Well, this was a weird one! I think for most of the book, it was weird in a messed up but entertaining way, but the end was just.... weird in a confusing way? The gist is that our MC Kylie is a wannabe influencer who stumbles upon a weird app where she finds some success. But this app isn't just looking pretty for the likes, this has far more sinister means of engagement. But Kylie is absolutely a psychopath and this doesn't bother her. She's also inexplicably obsessed with Katy Perry, which is her only discernable personality trait other than "terrible person". Anyway, it's still pretty compelling and unputdownable, because even though it's awful, you can absolutely appreciate the commentary on social media. Plus, I was really eager to figure out all the things about how this app got to be what it was.

But I felt like instead of answers, I got some kind of off-the-rails fever dream by the end? The story delved a bit into almost-paranormal territory, and lost some of its allure. That, and I didn't really get my much-desired answers. I mean- don't get me wrong, it did answer some things, but definitely not enough, considering how intrigued I was at the start.

Bottom Line: Awesomely depraved start, lukewarm finish, but absolutely bonkers regardless.

I had a few ideas of where I thought this was going to go but it went even further than my expectations. A fierce warning of how attention and peer pressure can turn you into something completely outside of yourself- especially prevalent in the age of social media.

We meet best friends Kylie and Erin. Kylie is obsessed with food in a toxic way and feels like a shadow of Erin’s perfect body and hefty Insta following. She resents Erin using her body for clout but since it works decides to give it a try herself - just to get a little taste of the feeling of being wanted. Then a gruesome video is shared of a local missing girl being murdered. Two girls who were best friends went missing at the same time and Kylie believes one may be responsible for the other’s death. But why would she kill her best friend? Kylie finds herself enthralled with the video and unable to stop watching it. She becomes obsessed with finding out where the video came from.

She gets a lead from her classmate Duc who’s in to sharing shock videos with unsuspecting parties. Duc lets her in on an invite only social media app reminiscent of the dark web. There strict rules on not sharing content but no rules on the content. It’s all about not censoring people on whatever they want to share- NOTHING is off limits. Kylie gets an invitation to the app through a mutual friend. She quickly learns there are tiers to the app. The more she posts and the riskier the posts, the faster she moves up tiers. She becomes her handle, CrystalShips, dipping her toes into posting more and more explicit, disgusting, and dangerous subject matter. She quickly gains loads of followers and “fist bumps” on her videos. People begin dying and strange behavior abounds the town- much of it leading back to Kylie.

The FBI gets involved and begins following Kylie. Erin sees Kylie’s success (PR packages, clothes, and even a car from the app) and begs for an invite to the app. Kylie finally feels powerful over Erin because she is more successful here than Erin is on Instagram. A user Kylie collaborated with on the app becomes a problem and she is faced with figuring out how to deal with him moving forward. More and more people are going missing and Kylie begins to see disturbing videos of their deaths on the app. The users posting the videos are climbing the ladder and Kylie must decide how far will she go for fame.

This is a mind blowing and fairly gruesome read. Shocking event after shocking event leaves you wondering what will happen next.

Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I think that my brain and the writing style really clashed, unfortunately. The way that the characters were written just didin't do them justice and made everyone out to be just as insufferable as possible (which I'm certain was partially the point, but I just could not get into the story at all because of it). Though the story started out pretty strong, the ending was not really worth the slog through the middle. I didn't quite care what happened to any of the characters. But the cover for this book was pretty cool, so +1 point for cover design.

I was hooked from the beginning!!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

In Feeders, a teenager does whatever (and I mean whatever) it takes to become a popular social media influencer.

I so wanted to like this book. It started out well, like a mashup of Squid Game and Keeping Up with The Kardashians. Unfortunately, the ending was disappointing and the amount of pure gore to get there started to feel repetitive well before the conclusion. All the characters are incredibly unlikable so I really didn’t care what happened to them. 3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing me with an advanced review copy.

Unfortunately I found this writing style insufferable and struggled through the story. This reads more like young adult, and I found the depiction of influencers/girls to be obnoxious in a way that made it difficult to continue.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions remain my own.

