasocial relationships that form around individual members of the family, and racism.

There are a few crimes central to the story, the murder, a fire, someone is leaking unedited footage that reveals ugly truths about the Iverson family, possibly the youngest, March, is missing, and more.

The book marks time by how much time has passed since August’s murder, but the story is told like a mosaic. We get short bursts of point of view from the daughters, May, and different groups of viewers. The picture becomes clear only when most of the fragments are in place. For all that the chapters advance time linearly, the story jumps around in time. We hear about things that happened, but it seems random until the piece with the context is shared.

There were a few points in the first half of the book where I had to decide if it was worth my time to keep reading. I did, and in the end I thought it was a worthwhile read. McLemore has put a distance between the reader and the story, which initially frustrated me, but now that I’ve finished it, I think it was a good choice. May turned herself into Mother May I, changing her children’s last name from Iniesta to Iverson and white washed the Latine until it was more a light dusting than a racial or cultural identity. She drew in fans with “remember, you are already a good mom,” while being an awful mother to her children. This is a story ripe for big emotions and catharsis for the reader, but McLemore creates a distance so that we think about our own relationship to the story.

I am leaving out a lot. But to dive more deeply would ruin the experience for fresh readers.

I received this as an advance reader copy from The Dial Press and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

The Influencers unfortunately fell flat for me. The character who was killed meant nothing to the reader, so it was difficult to be invested in solving any mystery around their death. All of the points of view were confusing, and the daughters were described so many times and somehow still had no real substance to their characters. I just couldn’t get into this.

I'm not familiar with the author's YA work, but this might serve as a nice transitional book for those following them from YA to adult reading. With the majority of the characters in their 20s and a focus on those who have grown up in the age of mommy blogs and social media, this will be relatable.

Oh....this is going to happen, I can feel it.

The Iversons have been in the spotlight most of their life. "Mother May I" Iverson has made a living off the last 20 years off the backs of her 5 daughters. What started as a way to update friends and family has turned into an empire, with videos, social media campaigns and appearances.

When their step-father dies and their mother's house is burnt to the ground....the five girls are the prime suspects. They are no longer the cute, little girls growing up online. April (oh...just wait) is out of the spotlight and hugely successful on her own terms. Twins, June and July (told you) have their own brand that's growing to be bigger that their mother. January works as a theater tech, staying in the background. March, the youngest, hasn't been seen in years.

As the investigation goes on, the girls and their mother must reconcile their family secrets, and family tensions.
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Man.....this is going to happen soon. Kids are being used to run entire family businesses, all for some clicks and views. While this is clearly a "Kardashian" influenced story, we have to look at the child exploitation that is all over our social media.

Is this a dark comedy? Yes, but all comedy comes from truth.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I am very invested in psychology/ sociology of our modern influencer culture. The idea that we live in a world where our privacy is no longer ours but something for mass consumption, kind of freaks me out. I choose to live a private life online, but I don’t think young people are afforded that option anymore. Especially the children of so-called influencers, whose private lives are monetized by their parents. Once on the Internet cannot be taken back. In the past year, I’ve read a few books dealing with influencers and children of family blog, influencers, and the more I read about it, the more it freaks me out. This book really brought up a lot of the issues that I’m intrigued by in a fascinating thriller/mystery. I definitely recommend this book! It takes a little bit to get moving, but I found myself invested pretty quickly.

Thank you #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

May Iverson is a social media influencer known for her channel "Mother May I". When her house is burned to the ground and her husband, August, found dead, her five daughters are the prime suspects. As the investigation into August's death continues, videos start to surface showing a different side of the Mother May I channel. With more videos being posted on social media, the Mother May I empire is put at risk and followers all have an opinion on what daughter is the killer.

Told through the POV of May, each of the daughters and the followers of Mother May I, The Influencers is not much of a mystery/thriller but focuses on the darker side of influencer channels.
Each daughter seemed to have motive for wanting August gone and the Mother May I channel to be removed. The followers POV was unique as they were an unreliable narrator, and their information seemed to change as each video was posted. My only complaint would be the structuring of some of the chapters. The different POVs abruptly changed in the middle of the chapter, and I had to go back occasionally. Overall, this was an enjoyable read for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House- Dial Press for the opportunity to review The Influencers. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

“Remember you are already a good mom.” That’s how May Iverson closes her videos when she poses as “Mother May Iverson” on the internet but, is May simply acting and putting on a show or does she reap what she sows?
This book was addictive! Anytime I thought I had the mystery solved I would turn to the next chapter and discover I was wrong. This book also makes you really think about current family influencers and how you always can’t believe what you see.
This book was the Kardashians mixed with murder mystery and I was eating that up! I recommend this book for someone who is looking to read something with multiple POVs, serious family dysfunction and some suspenseful drama!