whitneydaniell

by: Olivia Worley
published: Oct 31, 2023
genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Murder Mystery, Fiction
352 pages, E-Book ARC Courtesy of NetGalley
GoodReads Link

Coming off a 4-day reading hiatus, this was the first book I wanted to pick up, and ironically, it was very similar to last month’s read, She Started It.

Ten influencers are stuck on a deserted island under the guise of, being filmed for a reality TV show about “unplugging”. Meanwhile, someone has a sinister plan for revenge and when an influencer is found dead, everyone is worried that they’re trapped on the island with a murderer.

The story is told from the point of view of, Max, Kira, Elody, and Logan even though, there are 6 other influencers in the house, plus a PA who set everything up, Tilly. I have to say, I was glad that there were not chapters for every single person, it was already overwhelming keeping up with the dialogue. I often found myself swiping back to check whose chapter I was reading. Also, there is not a lot of character development or character backstory — which is a given, just based on the number of characters. But I found that it was hard to connect with any particular character because they all seemed selfish, naive, and foolish. But then again, I’m not the age demographic for this type of story, so take the previous sentence with a grain of salt.

Zane being a Leo… spot on!

Final Thoughts: Much like ‘She Started It‘ and ‘Reckless Girls‘, I think this trope has been done over and over again and every time I think writers have found a new angle — NOPE. The incriminating evidence on some of the influencers is actually wild, probably the best twists in the whole book. However, the unraveling of the plot and the final chapter just didn’t seal the deal for me. It was a good read. The writing was okay – no complaints there, it reads like it was written by a Gen-Zer and for Gen-Zers.

In my opinion, there were too many characters and too many things going on. I get that, with multiple characters it’s a ploy to throw the reader off of the actual culprit but, like I mentioned before, it made the dialogue hard to follow with so many people speaking often at once. The plot twist was, meh. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of Jigsaw — like from the Saw movies but, considering the genre, I should have known better. Would I pick this up again? No. Would I recommend it to young readers, sure!