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A review by hollidayreadswithme
Follow Me by Kathleen Barber
3.0
I picked up Follow Me on Libby (because we are in quarantine so I’m not leaving my house) and listened to it after reading Truth Be Told for an online book club that I joined. 2020 is seeing a lot of books about social media and its effects on real people. The parasocial relationships between followers and influencers and the potential fallout. Followers by Megan Angelo, I Know You by Annabel Kantaria, Woman on the Edge by Samantha M Bailey, just to name a few that I’ve read on this subject this year.
Follow Me follows (pun fully intended) a young woman named Audrey and her sudden move to Washington, DC, the reality behind her instagrammable life and the fallout of her social media stardom. She is our main character but there is nothing particularly interesting about her. Her crowning achievement is that she met the right person at the right time and copied everything they said to make her life as “art” as possible. We go on a journey with her as she realizes that she isn’t safe, that every man is secretly in love with her and a slimeball, and she learned absolutely nothing. Don’t worry. I’m not spoiling anything. She is just that stupid. I don’t know if that was intentional but she didn’t have anything redeemable about her character. I didn’t care about what happened to her because she had nothing for me to root for.
Her supporting cast is far more interesting. We get two other perspectives, a mysterious HIM and her friend Kat. Her friend Kat is fascinating but we don’t get to delve into her character as much as I would like.
Perhaps this book was meant as a commentary on the parasocial relationships we have with influencers, people who let us into their carefully crafted worlds. However, the execution was lacking. As much as I laud Barber for setting a non-political psychological thriller somewhere other than New York, there is not much diversity to speak of. Washington, DC’s population is made up of 53% of people of color and the only people of color are background or not mentioned at all.
I won’t talk about the climax scene, which is so played out that I’ve literally seen it in a Lifetime Movie and read it in numerous other thrillers. It is obviously foreshadowed early on in the book which takes all the shock out of it.
All in all, it’s a good book. I will read her books in the future. I really enjoyed Truth Be Told and I look forward to discussing it in my book club next week.
Follow Me follows (pun fully intended) a young woman named Audrey and her sudden move to Washington, DC, the reality behind her instagrammable life and the fallout of her social media stardom. She is our main character but there is nothing particularly interesting about her. Her crowning achievement is that she met the right person at the right time and copied everything they said to make her life as “art” as possible. We go on a journey with her as she realizes that she isn’t safe, that every man is secretly in love with her and a slimeball, and she learned absolutely nothing. Don’t worry. I’m not spoiling anything. She is just that stupid. I don’t know if that was intentional but she didn’t have anything redeemable about her character. I didn’t care about what happened to her because she had nothing for me to root for.
Her supporting cast is far more interesting. We get two other perspectives, a mysterious HIM and her friend Kat. Her friend Kat is fascinating but we don’t get to delve into her character as much as I would like.
Perhaps this book was meant as a commentary on the parasocial relationships we have with influencers, people who let us into their carefully crafted worlds. However, the execution was lacking. As much as I laud Barber for setting a non-political psychological thriller somewhere other than New York, there is not much diversity to speak of. Washington, DC’s population is made up of 53% of people of color and the only people of color are background or not mentioned at all.
I won’t talk about the climax scene, which is so played out that I’ve literally seen it in a Lifetime Movie and read it in numerous other thrillers. It is obviously foreshadowed early on in the book which takes all the shock out of it.
All in all, it’s a good book. I will read her books in the future. I really enjoyed Truth Be Told and I look forward to discussing it in my book club next week.