Member Reviews

I wanted to like this book as it sounded good but I couldn't get into it. I would have not reviewed but NetGalley insists on a review to keep your profile rating up even when you say you are declining to read it.

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People Like Her is a totally unique concept for a thriller and I found lots of the elements very relatable. Being a book blogger who uses social media as a platform for reviews it was definitely an eye-opener to read about how Emmy took the idea of Instagram v. Reality to another level and about the toxic nature of these platforms generally. It was definitely a scathing portrayal of the whole 'influencer' situation. The other side of the story looked at motherhood and the pressure that many mothers feel to keep up certain standards. As a mother with 2 young children myself there were some points made that I felt were spot on, and there were other points that made for very uncomfortable reading. The whole idea was just very unsettling and the fact that young children would be caught up in it was awful. I loved the split of different POV's and thought this format worked especially well with this type of story.

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I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

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The tension in this book is built amazingly.
This is a multi POVs novel and none of the characters were nice at all.
A very difficult read

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Okay, let's talk about this so-called thriller - or maybe not a thriller, who knows? 'Cause honestly, the first 200 pages were like watching paint dry, and I'm not even kidding. All this buildup, suspicion, betrayal - and what do we get? Emmy, oh Emmy, she just straight-up sucked.

And let's not forget Dan, Mr. Hater-in-Chief. He couldn't stand Emmy, but guess what? Once he sees an opportunity to be the breadwinner, he turns into everything he despised. Like, dude, make up your mind!

And what's with that break-in/photo scam? Seriously, it had nothing to do with the abduction. It's like tossing a random ingredient into the recipe and hoping it adds some flavor. But nah, it just left me scratching my head.

And hold up - you're telling me Dan and Irene cracked this case in 10 minutes? Oh, come on now, don't play with my intelligence. That's like solving a Rubik's cube with one hand tied behind your back.

Sure, I kinda liked the peek into the life of an instastar with all the pressure and drama, but that was pretty much the only part that kept me going.

I really wanted to enjoy this, but it just didn't click. The pieces just weren't fitting together, you know? So, yeah, I guess I wasn't exactly there with this book. Two stars 'cause I'm feeling generous, but it definitely left me wanting more - and not in a good way.

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Wow - what a thriller! A total ride. Really modern and interesting, and the scary aspct of sharing your life online, and the competitiveness that can take over. Thanks for the chance to read and review this book.

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Imagine having a million people following you, a million people expecting posts, intimate secrets, and immediate responses to their DMs. Imagine this is your job, non-stop, always on display. And now add to that an actual normal life, with two kids, a husband, bills to pay. And add to that weird occurrences and a growing sense of threat and you have yourself an amazing thriller. I didn't expect I would get sucked in by People Like Her and yet I finished it in one furious day of reading. Thanks to Mantle and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My sincere apologies for the delay.

I'm not the best at social media. The only platform I really, actually, enjoy is Tumblr, which is utterly uncoupled from my "real life" identity, i.e. it has nothing to do with my name, my work, where I live, with the products I buy. (Tumblr is a mess, yes, but it's our mess.) I have friends, however, who are very good at social media, the kinds of friends who have semi-professional Instagram profiles on which they display a highly curated image of their lives. It's all trips to the spa, visits to cafes, moments of heartbreak that are easily fixed, and hair crises. I am both in awe and in fear of people who are able to silo their lives into such different aspects. On the one hand, there is your actual life, and then on the other hand, there is the life you pretend to life. How do the two mix? Do we all know the second isn't real? Or does it become more and more real, the more people see it? These were just some of my own questions I coulnd't help think about as I was reading People Like Her. It is so easy to make fun of social media, to dismiss influencers, to complain about what they're doing to "the culture", etc. While a lot of those criticisms are correct, it belies the human work and the human feeling that lies behind it. Through the three points of view in their novel, Ellery Lloyd is actually able to both create some understanding for those who share their lives online and to show the utter vulnerability and danger that go hand in hand with it.