Imagine if your BFF was an Instagram influencer and started to get free makeup, clothes and electronics. On a scale of 1 to 10, your jealousy is at an 11 and rising. For every one of your posts, she betters you in likes, comments and reshares. A new social media app, MonoLife, could be your best option at rivaling her. MonoLife has a dark side and rewards the worst behavior. It all started after she sent you that video of your classmate being murdered and you couldn’t stop watching it. Eventually you find yourself auctioning off your virginity after 900,000 people follow you. You don’t care. You’re cutthroat and will do anything to rise above her in popularity. The new clothes and the new car, you owe it all to @CrystalShips, your MonoLife handle. You deserve everything that comes to you and will kill anyone who gets in your way… but not if they kill you first. Feeders by Matt Serafini is a disturbing satire of social media culture. He pauses the madness with ad breaks from sponsored products “Then she lathers herself twice over with Olay Ultra Moisture Body Wash. A gentle cleanse, one that softens her skin without removing natural oils. It’s the pro-glycerin formula that helps give her confidence…” You might find yourself doomscrolling less after reading this brutal story. Bloop. Someone has just sent a DM. Let me check my notifications. ARC was provided by Gallery Books via NetGalley. I received an advance reading copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I think this one just wasn't for me. If you love commentary on the social media world, maybe you'd connect with this one better.

“Feeders,” by Matt Serafini is a first person descent into digital delirium. It oozes with envy, paranoia and grotesquery. There’s really a lot that works: the voice is sharp, the concept timely, and there’s a nastiness pulsing beneath the surface that I think many horror readers will absolutely revel in- I know I did. It’s urgent, cynical and a little sickly, which is how I like it. That said, for me “Feeders,” flickered wildly between two extremes. At first, it felt indistinguishable from the ever-growing pile of social media horror novels I’ve already read this year (admittedly, that’s a “me” problem). Then, just as I’d decided it was a solid read, if not a little basic, we rerouted, changed course, and landed on some different planet. I like my horror to go down strange, dark paths, and whilst Serafini did go down one, in my opinion “Feeders,” got a little lost. Still, if you’re a sucker for stories about the horrors of technology, and happen to like feeling like you’ve taken bath salts when you’re reading them- this might be just your brand of unhinged. It’s weird. Undeniably, it’s bold. And for some readers, it’s going to hit exactly the right nerve. It’s out today, May 20th, from Gallery Books.
“Feeders,” follows Kylie Bennington who is a relatively normal teen. Her friend Erin is a social media star, collabing with some of the industry’s biggest names and working with the some of the world’s greatest brands. As any teeanger would be, Kylie, with 4000 followers to her name, is a little bitter. As much as social media causes her to rage, it’s about worth it for the high that a few hundred likes can bring about, so when she hears about an exclusive new social media app called “MonoLife,” she’s eager to get onboard. The kind of content that succeeds on Monolife is not quite the same stuff that Erin goes viral for on Instagram, or really the kind of content that’s allowed on any social media app- aside from maybe Reddit. Kylie picks upon this, and is willing to conform. When she does, the reach she has and the rewards she reaps are limitless.

When it comes to “Feeders,” and its commentary on social media, there’s a real nastiness I couldn’t help but admire. Serafini highlights that the internet doesn’t simply tolerate conflict and hatred and bile but rewards it. Cannibalism and animal abuse amongst a whole host of other unpleasantries (trigger warnings all around) don’t slip through the cracks, but are algorithmically encouraged. “Feeders,” suggests that virality and morality are not compatible, and I loved that about it. MonoLife brings out the worst in Kylie, some pretty standard messaging within technology horror, and proceeds to reward that.

For me, social media horror is inherently grounded in reality, and thus, inherently scary. It’s knowing that the horrors I’m reading about are just a few clicks away, and that I share the internet with absolute psychos, like Kylie Bennington. However, when “Feeders,” detours into a full-blown fever-dreamish creature feature, I felt all of that tangibility, all that relatability and all of those horror seeds that Serafini so carefully planted, were dug back up again. In a story in which the platform itself was being represented as the monster, I really didn’t need more monsters. In what may have been an effort to differentiate itself in a sub-genre that is becoming more saturated, Serafini lost some of the resonance that it is integral to it, and that’s a shame. As much as I didn’t gel with this element, I know plenty of people did, and one thing this book never is, is boring.

A novel that is arguably worth reading for the Katy Perry references alone, “Feeders,” whilst being electric in some areas, left me Hot N Cold in others.

