Reviews
Thank you to Net Galley and Delacorte Press for the ARC! Influence is a book by mega author Sara Shepard and 16 year old real influencer, Lilia Buckingham. This book is similar to Shepard's other works in that it is told through multiple perspectives. There is Delilah an up and coming influencer that just moved to LA, Fiona Jacobs an influencer that suffers from OCD, Jasmine Walters-Diaz, a child star desperate to break free, and Scarlet Leigh, the influencer with the perfect life, that may not be so perfect behind the scenes. The book follows Delilah as she befriends the other influencers, attends events, and quickly becomes embroiled in drama. Being that it is a Shepard book, of course someone ends up dead and we don't know whodunit. This was a quick read and the glimpse into the rigors of being an influencer was interesting. It is important for teens to see that social media fame isn't always as beautiful as it looks.
tw: murder, bullying, mentions of ed rtc
Loved the aspect of the book! Did not really like how things went in the end.. I also didn't prefer the multiple POVs but that's just my opinion
meanwhile it was entertaining to read and the plot seemed interesting, the writing style just didn’t do it for me. when it was starting heating up nicely, it was over just like that, not leaving much time for it to develop.
This was a crazy ride of a book. I did enjoy it, but at times it felt long and a little bit boring. There seems to be a lot of setting up, which I guess it is necessary since this book is all about influencers. I think you need to be able to see the hierarchy of the influencers before you delve deep into the murder mystery of it all. I do have to say that I really hated Fiona as a character, there are a few side characters that are quite annoying too, like Chase but for the most part the characters are interesting and I really enjoyed their perspectives. Lastly, I felt like the big reveal made absolutely no sense. I thought I knew who it was and that person made so much sense, yet the actual killer came from way out of left field. The scene of the big reveal really sealed the bizarreness of the whole thing. Although, this is the same thing that happened in Pretty Little Liars so I am not sure why I am so surprised that the killer didn't make much sense.
*Thanks to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the complimentary copy for my honest review* I was expecting a lot from this book since Sara Shepard is one of my favorite authors but this fell pretty flat for me. I was bored for a majority of the book and just never really got invested into the story. I think I've come to the conclusion that I don't care for books about famous people, it's not the fact that I can't relate to them (obviously) but I just honestly don't care about them. It got good towards the ending but then left me in total confusion so I feel my 2 star review is justified in that sense.