Emmy Jackson, aka @the_mamabare, has got it made on Instagram with her million followers hanging on her every word as she shares the trials and tribulations of motherhood. Spilled milk, baby vomit on your shirt, two mismatched shoes, it all comes with the territory and Emmy is here to tell you that it's ok, that you're great for doing your best, that no one is perfect. Except her life isn't really that full of trials and tribulations. Her children don't really give her a hard time and she'd kind of prefer to be back in her Louboutins that slumming it in mom jeans. But she knows she's doing something right, not just because of the money coming in, but also because she really is helping mothers out there, right? Her husband, Dan, is not so sure. Still working on his second novel, almost a decade after the first, he's not really helping but he's also not sure sharing their life online, even if much of it is made up, is the right way to go. And then there is a third narrator, unnamed, in the shadows, who is watching and planning. With tragedy in their past, they have found their perfect focus for revenge: Emmy. This person will do anything, is willing to consider anything, in order to pay Emmy back for everything they themselves have lost because of her. As these three narrators hurtle closer and closer to disaster, everything begins to unravel. People Like Her packs quite an incredible punch at times, not flinching away from the difficulties of motherhood, even the heartbreaking sorrow and stress of it at times, and the dangers of social media.

Ellery Llyod, a married writing-duo, honestly went so much harder than I expected them to, and I loved her for it. This was my first time reading a book by them but it certainly won't be my last. When I found out there was a married duo behind the moniker 'Ellery Lloyd' I genuinely reassessed the book and realised it made sense that the separate voices of Emmy and Dan came through so strongly and believably. I can never help but wonder whether writing about messy marriages functions like couples counselling, but I'll never know. While the separate narrative voices came through strongly, at no point did the novel feel disjointed or anything like that as I might have feared had I known in advance. It flows very well, with quick but considerate pacing, and loads of little extra storylines and beats that made the novel feel really rich. So often, when reading thrillers, I pick up the breadcrumbs laid out for me and then successfully predict the ending. In the case of People Like Her, I repeatedly went 'Oh ok, I see you, a is b and c is going to happen next', only to be completely wrong. And not wrong because Ellery Lloyd threw some wild twist in there, but quite simply because the twists they employed were ones I hadn't considered. These twists don't come out of left field, they make sense for the story that they're writing, and because of that I loved being wrong. As such, I was on the edge of my seat till the last word. I honestly had a great time reading People Like Her and may have to now put all my social media to private.

People Like Her is a gripping thriller about motherhood, loss, and social media, told through the eyes of three narrators with stakes in the game. I'd wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone with even the littlest taste for the thrilling.

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People Like Her was a surprising read. I was expecting a nice little mystery that I could read mindlessly and practise the art of escapism. I was wrong. People Like Her is an intense thriller that comments on the insidious nature of social media and how being an influencer isn't all it cracks up to be.

Emmy and Dan have a seemingly perfect life. Well, the life that they show on Instagram is perfect but when a serious of creepy events occur Dan seems rocked and questions Emmy's social media addiction.

At the heart of the story though are Emmy and Dan's children. When they become the target I couldn't help but find myself being stressed out. I don't have children but I have a niece and the fear of anything happening to her transposed into my reading of the story. I had a visceral reaction to it. For me that is the mark of good story telling.

People Like Her is a spine chilling read and worthy of being picked up.

People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd is available now.

For more information regarding Ellory Lloyd (@ElleryLloydAuthor) please visit www.ellerylloyd.com.

For more information regarding Pan Macmillan (@panmacmillan) please visit their Twitter page.

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As someone who deeply researched web 2.0 and it's impacts on society, this book is quite the thriller and for a fiction book gives a lot to dwell on for those less informed on the topic to reflect on. Are we sharing too much? And even if we are not, whether what little we do share can be harvested for nefarious purposes. A timely read for anyone given the recent developments of AI, whose to say it's just humans who can harvest such information for nefarious reasons?

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I really enjoyed this, especially the twists and turns of the story. The influencer angle made it relatable, a great thriller.

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An intriguing book with a unique concept, looking into the modern world of social media and influences.

The book was ok. Not awful but not the best thing I’ve ever read. I felt it just didn’t quite meet my expectations unfortunately. It started well and I found myself hooked but then my interest fizzled.

I have seen great reviews of this book so I am definitely in the minority with this opinion

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I wasn't expecting much from this book but boy was I wrong. This was a brilliant look into social media while also being a thrilling page-turner. I was hooked from the beginning, and the tension only grew as I read. The alternating viewpoints was a device that worked brilliantly in this book and kept the pages flipping furiously. The last half of the book is when the story begins to take some dark twisty turns.

