Thank you NetGalley for the eARC! This was an odd little book in the best kind of way. I had no idea what to expect and was intrigued to see how the story would unravel. I enjoyed how the book balanced absolute absurdity with the heavier subject matter. I’m curious to read more from this author.

3 stars. Social media hype house mixed with missing tarot reader. I love the cover of this book and did that influence me to read it? Maybe. Truly such a unique fascinating read going into what social media is doing to us (rotting our brains). This was super refreshing because I’ve never read anything like it. Started off super strong, creepy hype house with all these random creators but then I found myself getting a little bored and unfortunately, the ending wasn’t able redeem it for me. Still an enjoyable read. As always, thank you Random House Publishing Group for the earc.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

The rabbit on the cover and the title of this book initially caught my attention…. then the Reddit post for the Prologue had me hooked!

I was constantly afraid for that rabbit, and never knew where the twists of this book were going to take me. This novel had me confused, entertained, and eager to know what was going to happen.

I also enjoyed the uneasiness and unreliability that comes with content creation in this novel. You never know if you can trust anyone, as the characters try to balance their real-life and internet personas, all while living together in a crumbling, mysterious house.

I recommend to anyone looking for a contemporary gothic novel, filled with weirdness, art, and mystery.

This is a spoiler-free review! If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You was published on August 26, 2025 and is now available at select book retailers.

I would first like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review. A combination of literary fiction intertwined with mystery and thriller, Stein's novel pulls the reader in as a viewer in this influencer-centric search for a missing Tarot card reader who vanished without a trace. This book is weird, gothic, and obsessive - every character has a compulsive attribute about them as they work towards fame and attention. You can see that when the attention or focus is not on one of them for too long, they begin to unravel at the seems. The internet is a compelling place that can have sinister consequences when one strives to do whatever it takes to stay on top.

I wish this book was a little weirder - the author really could have pulled through on that end and made the characters and subplots more erratic and disorienting. The mysterious and eeriness that surrounded Becca's disappearance was definitely hovering over the book throughout, but it felt underwhelming in what my expectations were going into Stein's work. Her disappearing certainly haunted the narrative, but with a "haunted" mansion being the center of the story and the main location of the book, it would have been great to see the author really turn the story more twisted for the characters and for the house.

The house feels like it is its own character - it carries an energy that overtakes the page, and the characters seem to treat it as a great entity rather than a 10,000 square foot house. There is a mysteriousness to it that consumes its residents and draws outsiders to want to look in and see what stories and secrets it holds. The energy given off by the house definitely adds to the uneasiness felt throughout the story as the search for Becca continues and answers are sought out. Considering one of the main focus points is to preserve the house for its next heir, it is always lingering in the background, whether the characters are using it for their videos or the owner is attempting to acquire more money to restore the mansion.

Dayna and her rabbit, Owen Wilson, take center stage in this gothic tale as she returns back to the hype house after a not-so-mutual break up with her boyfriend through a Reddit post. Her career in journalism has been not quite a flourishing as she had hoped, and moving into the hype house in order to help its owner save it from decay could be her ticket back into the game. You could tell that Dayna's influence in the house creates some tension between the influencers there, as they fight for her attention - or more so, for Owen Wilson and using him in their videos. Attempting to profit off of Becca's sudden disappearance through a social media campaign, Dayna's presence seems to be the thing that ties everything together once Olivia, Becca's biggest fan, comes to live in the house.

Stein's work poses an interesting combination of modern internet influencers with the gothic nature of the unknown and uncertainty. The pacing moves quickly and draws the reader in as they are sucked into the search for Becca, but also become an inside viewer to the realities that these influencers live in order to make content, at whatever the cost.

An enjoyable read with interesting characters & storyline. I will be looking for more from this author! Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

*If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You* by Leigh Stein was such a weird, sharp, and oddly fun read! Totally unhinged in moments, but in a way that felt intentional and real. It truly digs into internet culture and the messiness of wanting to feel seen.

The beginning pulled me in fast, and while the second half moved quicker than I wanted, it still kept me turning pages. If you’ve ever gotten lost in spiritualalityTok or cringed at someone selling “authenticity,” this one will definitely land!

Weird, smart, and hard to put down. Glad I gave it a shot! Thank you to Leigh Stein and Ballantine Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley! All opinions are my own.

IYASTIMFY is a novel about the creator economy — a bunch of 20-something’s live in a stunning (yet crumbling) mansion with a history. Together (and individually), they create content and story lines for “the platform”. Then, the future of the house is uncertain and they come together to save it via views.

This book is fun, different and great on audio. (It has a full cast, which makes the audio so good.)

The first thing that caught my eye with this book was the cover and then the title. I immediately thought that I needed to read this book. I loved that this book was so modern, it brings to light the obsession over likes, views and going viral. Definitely a really good read!

I don’t think I was the target audience for this one - while I love to scroll TikTok, the concept of a TikTok hype house was just a little too out there for me and I could not connect with the characters.

A millennial living and working with a bunch of gen z influencers.
IYSTIMFY is told between two povs Dayna and Olivia. Dayna is a millennial down on her luck after her bf dumped her via Reddit post. Olivia is a content creator trying to find her “niche”, in the hype house.

Dayna gets a gig at the Deckler house. A big mansion that was formerly used for movie sets turned into a “hype house”. A hype house is where a bunch of influencers live and make content.

Olivia and Dayna want to know what happened to Becca. Becca was a tarot card influencer who disappeared one day.. They want answers but Craig (owner of Deckler house) is pushing things about Becca’s disappearance under the rug.


