What they say: UNDERBELLY [n.] singular The soft underside or abdomen of a mammal. An area vulnerable to attack. A dark, hidden part of society. Lo and Dylan are living parallel lives, worlds apart. Lo is the ultimate middle-class mother, all perfectly polished Instagram posts and armchair activism. Dylan is just about surviving on a zero-hours telemarketing job from her flat, trying to keep food on the table. But when they meet at the school gates, they are catapulted into each other's homes and lives - with devastating consequences . . .

My thoughts: I really enojoyed this book. It was a pacy peep into the lives of modern day social media influencers and how things are not always quite as they may seem. Not my usual kind of book, but very engrossing with well written characters and a sound plot. I had to know how it was going to unfold! I felt the trigger warnings at the start were useful, not many books (that I have come across) actually give them, you usually have to rely on reading reviews, so I felt that was very helpful and didn't put me off. Not predicatable, really interesting, sharply observed and flowed naturally. These women could be so many modern women, I really enjoyed how it played out and would recommend.

Genre: General Fiction | Womens Fiction | Adult Fiction

Release Date: Expected 5th August 2021

Publisher: Orion Publishing Group

CW; This book contains descriptions Self-Harm, Domestic Abuse and Miscarriage.


Lo lives the perfect life, according to her expertly curated social media anyway. A happily middle-class Mother to a very cute four-year old, she spends her time thinking of the right instagram captions for her adoring followers, drinking very good wine and fighting for the rights of breastfeeding mums from her phone. She has no reason to know Dylan, a single mum just about getting by on a zero hour job and barely able to afford to even feed her son , just trying to continue her life quietly and out of sight.

But a chance meeting at the school entangles their lives together in ways they'd never expect - and threatens to bring everything they're hiding out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

"This one is about women and the dark things we do to each other in the underbelly of the internet. This one isn't about someone else, it's about me."
Underbelly was an exploration into the darker side of the internet and being constantly switched on and reachable - showing us two women who's lives have been changed drastically by the internet but in parallel worlds. The characters were viscerally real and grew on me slowly throughout the story, at first thinking their flaws and failings would keep me at arms length but instead showed me hidden depths to them. We saw Lo and Dyl grow as people page by page as well as how their relationship transformed from strangers to friends to something else entirely.

There's a lot of stories now that explore the phenomena of the 'Influencer' - but this one definitely stands out. Raising powerful points about parenthood, mental health, self image and the potential dangers of social media. Whitehouse masterfully showed how life can be convoluted and darker when it's being fed through millions of strangers, and just how fatal rumours can be.

A true page-turner, this was a real slow-burn that suddenly explodes into fire in ways I definitely didn't see coming. Whitehouse is definitely one to watch.


RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Anna Whitehouse, Orion Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

This was a really interesting read exploring the world of influencers and the online world of trolling and cancel culture as well as the loneliness motherhood can cause as you lose your identity.
Lo is a popular influencer always well groomed and presenting a polished enviable life to her followers while in real life she is incredibly lonelyand unhappy. Desperate for another child, Lo suffers many miscarriages, the descriptions are heartbreaking, I really felt for her and wanted her to confide in someone in real life rather than through the squares of her grid.
Dylan is a struggling single mum whose life couldn't be anymore different to Lo's. Working from home on commission on a zero hour contract, she is often on the breadline making difficult decisions with her limited wage, going hungry herself to feed her child.
Their daughters become best friends and force the pair to spend time with each other resulting in devastating consequences.
I really enjoyed the style of writing it was funny and moving with great characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for an advanced read of this novel in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This book highlights what social media brings to our world and how people can be lifted up and destroyed by it in quick succession. I really enjoyed the book but found it quite distressing of how much it mirrors what does go on. People hide behind usernames and say thing they would never say face to face to someone. The world needs to become kinder and hopefully the people that read this book can lead the way.

Originally I was planning to give this book 2 stars. I found it extremely slow and in places quite dull. It felt like a bit of a struggle to get through.

After thinking about it some more, I decided it definitely deserved an extra star. Although it wasn't a book I particularly enjoyed, I can appreciate that it deals with a lot of different sensitive issues quite well. It is essentially a book centered around the dark underbelly of the Internet and the damage that Internet trolls and hateful comments can make. It also deals with pregnancy loss, suicide and domestic violence.

As a warning to any potential readers, as someone who has experienced pregnancy loss, I found this a bit difficult to read in places.

I really enjoyed this book as it showed the changing fortunes of 2 young women whose lives become dictated by social media. It shows the devastating effect that social media can have on someone when it all comes crashing down around them. It was very cleverly written and had a good balance of humour, characterisation and an interesting plot. I enjoyed how alternating chapters were told from the point of view of the 2 women involved and it quickly becomes clear that all is not as it seems in the lives of these 2 young women. Highly recommended and a good reminder to everyone to remember that lives are not always as they seem on social media.

I read this book very quickly thanks to such an engaging talented author! Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. Great characters, setting and storyline. Would highly recommend.

Underbelly is an interesting book about the complexities of female friendship and the dark side of the internet.

