Have you ever wondered about the real lives of influencers? Well, obviously I have, because there was that time I read a bunch of books on the influencer industry, but Chloe Cates is Missing has a different take on it. This novel assumes that all the worst theories of parent influencers are true – forcing their kids to perform, only caring about their metrics, etc and then asks the question: so what happens if the child star goes missing?
Chloe Cates is Missing is told from the perspective of Jen, the blogger mum who is obsessed with keeping engagement numbers up, her husband Jackson, and Emiliana, the detective in charge of the case – oh and also Jen’s former best friend. We get flashbacks from Abby’s journal, Abby being the real name of Chloe Cates (or CC Spectacular, as she’s known online).
The strength of this book is really in how it portrays Jen – who thinks she’s a good mum, but really is terrifying in her desire to succeed online. I would have thought that she was too over-the-top if not for the fact that I followed this book with the (nonfiction) memoir “The House of My Mother”, which unfortunately proved that yes, some influencer mums are as terrible as the gossip about them. Jennifer was easily the most compelling and unlikeable character in this book, and I felt pretty bad for Abby as I found out more about the truth behind the social media account.
That said, McHugh does stretch incredulity at times. For me, it was basically the entire subplot with Emiliana. I won’t give away any spoilers, but let’s just say that while I get what she was trying to do by giving Emiliana a history with Jen, some of what they did was a bit too bonkers to believe. And yes, it does tie into the ending, so I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending either – it felt a bit too complicated and I think I would have been find with something a bit more straightforward.
After a slower reading month, it was fun to just devour a novel and it felt like I flew through this book. While it wasn’t perfect to me, I thought it was the perfect set up for the next book, which, honestly, feels heavier just because it’s actually true.
Featured Image: Photo from Canva