I have no idea how long social media and the idea of influencers will last (forever? for a few more years?) but the idea of reading a thriller based on influencers was intriguing. Now, I really hated the ending of Hello Sunshine, another book based on social media stars, but I was cautiously optimistic about Unfollow Me since it was a different genre.

In Unfollow Me, a social media star named Violet disappears. Her accounts are all gone and no one knows what happened, despite the fact that she lived her life on the internet. The story follows two women, a fan named Lily and a hater named Yvonne, as they navigate life after Violet. In between chapters, we have excerpts from forums and emails – they provide an additional take on Violet and for the emails, add to the mystery.

This was pretty enjoyable. I really liked the characters involved, although I probably don’t want to be friends with them. Lily was an obsessed fan and it’s interesting to see how far she pushed the boundaries while rationalising her actions. On the other hand, Yvonne didn’t like Violet for personal reasons and it’s equally fascinating to see how the hate had a hold on her. I thought that having both of them as the duotagonists helped to show the many ways we related to influencers – they aren’t quite stars but they aren’t our friends either.

Of course, there was a twist here. I’d say that I anticipated about half of it but I got the other half totally wrong. I’m not going to spoil it but I thought the twist tied in well with the characters and the story and helped to further explore the idea of fans and their relationships with an influencer.

The only thing I wish the book spent more time on was Violet. For someone whose disappearance starts the book, she’s surprisingly absent. We hear her voice for only one chapter, and that one chapter had me wanting more. I understand why she was absent – without her voice Violet functions as an unknowable, unattainable figure for the novel – but I think it might have been interesting to have her POV as a contrast to Lily and Yvonne. A bit of appearance vs reality.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. It’s not really about the life of a social media influencer, instead, it looks at the followers of an influencer and the different relationships that they have with her. I think it explores the current age of the influencer and the issues surrounding it pretty well and I’d recommend people interested in reading it to try and get a copy soonish. After all, you never know when the social media scene will change again.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this from NetGalley, but all opinions are mine.

Featured Image: Photo from Canva