Reviews with content warning for Suicide - A Influencer

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

A Influencer by Ellery Lloyd

71 reviews

kitaface's review against another edition

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This book was interesting but slow for the first 80ish% then goes insane in the last chapter and confusingly long epilogue. The CW for this book are very serious, make sure to check them!

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millerralice's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kqk's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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lexistwick's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm rating this book lower than I should - I think because I can't quite shake my skepticism and bias against a "social media" story, although I was delightfully surprised at its insights and effectiveness! I'd like to read more books like this that are at least partially set in the internet - not unlike Patricia Lockwood's No One's Talking About This and just like our lives. Like, it's not just doing odd lip service to the fact that everyone has phones these days; it's engaging the fact that the venue for much of the drama and intimacy of our lives is technology and social media. An aside - I can get annoyed by writers like Ann Patchett, who never incorporates cell phones into her stories (a dead giveaway and consequence of never having owned one) because, I quote, they removed the tension from a story. You'd have to have never owned a cell phone to believe that's true...

So anyway, I really love psychological crime thrillers and stories about marital conflict, and it was very fascinating how this one commented on the present moment. The world it describes is in a way really obvious, it's the world everyone is immersed in when they click into social media. I think we often take for granted that representing our world as it is actually can be quite interesting. I wanted to have a book club discussion on this book; it would work how book clubs used to work! It would provide on ramps to talk about actual issues affecting our lives that we otherwise don't know how to discuss.

I thought it was especially interesting how many different players and villains were on the scene, which struck me as quite realistic. For example, there was almost no reason not to expect that Doreen was the stalker at first, and it even seemed implied. I ultimately took that to be a commentary on the enormity of it all, the anonymity and chaos.

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avidreader8725's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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paulineerika's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

This book was less than 300 pages, yet felt so much longer. What should have been tension-building came off as dragging instead.

A large part of the problem is that there are two different stories going on here and they never quite intersect the way they should (even at the end). On the one hand, you have Dan and Emmy, with their strained marriage and possibly competing views on social media and Emmy's influencer career. On the other hand, you have a stalker story that is also related somewhat to Emmy's influencer career. Had the authors focused just on one or the other of these plots, I think the book would have been tighter and achieved that suspense they were looking for. Unfortunately, you just end up with two half-developed stories.

And honestly, the stalker story required a lot of willing suspension of disbelief. It felt almost like a parody by the end.

Another problem? Neither Dan nor Emmy are particularly likeable characters. Gillian Flynn got away with this in Gone Girl, but there's significantly less success here. You need either Dan or Emmy to at least be somewhat fleshed out to be understandable, if not likeable. But neither one of them gets the character development they need for this to be pulled off. They're two-dimensional and stereotypical.

Ultimately, this book comes off as what the authors think a thriller should be like, rather than an actual thriller. The attempts at commentary about Instagram and influencers fall short and the stalker bit is just unnecessary and unsuccessful.

Disclaimer: I won this book in a #bookstagram giveaway.

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ju_harue's review

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

O thriller em si, não curti tanto, tinha potencial mas não me pegou tanto, acho que não foi tão bem trabalhado quanto almejou ser em algumas formas dos desenrolar dos fatos.
Porém as discussões sobre redes sociais, os impactos que os influenciadores podem exercer nas vidas dos seguidores, a exposição, o que é verdade e o que acaba sendo o trabalho; isso achei bem colocado, a um ponto de questionar sobre o que consumimos meio automaticamente, como refletem em nós e o que iremos expor. A construção dos personagens achei um tanto quanto confusa, me pareceu querer abordar vários tópicos e características que algumas vezes se divergiam em outras atitudes dos mesmos, fiquei com a impressão que queria abraçar muitas coisas e nao tinha necessidade de tanto.
Em resumo, não foi um livro incrível pra mim, mas também não foi horrível. Tem vários gatilhos que deixarei listados no Storygraph para quem tiver sensibilidade (e que podem ser spoilers).

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