Title: People Like Her
Author: Ellery Lloyd
Genre: parenting, social media thriller
I’m so far behind on my Book of the Month club readings. I just finished this one, which was sent to me in December. I just have so many library books and PopSugar Reading Challenge books to get through, so these keep getting pushed aside. However, I’m making them a priority and putting them on the top of my TBR pile, so I’m doing my best to read them. I’m trying, at least…. So many books!! I usually get the thriller/mystery book, if there isn’t anything else I recognize to pick from, such as previous authors I’ve read, or ones that just sound outstanding. And sometimes I read really great ones like, A Good Marriage, Winter Counts, or The Night Swim. But then you have bummer ones like These Violent Delights, which was so boring, and The Girl in the Mirror, which I hated so much that I didn’t review it. I’m putting this one right in the middle. It was just okay.
From Goodreads: To her adoring fans, Emmy Jackson, aka @the_mamabare, is the honest “Instamum” who always tells it like it is. To her skeptical husband, Dan, a washed-up novelist who knows just how creative Emmy can be with the truth, she is a breadwinning powerhouse chillingly brilliant at monetizing the intimate details of their family life.To one of Emmy’s dangerously obsessive followers, she’s the woman that has everything—but deserves none of it.
As Emmy’s marriage begins to crack under the strain of her growing success and her moral compass veers wildly off course, the more vulnerable she becomes to a very real danger circling ever closer to her family.
In this deeply addictive tale of psychological suspense, Ellery Lloyd raises important questions about technology, social media celebrity, and the way we live today. Probing the dark side of influencer culture and the perils of parenting online, People Like Her explores our desperate need to be seen and the lengths we’ll go to be liked by strangers. It asks what—and who—we sacrifice when make our private lives public, and ultimately lose control of who we let in. . . .
Both Emmy and Dan are obnoxious. I just hated them. I felt bad for their kids, being put through the Instagram nonsense. Sorry if you are an influencer, but I don’t get it. And as this book illustrates, it’s entirely fake. Emmy preys upon her followers’ weaknesses to make money. It’s truly disgusting. What kept me reading was the one follower business. But it needed to be a much bigger part of the story. Too much vapidity from Emmy and too little actual mystery. I gave this one three stars because I did want to see what happened, but I just had no sympathy for the adults in the book.
Pleasant Nights 