Amy Heydenrych tells a story about a girl named Holly, whose an Instagram 'star', known by everyone because she beat cancer with a new healthy lifestyle.

Once I read the blurb I was really excited to read the book and expected a lot. The first chapter was great. The following chapters were okay. Some seemed like repetitions, as if you are reading the same thing over and over again. The book had the potential to be a 5/5 book but the writing wasn't exciting enough.

A very modern thriller which starts very well and brings the reader into the story from the first page.
Well written and fast paced, this was quite a brave subject matter in uncharted territory but I felt it was a gamble which paid off.

Now, we all know I love the crime genre, with all of its different sub-genres. I have a massive soft spot for technothrillers - those that are based around the internet and including but not limited to - social media, internet dating and chat rooms. I find these thrillers the most engaging and exciting with the internet being such an it adds an extra mystery and fear factor to the book. The concepts within these books work very well in a crime capacity in my opinion. So, whenever a techonothriller appears on NetGalley I request it knowing 99% of them will be right up my alley.

This was a well written, pacy read. It took a few chapters until I was fully invested but once I was engaged there was no stopping me flipping those pages. I feel that the technological nature of the book does a good job at updating the usual mystery/thriller type titles as it brings the genre into the modern tech era and also creates a new audience of younger readers that may not have been interested in those crime titles based in reality as opposed to the web.

I found that "Shame On You" was addictive and hard to put down. I raced through it! The author certainly knows her stuff on social media and its negative effects. This is fiction with a large dose of reality added in for good measure and it held my attention throughout.

My review will be added to Amazon on the date of publication and a link then added on NetGalley.

I would like to thank Amy Heydenrych, Bonnier Zaffre & NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest and impartial review.

Should you,believe that famous Instagram star? How easy is it to hide the truth on the Internet? Should we dig deeper when a new diet craze is announced?
Holly is famous on social media, she is the face of clean eating and everyone loves her. All that changes when she is attacked and her life spirals out of control and the truth is revealed.
This is a good thriller about the dangers of believing everything you see on the Internet and shows how easy it can be to become famous. The story is told from the point of view of two flawed characters Holly and Tyler, as the story unraveled I grew to feel sorry for Holly and dislike Tyler. I also liked that Zanna stayed faithful to Holly and helped her move forward and she is probably my favourite character in the book.n
The story is let down at times by a slightly slow moving plot and I personally didn't like the end. A good read with an interesting take on modern society.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review

I struggled with this book. The storyline is not for me. Social media, blogging and vanity. My mistake I'm the wrong age range to enjoy this !

A good modern thriller. It's all about todays unhealthy fixation on internet media sites and the lies people tell to gain followers. The story held my interest to the end.

A unique book which delves deeply into the darker side of the internet. A thoroughly up to date thriller, with an interesting inclusion of very twenty-first century issues. A gripping read with many unanticipated twists, very enjoyable.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the book.in exchange for an honest review.
It took a while for me to like the character Holly in the book, ‘Shame on You’ and then I realised that itwasn’t a requirement because as her fame grew everyone else liked Holly until her fame back fired and she was a social pariah. Tyler the other main character was a success, he was a surgeon, a man everyone admired and respected. When he lost the love of his life Frankie, he was determined that the woman responsible for her not seeking medical intervention for her cancer, should be publicly and privately punished and humiliated
The book explores how in today’s busy world how people use social media and live their lives in the spotlight of social media. It demonstrates how every detail of your life can be streamed and downloaded for other people,who you will never know , to comment and approve or disapprove.
The book ‘Shame on You’ explores the impact that this very public way of being shamed can effect people. It also looks at mental health issues of people and how this can effect the way the most respected people and those who are looking just to be liked and wanted can be affected by the use of social media.
This is a very clever book which tackles many issues that are relevant today and makes you think and ponder.
Highly recommended

This is an excellent book with a dark take on the internet world of social media in which we live.....it gripped me from the first page and I just loved it!!! Could not put it down!

Well, this is a topsy turvy read. Told by both of the caractures involved. Holly loves and hates herself. She is very insecure and will go to any length to be liked and loved. Tyler obsession is to repay Holly for her actions. The build up to the final chapter keeps you on the edge all the time. Emotions like pity, love hate and violence run all the way through this story. A great read.

“Why did he hate her so much? All she ever did was strive to be better, cleaner, washed out and pristine from the inside out.”

Shame on You has a very contemporary protagonist; Holly Evans is a “wellness blogger”, one of those beautiful young women who post pictures of their perfect foods and perfect lives on Instagram.

It’s worked out very successfully so far for Holly, whose particular USP is that she cured herself of cancer by... oh, you know. Juice and positive thinking. Or did she? Tyler Wells doesn’t think so. He’s angry, and he’s on a mission to bring Holly down.

Holly’s disgrace and Tyler’s obsession provide the two narrative strands of a gripping and thought-provoking story.

This isn’t the first, nor the second novel I’ve read recently which deals with the very modern phenomenon of internet shaming. But it is a timely issue and Amy Heydenrych has a lot to say about society’s expectations of women.

Holly’s online persona is carefully curated and filtered for maximum acceptability: be thin, be pretty, be clean and pure, don’t say anything controversial or political. Be sexy, but never slutty. Following the rules leads to the reward and validation of likes and follows and admiring comments (not to mention the more material rewards that accompany success); break them, and you will be harshly judged. Holly’s fall from grace, when it comes, is spectacular.

Tyler is a man on a mission, driven by rage, a largely unaddressed grief and a burning desire to dispense his own form of justice on Holly; or perhaps on what he perceives her to represent. For him there’s a clear divide between the innocent and the guilty, and the latter deserve only contempt. And revenge.

