This is all about the world of social media influencers, and it is fascinating! The five daughters of "Mother May I" Iverson (January, March, April , June and July) have grown up completely under the spotlight, featured for twenty five years in their mother's social media accounts. When mom's new husband is murdered, each of the daughters is a suspect. The author has a lot to say about how children are affected by social media, particularly when their parents use them for content, which is something a lot of readers will relate to. I look forward to recommending this book.

The influencers is about exactly what the title implies: influencers. May is the face behind the massively popular Mother May I instagram account and brand built upon her successes as a mother and the over the top documenting of every aspect of her life. When her husband of just a year winds up dead and her mansion on fire, the world of internet sleuths take it upon themselves to help solve the mystery of who killed August. May’s 5 daughters (April, June, July, January, March) each had reasons to target August and more than enough time in the reality spotlight. The book follows the family members as the mystery unfolds and all while their private childhood videos are being leaked to the world.

Thanks NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my unbiased review. I REALLY wanted to uphold my New Year’s resolution to DNF books I don’t like but because I am reviewing, I pushed through. I will say after half the book I started skimming the story because I truly couldn’t stand it. I found none of the characters to be likable and it’s pretty bad when out of this many sisters I couldn’t find a single one I didn’t hate. The story as a whole felt slow for me and I didn’t like the perspective of the “fans”. There plot lagged quite a bit and the mystery aspect became muted as the story focused more on the sisters and their experiences being filmed growing up. It’s sad to have to write a negative review but alas here we are and thank goodness this book is done.

I truly wanted to love this book. The premise had so much promise, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite work for me. I liked it, but there were some flaws.

The start of the book was very confusing. The story felt lackluster, slow-moving, and a bit scattered. I struggled to follow the plot and figure out which details were actually important. At times, it seemed like much of the content was just filler.

That said, the concept is fantastic! Exploring the dangers of child influencers and the immense power influencers hold, all leading to murder? It’s such a clever idea for a murder mystery. I also really appreciated the honest portrayal of the sisters’ relationship—it was one of the highlights for me. Finally, the Mom was well...something. This is a bit of a rip off of the Kardashians or the Hiltons.

It would work better as a TV show than a book.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

Thank you to Dial Press for this e-ARC of The Influencers in exchange for an honest review. I'll have to echo what a lot of previous reviews were saying because I love a good unlikeable character but these characters were downright unrootable [for]. I love watching a good influencer here and there on Tiktok and Instagram, but that charm that keeps you engaged with an influencer through a screen was just absent here. Maybe this book is too meta and I don't really get it, but I just tried really hard to have that break the fourth wall experience and I guess it just didn't work. I'm interested in the author's future works in this vein but this one was not enjoyable for me.

i loved the idea behind this one and loved hearing about the social media aspect and how is affected the family. It was difficult getting into this one at the beginning. I wasn't invested in the characters enough so the beginning was quite slow.

The Influencers is an interesting premise that falls flat in my eyes. I know the characters may need to be unlikeable but I did not like any of these characters at all and did not care what happened to any of them. I hope Anna-Marie McLemore has another chance to write a book because this was not it.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc!!

This book was a fun, quick read. Very unique concept, I loved it!

The Influencers is the story of May Iverson of the popular lifestyle blog “Mother May I” and the events that happen after her husband August is found murdered. The book was interesting, but I found myself wishing the story moved more quickly. Most of the characters were one dimensional and several were insufferable.
Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Pub date is April 15, 2025.

I was excited to read this book but couldn't get into it. The family was an odd mix of Martha Stewart / the Kardashians and I had trouble keeping track of who was who or why I should care. I'm sure other readers will enjoy it but it really wasn't for me.

Could not do picked up and put down multiple times but no I don't know what it was going for a Martha Stewart × Kardashians vibe or what but it was confusing and a mess and I could not get into it maybe someday I'll try again but 5 or 6 times was enough for me - sorry if you loved it
Thanks net galley for the arc

I really enjoyed this book. The chapters alternated between characters, including the followers which kept it interesting and made it move fast. This book was also so not what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a silly (in a good way) murder mystery with absurd influencers but this was full of social narrative, reflection on the influencer space and conversations about perceptions about race.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me this arc! This review is already uploaded onto my Goodreads account.

This book is so Kardashian coded it’s crazy. If you like following their insane life, you might want to try this one out. This book follows this family full of girls led by May, the mother and founder of their influencer life, and the aftermath after May’s husband was found dead. May started her empire with family vlogging that included her oldest daughter/copy April, the twins June and July, January, and the one who mysteriously left, March.