This book is WILD. It's essentially American Psycho for Gen Z with an added twist of supernatural evil in addition to its preternatural human evils. I had an absolute blast with Serafini's satire, especially having been a community college professor and worked closely with this generation.

The horror elements are intense, especially the gore and body horror, but Feeders is also very darkly humorous and enjoyably suspenseful. This will likely make my year-end favorites.

The characters were rough. I like the concept but it felt redundant with so much being about social media, and maybe I'm just the wrong audience for this particular storyline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read and review the book Feeders by Matt Serafini. All opinions are my own.

A murder of a former classmate of Kylie comes out as a video on a dark web style social media app. What starts, on the part of Kylie, to figure out exactly what happened to this classmate soon consumes her and turns her into a completely different person. Kylie was already an influencer on another app where she aspires to be important and worshipped by millions of followers like her friend Erin. Unfortunately, she is not that successful. When the opportunity arises for Kylie to join MonoLife and she discovers what she has to do to get followers, total chaos erupts.

I am a horror fan. The first half to three-fourths of this book was intriguing, creepy, and so true to life with how social media influencers will do many things to become successful on their platforms. In the beginning it reminded me a lot of teen slasher movies from the 80s with blood and gore from the get-go. Once I reached the last fourth of the book it became an unbelievable gorefest/fever dream situation. There are absolutely no redeeming characters in this story. Simply who can be the best and who can do the most depraved things to get followers and likes. I get this is a commentary on influencers and social media, just taken to the most extreme. I wanted to like this more than I actually did. Readers interested in horror with endless corpses will enjoy it. Feeders will be available at all major book retailers on May 20th. Happy reading!

This book is absolutely off the wall bonkers.

We follow Kylie, an extremely jealous and emotionally neglected highschooler, who is in constant social media comptition with her friends. When a new suspicious social media takes off in popularity, Kylie doesn't persistently more heinous things to stay relevant.

I liked how over the top it was, but if you don't like absurd horror, or a clearly adult man writing a teen girl, this won't be for you.

Kylie, our FMC, lacked redeeming qualities. Unlikable characters can be compelling, especially within horror, but this sadly missed the mark for me. The language the author used to make characters more relatable to a specific demographic came off as cringy and distracting. It read more like a man’s assumption of how a teenage girl might think, rather than an authentic portrayal causing the tone to feel more YA instead.

When I first requested this ARC, the premise reminded me of movies like Nerve and Truth or Dare. While I knew it wouldn’t follow those plots exactly, I was hoping for more suspense, something that would keep me on the edge of my seat. The mystery surrounding the student’s death and MonoLife had potential, but unfortunately, I couldn’t stay engaged long enough to reach the reveals.

DNF at 45%

Feeders by Matt Serafini is pretty wild. It is violent and disturbing horror that is focused on a social media app named "MonoLife" that encourages depravity among its users. We get our share of twists, turns and gore. It also feels a bit like a commentary on society's desensitization to extreme violence, and on social media influencer culture, including the problematic themes that can come from this lifestyle. Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the ARC. You can give this a read when it publishes May 20, 2025

Thank you to Gallery for the gifted ARC!

Feeders was one of my most anticipated horror reads of 2025, and it fell completely flat. I am a millennial, and I don’t even talk like the Gen Zers in this book. It was not something I enjoyed coming back to after I set it down, I’m sorry.

Many thanks to Netgallery and Gallery books for this book.

This was creepy!! I went into reading this not expecting to get as creeped out as I did but here I am. The plot was enough to keep me turning pages long into the night. I recommend!

_Feeders_ by Matt Serafini is a violent and disturbing horror read centered on a mysterious social media app that encourages the depravity of its users. Kylie Bennington dreams of becoming an influencer when she clicks on a leaked video of the murder of a former classmate. She decides to investigate the murder, and learns of the secretive app MonoLife. As Kylie finally discovers content she excels at, she also learns how far she’ll go to achieve greatness. Filled with unlikeable characters that you can’t help but keep following, this book delves into the darkness of social media and our unending quest for approval.

Damn. This one was a bummer.
It was too all over the place and read like YA.
I wanted to like it because hello Mixed-Media format is like my fave, but I just couldn't get into it.
DNF

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.