I read an article about the gossip website Tattle and the fictional forum in Underbelly definitely reminded me of that.

The book isn’t perfect - all of the conflict happens in the space of a couple of chapters and it all moves very quickly at this point, but it’s still a really interesting book particularly for anyone who spends a lot of their life on the internet or who follows any of the “mumfluencers”.

Mumfluencer novels are all the rage at the moment, and they can fit into more than one genre - comedies (the Filter This books by Sophie White and Everything's Perfect by Nicole Kennedy) and thrillers (Those People by Ellery Lloyd). All of these books are fab, but Underbelly has a strong understanding of human nature underpinning it and a sense of what women will do and how far they are prepared to go - as well as an awareness of the odds stacked against them - that makes this a compelling read.

Influencer Lois Knox is struggling to hold on to a second pregnancy when she meets Dylan, a young mother whose son is in the same class as her daughter. As they get to know each other, Lois realises that Dylan's words and struggles can fill some of the gaps in Lo's public profile (unlike the mums in 'Those People' she doesn't really have a hook, apart from breastfeeding, and a tone-deaf period poverty campaign lands her in trouble). Lois may not be all she seems - but is Dylan really who she says she is either?

This story focuses on the growth and influence of... Influencers!

I thought this was an interesting premise in which to explore as 'Influencers' in may guises have so much 'power' and visibility in the World today.

The story focuses on two Women, both Mothers, who live very different lives but they have their Children in common who go to the same school. The obvious difference that the story focuses on is that one of the Mothers is an 'Influencer' and social media is central to her world, identity and worth, while the other Mother needs to remain 'under the grid' in terms of staying away from social media so as not to be discovered by an abusive partner.

I thought that the story was primarily about friendship and loneliness. How we can be lonely in the modern world of social media and 'friends / followers' and that nothing can substitute real friendship.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, but, saying that, it was a fairly enjoyable read.

20 years (or so) ago, there was a big fashion for books written in emails - a sort of modern epistolary form. Today, those books look as dated as a ra-ra skirt or legwarmers. The current trend has moved on to the lives of Instagram influencers (other social media platforms obviously included) and I've read a handful of such stories in the past year or so. 'Underbelly' is one of the better ones and is rather more thought-provoking than some.

The problem with 'influencer' stories is that, without exception, these books always make me wonder why (ok, it's the money) anybody would put their life 'out there' to such a degree that they put themselves and their families at risk, and go from flavour of the month to the next online dodo in a very short time.

Underbelly follows two women whose children go to school together. One is on the run from an abusive ex-partner and trying to stay off the social media radar screen, the other lives her life permanently in the spotlight, making multiple posts every day, feeling the need to respond to every comment and question posted to her. The clever thing in this book - and I have no idea if such things exist in the real world - is the introduction of 'Influenza', a platform where anonymous people bitch about the influencers, spread rumours and unpleasant gossip, and take delight in slashing at the stems of Instagram's tall poppies.

A lot of things could have happened in this book but didn't. I rather applaud the author's ability to not go down too obvious a route with the storyline about the ex-partner. It's filled with reflections on modern friendship, where an influencer with a gazillion followers still doesn't really have any friends in the so-called real world. I liked the friendship that was developing between the two women.

I work in marketing and have done for 30 years. Businesses today are demanding digital presence on social media and increasingly expecting their social media teams to be online around the clock, answering questions, fending off SM disasters and suchlike. Books like this make me ever more wary to get sucked into that world and to leave social media to somebody else.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.

I've enjoyed Whitehouse's previous books written with her partner Matt Farquharson and was very fortunate to be granted a preview copy. The story feels so real, it's a compelling read. The characters are relatable and gritty. We follow these people in real life on instagram, we probably all harbour a slight desire to be them and there's an element of voyeurism that makes this such a gripping read. It's light-hearted in parts which make you laugh out loud, but other parts are so heavily loaded with emotions, you want to cry for the characters or simply feel their 'numbness'. There are twists and turns and the book surprised me as I went on - which I was really glad about, it's not formulaic and it doesn't have a fully 'resolved' ending as per you'd expect, but weierdly I'm totally satisfied by it! It's a charming read that has a part everyone will be able to relate to, from comparing yourself to others, being caught unprepared in situations to pouring that extra glass of wine at 3:45pm on a Friday.. it's real.

it carries a really important message too- that choosing not to 'trash talk' or engage with harmful gossip online it just as important as shouting about others glory and raising people up.

I couldn't put it down towards the end and will be recommending it to anyone who will listen!

A dive into influencer life from the inside out with – as the title suggests – a focus on the more toxic elements of social media. Written from viewpoints of two very different women, it offers a sympathetic take on the emotional misunderstandings and well-meant efforts thwarted by people trying to do their best while beset by the insecurities and judgements of the worlds they inhabit.

I couldn't get into this book, I'm afraid. Expected to love it - from the reviews. Wanted to love it. But it just wasn't for me. The characters irritated me. It felt like it was trying too hard - if that makes sense.