Title: People Like Her

Author: Ellery Lloyd

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Publisher: Pan MacMillan

Publication Date: 8th July 2021 (Paperback)

Rating: 4/5

Cover:

Summary:

People like Emmy Jackson. They always have. Especially online, where she is Instagram sensation Mamabare, famous for telling the unvarnished truth about modern parenthood.

But Emmy isn’t as honest as she’d like the fans to believe. She may think she has her followers fooled, but someone out there knows the truth and plans to make her pay . . .

A deliciously dark, page-turning thriller full of unguessable twists and turns.

Review:

The darker side of social media is a subject that I always find intriguing in a book and People Like Her deals with it very well. the story follows Emmy Jackson, an Instagram influencer who has made a career out of her Mamabare brand where she shares the supposedly authentic truth about parenting in a modern world. However, her ‘truth’ is not quite as authentic as she claims and there is someone who is determined to take Emmy down – at any cost.

I really enjoyed this cynical and smart exploration of what can happen when we share our whole lives online. Neither Emmy or her writer husband, Dan, are particularly likeable as people but I did find them almost grotesquely fascinating. Emmy is so driven by her need to make money out of her influencer career and to stay on top of the hierarchy of instamums that nothing else really matters. It’s like she can no longer tell what is real and what she’s curating for her image. Dan is seemingly unimpressed with the whole influencer culture, and yet happily lives off the profits from it. He is occasionally a more grounded force within the family but there’s a jealous tint to his derision which lessens his moral high ground significantly. The way the story develops is gripping and I have to say, without giving anything away, the ending is razor sharp and completely fitting for a book about perception, privacy and the desperation for adoration that often accompanies a career judged by ‘engagement’. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a relevant and incisive thriller.

✶✶✶✶✩

I kindly received an e-copy of the book via Netgalley. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.