This book did a great job of showing the odd parasocial relationships between influencers and their fans. As well as touching on exploiting children from a young age. These factors boosted this rating by a lot. However, the fact that this book felt slow overall and the ending lowered it. Not to mention that the husband wasn’t one that we had a lot of details on, he was someone not worth caring about. Maybe had he had some redeeming factors or just had more information about him, the story would’ve flowed better.

"Mother May I" began as a social media page to for mothers trying to get by and featured May Iverson and featured her five daughters but after 25 years turned into a huge influencer empire. May's daughters (April, June, July, January, and March) are now grown up and living with the consequences of having their entire childhood documented and viewed by millions. The Iverson family is thrust into the spotlight even more when May's husband is murdered and a fire was set in their mansion to try and cover up the crime. The public thinks that they know the Iverson family because they watched them for decades and strong opinions are made on who from this family could have possibly committed these terrible crimes. Then there's also the mystery of March- at age 18 she disappeared from the family and the public hasn't seen her since. What's going on in the Iverson family and who of them is capable of murder?

I thought I would love this book because I thought it was a new idea surrounding a murder mystery. However, I realized that the murder mystery was probably the most boring part of this entire story. I really enjoyed the narrative of seeing how being forced into the spotlight as a child shaped each of the Iverson sisters. I wish it explored deeper how April and January sued their mother to take down the videos because that idea to me was fascinating. The scene when April explains to her mother that the videos of them as kids eating popsicles was shared wildly in pedophilia groups was such a scary look into reality and how May didn't even care, it was wild. When they confronted their dad and asked why he didn't fight was heartbreaking since he did want to fight and he loved his kids, but he knew that the courts would never take his side. Hopefully some of these influencer moms take a look at this story and make some changes to their content because that should be eye opening to any parent. I almost wish the murder wasn't a part of this story at all since it didn't really add much to me and made the book too long and instead focused on the ramifications of airing "everything" on social media.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

The Influencers is my first from Anna-Marie McLemore. An intriguing premise, with unique POVs. Currently timely in my opinion as an examination of influencer culture. The book does drag on a bit too long, as the "twist" is on the easy side to guess if you are paying attention.

“Mother May I” Iverson has created a very lucrative social influencer realm, often on the backs of and to the detriment of her daughters, January, March, April, June, and July. When her second husband, August, is found murdered and part of her mansion burned, her audience (and the police) carefully follow the family to try to discover the culprit. Soon the family’s true dysfunction becomes fodder for all.

This book is a great idea. Written from different POVS, including May’s audience, it is very contemporary with some clever actions and Iines…a good satire with harsh truths about our social media driven world. However, it just went on too long. The story dragged. It could have been so much more entertaining if it just hadn’t been so bogged down in length.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #RandomHouseBooks for the DRC.

I wanted to like this, and I loved the premise of it, but somehow it fell flat. I found that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get invested in the murder mystery. And, the conclusion was kind of a let down. I did enjoy seeing some of the behind the scenes of what it's like to be an influencer, however.

I received a copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Reading about influencers' lives falling apart is one of the few things I enjoy under capitalism and I will die for that guilty pleasure. This had echos of Delphine de Vigan's SUPERB 'Kids Run the Show,' which rocked France with its take on the perils of shoving your kids in front of a camera all the time.
I was excited to read an American take on the issue, and there's a lot that McLemore succeeds at: the POV of account followers, the PTSD that lingers in your bones when you see someone whip out a camera, and the uniquely American crossroads of fame, class, and ethnicity.
On the other hand, what could have been a propelling mystery gets bogged down by too many POVs and plot distractions. Frankly there were too many kids to follow, plus the various audience POVs, and it made the ending seem less earned.

I'm quite shocked at how much I enjoyed this. I'm as far from a social media person as you can get, but the author was successful in drawing me into the story. The folksy, inclusive narrator (using "we" to include the reader in the tale) was quite creative, and helped to draw us inside. After I was able to differentiate among the siblings, I was able to appreciate the humor and insight into the way of today's pop culture. The tale meandered a bit, but all in all I think this was a very successful venture, and perhaps a future Netflix limited series? Hmmmmm.

Would I read more from the author? Absolutely.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

I wanted to love this so much more than I did. I loved the mystery paired with the illusive influencers whose lives don't match up to their social media. I found myself not at all invested in our murder victim, nothing really pulling me to want this huge mystery solved. I thought the dialogue fell flat and honestly when the twists came about I didn't find myself invested enough to really care.

This was an interesting take on the influence and momfluencer trends that we've been forced to live with for the past two-ish decades. It's definitely a pointed look at certain celebrity families without naming them, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading despite that.