Neither Holly nor Tyler are particularly sympathetic characters; both are capable of terrible things, yet it is possible to understand to a certain extent why they do what they do - even if both go way further than most people ever would.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

I was surprised by how much I was gripped by this tale of a clean eating instagrammer/vlogger's fall from grace but I enjoyed all the pop culture references and the look at how well we really know people online - and how quick we are to turn on them if they fall off their pedestal.

When clean eating cancer survivor Holly is attacked her carefully curated online life begins to fall apart. Trapped in her claustrophobic apartment with only her publicist for support Holly attempts to track down her attacker and discover their motivation.

A quick, easy, enjoyable read.

11
Jannelies Smit

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Jannelies Smit's Reviews > Shame On You
Shame On You by Amy Heydenrych
Shame On You
by Amy Heydenrych
46643259
Jannelies Smit's review
Mar 30, 2018 · edit

really liked it
bookshelves: thriller

I am very happy this book clearly shows how many people nowadays live their life on the internet instead the real world. But worse, other people believe everything they see and hear. Shame on you shows how easy it is to fool people and to even get rich with doing almost nothing, except posting about their silly little empty lives. Because that is what she has, main character Holly. She may be rich and famous, it is all fake and show. Inside there is nothing. And when confronted with causing horrible things to other people, she doesn't know what to do and where to turn to.

Thanks to NetGally for this book. I've enjoyed it.

Holly is a Superstar online, her 1000s of followers adore her clean eating healthy recipes and she revels in the attention. Out of the blue she is viciously attacked and then her world spirals out of control. Will her fans stand by her? Will she remain the online hero?

This book is unlike any I have read before, the book is about Holly, a bullied girl who discovers when she has cancer and posts on Instagram and Facebook about it she suddenly has thousands of followers, her ‘life/illness’ then takes on new meaning and she becomes a social media star as she advocates a lifestyle that cures her ( shunning chemotherapy etc ) people start following her advice........and then the story takes a massive turn, hard not to say more about it but all is not as it seems with Holly......nowhere near as it seems...she is then attacked and scarred, her internet love increases and she is unstoppable....and then she IS stopped by a massive revelation by her attacker....her fall from social media is rapid, cruel
and utterly vicious.....and then the story once again takes another massive turn and......well, cant say anymore without ruining the story.....
A truly FASCINATING read that we all will relate to and understand with equal revulsion and sympathy
Social Media is explained and described exactly as it affects all of us daily and its quite shocking how real the book is
I LOVED IT, the characters appalling in their wonderfulness and extremity and shocking when you see the tiny glimmer of all of us in them
A truly fascinating read about a situation completely out of control but only too easy to understand how and why it happened, fabulous book
10/10 5 stars

I liked the beginning of this book. Telling you how online can get you in trouble in real life.
I didn't like the whole cancer bit on Holly's side. Being someone who has gone through cancer it hit me in the wrong spot.
I did want to love this book so much but it just didn't work for me.
Again this is only my opinion and i hope others like this book better than me.


Thanks to the publisher and net galley for a early release of this book

It took me a little while to grip me on the story but this is a new type of thriller that presented an issue of social media and I really enjoyed it.

Holly has became a celebrity blogger through her cancer fighting by posting a vegan diet on the Internet. Although many people gather around her and support her over the internet, one day, she was attacked by a stranger and got slushed her beautiful face. The attacker, Tyler holds firm on destroying Holly’s fame and her lies begin to exposed.

The story is real that explore the negative effects and obsession of social media that happens everywhere nowadays. How online could give huge influence to the people and the malicious reacts from the audiences. I enjoyed the thrill that Holly being put in the spot by Tyler and people even her supporters.

Holly and Tyler are narrators and they both have psychological problems. Although I enjoyed the story, the reason why I gave this book 3.8 stars is I couldn’t emphasize either of them. The people around those main characters are very nice that show the contrast.

As I was getting close to the last page, I was wondering how this story is going to end. The ending reveals the true Holly herself. On the social media, we sometimes pretend to be people that others like us to be.

This book gave me thrills and also taught me the dark side of social media that could happen around myself.

I marked this book as 3.8 stars.

***Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for approving me to read this ARC**

Shame On You is an enthralling psych thriller that feels all too real. The creepiest part of this book was realizing how scary social media can really be, that it can actually ruin your life and that no one is who they say they are. Everyone can lie on social media.

This book was enthralling and creepy from the beginning. There were so many twists and turns, it was awesome! The ending was wow, did not see that coming! It was seriously unhinged but kept you wondering until the end.

When you are a star on the internet EVERYBODY owns you.

Holly Is an internet sensation after she cures herself of cancer and changes her lifestyle and becomes a nutritional and exercise guru on her vlog and blog. With recipe books and tv appearances she has become the IT girl for young women wanting to change their lives.

But, after she is attacked and disfigured she becomes haunted by a secret nobody must know and that her attacker is out there still, stalking her and waiting to finish the job.

The web can make or break you in just a click of a mouse key, everybody knows you, owns you and privacy will never be yours again.

At last an original story! This book is a real thriller and eye opener. Most people today have some information on the www, social media, e-mail and online shopping, but once you have used it you are on there forever and anybody can find out about you.

The twist at the end is a surprise, but believable. None of the characters is particularly likeable, but you do swing from one to the other, both are bad in his own way, made that way by the glitz, glamour and the mistaken idea that you have friends and confidence on the internet. In fact, all you have is people just waiting to kick and shame you when you mess up, as Holly finds out.

A book well worth reading and one which makes you think about how much of YOUR information is on-line.

Shesat

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Took a while to get going but it did engross me. Thought the ending could have been stronger. Thank you for allowing me to read this book