Title: Life of Zanna
Author: Emily Jane Hodgkin
Genre: Thriller
Publication Date: 23rd May 2024
Publisher: Black & White Publishing
Rating: 5/5
Cover:
Summary:
HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
Paige White and Hannah ‘Zanna’ Zagalo used to be inseparable. After their fates intertwined at university, Zanna’s rise to influencer fame beckoned and she invited aspiring journalist Paige to join the ride, to create a glamorous online persona for the Life of Zanna account that others could only drool over. Together, they lived on luxury brand deals, moving into a swanky apartment and showcasing the #softlife. But after Zanna is brutally murdered, Paige continues posting – a ghostwriter emerging from behind the scenes.
Five years on, with a lavish lifestyle to maintain and bills piling up, Paige is invited to take part in a documentary about Zanna’s murder – which she can’t afford to turn down. Then, a strange email arrives that just reads:
‘I know what you did.’
As the cameras turn on Zanna’s family and friends, old rumours start to resurface. Is there more to Zanna’s murder than they know? And is someone hiding a secret?
Review:
I love crime and thriller books that look at the darker side of influencers and social media and Life of Zanna was a perfect example of just that. It puts a slightly different and vastly intriguing twist on that, however, by looking through the eyes of the influencer’s ghost writer, Paige, instead of the face of the profile, Zanna. It’s a twisted and deliciously addictive tale of obsession, jealousy, perception and the dark side of female friendship. I loved it, and was totally hooked from beginning to end. Paige is perhaps not a particularly or even slightly likeable narrator but she is utterly fascinating in a sinister and captivating manner. There is the hint of the unreliable narrator about her, and I was never quite sure what was real and what was a meticulously crafted veneer for the purpose of displaying a certain kind of persona to her ‘fans’, who in reality were the spoiled but seductively charming Zanna’s fans. The narrative unfolds through a present day documentary on Zanna and her death that Paige (desperate for money to maintain a lifestyle she has become accustomed to) is participating in, mixed in with episodes from the past as they built the blog and profile ‘Life of Zanna’. This is a perceptively clever, razor sharp and utterly compelling look at building a persona built on lies, obsession and deception – and I couldn’t recommend it more highly. I could not put it down.
★★★★★
Huge thank you to Black and White Publishing and Sarah Harwood for sending me a copy of the book. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.
Buy the book:
Life With All The Books 