Follow Me

On the one hand, this was a fun and twisty thriller that kept me guessing. On the other hand, I absolutely hated it because frankly, the author did such a terrible job portraying the main character (an influencer). We will get to why but this is a massive pet-peeve of mine: the portrayal of influencers as vapid and annoying (and the main character Audrey is so annoying that you almost want her to die?). I really hate it as it perpetuates a stereotype and is also just… false. I hate trashing this book but it’s so clear she didn’t do her research (or maybe she just hates influencers, I don’t know). A special shout-out to Kate Stayman-London and Jennifer Weiner who got it right in One to Watch and Big Summer…. this made me appreciate their books even more. This book is about Audrey, a 29 year old influencer with a million followers who moves to Washington DC to work at her dream job: running social media for one of The Smithsonian’s galleries. She’s struggling financially (sorry but an influencer with a million followers is not going to be struggling) and the only two people she knows are her college friend Cat and her ex-boyfriend Nick, the guy she can’t seem to shake. But from the day she moves into her basement apartment (again: not realistic!), she can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. There’s her creepy upstairs neighbor… and she feels like she’s constantly being watched/stalked. The book alternates between the perspective of Audrey, Cat, and “him,” her stalker. The author really went deep on the dark side of the Internet and privacy concerns, I just wish she could have spent even just a little more time researching influencers and their business (or talking to you know, actual smart people who do this for a living) as that ruined the book for me.