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I love a good old freaky protagonist and I am not disappointed with this one.
I would highly recommend to anyone that loves a read full of twists with a main character that draws you in and holds you tight until the bitter end. I loved it!

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A toxic little tale for the times we live in; this was a quick and chilling read with plenty to keep me hooked on a long airport layover. The characters are almost all utterly unbearable which takes some of the pressure off the harrowing dangerous bits- ultimately, yep. I recommend the novel - and that you immediately delete your Instagram account !

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I love a good psychological thriller and couldn't stop reading this book.

Emmeline is an online influencer and shares her life and that of her husband, Dan and their children Coco and Bear with her followers. But as we all know, what you see on social media is only what you are supposed to see.

Emmeline makes some very questionable decisions and she's not a very nice person but this book also shows how dangerous it can be to put your entire life online - especially when you don't always tell the truth.

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Wow what a ride. I wasn’t sure about this book at first because I didn’t really know what was happening but the more the story developed the more engrossed I have. The twists kept on coming and I also liked how the chapters were split by Dan, Emmy and the person stalking Emmy. I had a suspect but I was proven wrong as always.

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The darker side of social media is a subject that I always find intriguing in a book and People Like Her deals with it very well. the story follows Emmy Jackson, an Instagram influencer who has made a career out of her Mamabare brand where she shares the supposedly authentic truth about parenting in a modern world. However, her ‘truth’ is not quite as authentic as she claims and there is someone who is determined to take Emmy down – at any cost.

I really enjoyed this cynical and smart exploration of what can happen when we share our whole lives online. Neither Emmy or her writer husband, Dan, are particularly likeable as people but I did find them almost grotesquely fascinating. Emmy is so driven by her need to make money out of her influencer career and to stay on top of the hierarchy of instamums that nothing else really matters. It’s like she can no longer tell what is real and what she’s curating for her image. Dan is seemingly unimpressed with the whole influencer culture, and yet happily lives off the profits from it. He is occasionally a more grounded force within the family but there’s a jealous tint to his derision which lessens his moral high ground significantly. The way the story develops is gripping and I have to say, without giving anything away, the ending is razor sharp and completely fitting for a book about perception, privacy and the desperation for adoration that often accompanies a career judged by ‘engagement’. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a relevant and incisive thriller.

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It's crazy how much social media is affecting our lives everyday. I can't believe it (I say, uploading reels to my instagram...)
This book did very well at highlighting the dangers of your life online and what you can do to protect yourself if some crazy person ever tried to take you down.
Loved it, thriller and very timely.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Mac for this ARC

Great psychological read. Made for people who pop their lives on SM.

Great gritty read once halfway through the thriller element grabs you!

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What an intriguing prologue ! I love an opener that makes me sit up and take notice. It sets the tone for the rest of the book, not exactly make or break but an attention grabbing prologue is definitely a winner for me.

So our main character Emmy, I went on a bit of a journey with how I felt about her. To start with, I was impressed with her juggling act of life, family and her influencer persona. But the deeper I got into the book, the less impressed I was. The lengths Emmy goes for content and exposure are jaw dropping and not in a good way. And to be perfectly honest, Emmy is a bit of a shitty friend.

The more I read the more unnerved I felt. Unnerved by the anonymous chapters. Someone has an axe to grind with Emmy and it’s worrying. Emmy might not be the perfect individual she portrays herself to be but she doesn’t deserve what this individual has in mind for her.

If you think about it, the title gives a different meaning depending on how you emphasise it. Is it that people like Emmy as in they’re drawn to her or is it all about how people like Emmy behave? Is this a not-far-from-the-truth depiction of how influencers operate? Maybe…

People Like Her is one of this books that sucks you in, makes you feel one emotion before throwing a sucker punch to spin those thoughts round and round like Ferris wheel out of control. I was captivated by Emmy’s situation, both good and bad, not settling on whether I liked her or not – even when it was all over!!! Lloyd has a way with words that is totally up my street and since reading People Like Her, I’ve purchased myself The Club. I’m looking forward to getting my literary teeth into that soon!

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