I liked the side characters they gave tips and hinted at certain things that could possibly help Olivia and Dayna solve the mystery about Becca.

If you want to know if the mystery about Becca was solved, well …… “If you’re seeing this it’s meant for you”!!!


Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine books for this e-archive in exchange for my review

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy. I loved the premise of the book, but the ending was not for me. I thought that the beginning and middle were really fun with a unique concept.

I requested this book manly because of the cover. this was a weird read almost like a fever dream. I feel like I would of enjoyed it more if I listened to the audio

This book was a lot of fun to read. It moved well, it was easy to picture the scenes, and the characters were fun. At first there were a lot of people to keep track of, but I got used to it as the story went on. I liked the twists, too.

If You're Seeing This, It’s Meant for You by Leigh Stein blends gothic unease with the strange, all-too-real world of influencer culture. The story unfolds in a decaying Hollywood mansion - half crumbling gothic estate, half “content house” trying to fund its own survival. Inside, a rotating cast of creators films, feuds, and fixates, while readers are pulled into a maze of tarot readings, eerie photographs, unsettling art, and secrets that refuse to stay buried.

The novel shifts between perspectives, most notably Dayna, a veteran millennial creator reinventing herself as a producer, and Olivia, a younger orphan chasing belonging in the house. Both find themselves drawn to the lingering shadow of Becca, a former resident whose mysterious disappearance haunts everyone still living there. The house itself feels like a character; claustrophobic, spectral, and dripping with the same foreboding energy as classic haunted-house tales.

Though the pacing is uneven at times- slipping between a creeping slow burn and flashes of urgency - it’s consistently immersive. The eerie atmosphere and commentary on social media’s hold over us keep the pages turning, even when the characters themselves aren’t always sympathetic. The ending may feel abrupt, laced with ambiguity and melancholy, but that lingering sense of unease is part of the point.

Dark, strange, and thoroughly modern, this is a perfect pick for readers who love gothic fiction reimagined through the lens of internet fame. Think The Haunting of Hill House meets hype house drama - with a sharp eye on the ways social media shapes us, for better or worse.

Millennials will love this.

An excellent and wildly inventive modern Gothic.

Don’t be fooled by the start of this book, which feels like standard modern thriller stuff, influencers and a hype house and a lot of mentions of “going viral.”

I’m generally not a fan of books about influencers or internet culture, but this was such a clever way to fuse modern life with traditional Gothic themes.

The author’s note at the end really hammers home what the book tells us about the internet as both a place to explore and a place to be trapped, made manifest in the perhaps-sentient house as a metaphorical, physical stand-in for that.

I really appreciated how subtle but clear the symbolism is in this book, and that the author kept the characters both sympathetic and interesting in a story where that wasn’t necessarily the primary focus.

Can’t wait to see what Leigh Stein writes next.

Thank you to the publishers for this e-ARC.

If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant For You deftly takes on the gothic genre for this generation. A group of influencers, their middle aged media manager, and her pet bunny (aka Owen Wilson) try to solve the disappearance of a young tarot influencer who once resided in the same hype house as them. Typing it out sounds outlandish— but it works. The Deckler House, located, obviously, in Los Angeles becomes a central character in the mystery of the main characters.

Overall, If You’re Seeing This successfully mixes gothic elements and social commentary into a cohesive message about the role of social media in our lives. Stein takes the subject matter seriously, which provides the story with substance that other books about the internet age can often lack. With that being said, occasionally the conversations with the Gen Z members of the household fell a bit flat, but not distractingly so. Overall, a great read.

if you are reading this, this is your sign to not read books about influencers.

I don't really have anything constructive to say about this book so I guess I will just say that this was not "gothic" nor a mystery. The plot of this book was just incredibly nonsensical and all of the characters were just annoying. At the end of the day, this was a book that I read mostly because of the cover and title if I am being ~painfully~ honest, and I have once again been let down by a pretty package.

I hate to say it, but this book wasn’t meant for me.
I really tried my hardest to get into the book, but it was hard to follow all of the characters, and maybe I’m just getting older but the content creator stuff just didn’t fit my vibe and the book felt all over the place. With that said I do think this book maybe will be the scratch someone is trying to itch, especially if they are into the phenomenon of parasocial relationships

Dayna is struggling to stay relevant and have a job. When an old friend steps up with a proposition, she can hardly say no after being humiliated by her now ex boyfriend. Now, she has to struggle to make influencers go viral and try to stay relevant in the field for herself. Little does she know there is also a mystery afoot.

Olivia wants to be an actress and ends up applying to this new hype house where her favorite tarot card influencer has mysteriously disappeared. Now she struggles with wanting to solve the mystery of Becca but also having to become an influencer.

The song “Where’s my juul?” would play through my head every time Dayna whipped that bad boy out. It very much gave Bunny by Mona Awad vibes of joining a cult/hype house and falling into weird habits that you wouldn’t typically do. It really touches on how weird the algorithm is and how random it chooses to become famous.

This book was a fever dream. It was a slow start for me, and I had to soft DNF it once. Once everything started to fall together, it was more enjoyable. Overall, this book was exactly what the synopsis states, and I ended up giving it a 3⭐️.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this eARC.

Thanks to Net Galley for an ARC! I was super excited about this one, but couldn’t get past about 18%. The writing was good, I just didn’t enjoy the premise as much as I expected. Story kept jumping all over the place and I had no desire to pick it up again.