Samantha has created empire for herself, based on the image she portrays. But as her past begins to catch up with her, not all is as it seems. Samantha has strong memories of her passage into adulthood n her hometown which do not align with those of her mother and her friends. There are some strong and interesting characters which kept me intrigued throughout

This story of obsession with a female friendship was breathtaking in its telling. Well done to the author, Louise O’Neill. I would love to read more of her books!

This is a real page-turner. You feel a little voyeuristic watching events unfold for Sam, the forty-year-old influencer who has built her platform and following based on her life experiences and beliefs.

But what happens when Sam is accused of sexual assault, a topic she has openly discussed overcoming with her 'girls' (her followers and tribe)? What happens when Cancel Culture kicks in, and suddenly Sam finds her followers falling away and speaking out about who she is? What happens when all the self-help guidance Sam gave to others doesn't cut it in terms of self-healing, and she returns to the destructive habits she depended upon before her success? And what happens when Sam returns to meet her accuser, to confront her past, and her life unravels?

You can't look away. You have to find out how it's all going to end.

It's a thought-provoking and unsettling read. I think it would make an ideal book club read, as it would generate a lot of interesting discussion around memories and the stories we tell ourselves that eventually become our truth.

It goes without saying that the impact of social media today is massive, and ‘Idol’ merely reinforces my dislike for it!

Samantha Miller is an influencer - she tells her ‘girls’ (her adoring fans) how to live their lives, but when you’re up there on your pedestal with 3 million followers, there’s only one way to go, as Samantha is about to find out!

An intriguing storyline, that highlights the current issue of trial by social media. Well written, with interesting (though not always likeable characters) Idol demonstrates the problem of reinventing oneself, and it will make you shudder!

With everyone and anyone being able to be an Influencer these days, this book is a timely reminder of not believing everything we see online.

The world of wellness gurus is not one for me and I found the characters very unlikeable, but I did enjoy finding out where the twists and turns were going to take me. The story itself is quite unbelieveable and I wanted it to move a little quicker. I gave it three stars as I found it good but not great.

A compulsive read, be prepared to not want to put it down. O'Neill has sharpened her scalpel for her third adult novel and has dissected the societal norms around social media, wellness industry and sexual assault. She shines a light on intense female friendships and the toxicity of life on social media. Her writing is as clean and as sharp as her previous work, Idol is nothing short of a thought provoking masterpiece.

We are introduced to the wellness guru Samatha Miller as she attends a book reading of her new book to her 'girls'. Her millions of followers and in the bank she has a platform like no other. However everything comes tumbling down when she is accused of sexual assault. Trying to save her reputation Samatha travels home to confront the accuser. Will she be prepared to hear the truth?

Despite loathing the protagonist, Idol is a five star book!!

Thanks you to Transworld and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

A captivating, compulsive read. I enjoyed every page and when I was forced to put it down I couldn't wait to get back to it as soon as possible - always the sign of a great read. The story centers on a holier than thou guru and the house of cards that social media and online celebrities/influencers appear to often live in. Clever and well written, this absorbing book is the first I have read by this author and now I'm wondering why I waited so long to read her novels. Thanks to NetGalley, Louise O'Neill and the publisher for the advance copy of this one. Highly recommend.

This is an interesting concept. I loathed the heroine but at the same time wanted her to redeem herself. She is a true self-obsessive.
The story was good, had me gripped from early on and I liked the depiction of small-town America. Samantha is such a fish out of water but desperate to get back into the pond there, and the pond is full of yummy mummy sharks. It's delicious watching her squirm and get wrong-footed then come back with the masterstroke that should see her win - but will it?
It's a dance of wills, of manipulation, of love and twisted friendship. Read it, you'll not be able to resist!

This is a new author for me so I didn't really know what to expect. The scenario in this book is every social media guru's worst nightmare.. You're at the top of your game and one message can see it all unraveling, what follows is a downward spiral, a fruitless exercise in damage limitation and a desperate attempt to keep afloat. The writing keeps you hooked, you feel EVERYTHING the protagonist does. You despair, you cringe and you have some sympathy but all the while you're not entirely sure where your sympathy should really lie. Who is telling the truth? Who is behind it all? Very clever and very current.

Louise O’Neill’s sixth novel - her third for adults - is an intense and timely character study of one Samantha Miller. Miller is in her early forties, thin, blonde and beautiful, with a wellness empire and millions of adoring fans. We meet her at the height of her fame - reading an extract from her new book to a crowd of acolytes - only for things to change with an email from Samantha’s former best friend, Lisa, has accused Samantha of sexual assault. Seeking to defuse the situation, Samantha travels to her former hometown, only for things to unravel very, very quickly.
An early review of O’Neill’s debut has always stayed with me, that the author “writes with a scalpel”. Six books in, and this is still true - the cool, clean style of O’Neill’s writing allows for a dissection of so many societal issues, as well as the psyche of a deeply toxic individual. No element of Influencer/Wellness culture is left unexplored by O’Neill in Idol, and she also returns to her recurring big issues - self esteem, eating disorders, and sexual trauma.

If that sounds intense, it’s because it really is - but I don't think anyone comes to O’Neill for an easy ride. Her books are always compulsive and readable while still being food for thought. It’s a tricky balancing act to pull off but in Idol she does so with aplomb. That said - I did find Idol slightly overstuffed, with certain issues slightly crammed in . The central entanglement of Samantha, Lisa, and Lisa’s husband Josh, was spicy enough without adding layers of other, difficult topics on top of that.

Samantha herself is a deeply enigmatic, magnetic character, and as our point-of-view character, a deeply unreliable narrator. I found myself completely drawn in by her - like millions of others in the novel, to be fair! - questioning how bad a person she truly was, and if she could trust anyone around her. Samantha is broken but unbowed by “her truth”, years of trauma caused by family, friends and relationships, and interactions with those who she claimed hurt her add a delicious frisson of tension to the novel. The climax of the novel had me racing through it’s pages, when it’s revealed that Samantha had fooled me along with millions of others. Reading Idol is an uneasy experience that forces you to look at how you view online relationships and ultimately, how gullible you are as a person. O’Neill is at her best when her YA beginnings are on show, in splashy, dark and compelling character studies - I think this is her best work since her classic Asking For It, and it has left my skin crawling in similar ways.

This was an exciting read and grasped my attention from the get go. Samantha is a guru/influencer/idol with millions of fans which she calls her 'girls'.
Samantha one day speaks her truth, and discusses her sexual experience with one of her friends. Her friend remembers this in a very different light.
A very interested, well thought and balanced novel about the issues and the darkness which comes with social media.

I really enjoyed this and it was very different to what I'd been expecting. A real twist, and an original storyline. Keeps you interested to the end.

An addictive unique read. This was a great story about a social media star who writes a story about a night she had with a friend. Years later this friend contacts her to say the night they had together she remembers very differently. It was interesting to see the aspect of ‘should we believe everything we read online. This book is brilliant, really well written, with a great story which kept me interested from the beginning.

I enjoyed this book however its clear that the roots of the authors writing skills are firmly based in young adult fiction.
I am aware that this world of influencing exists and how it all works but the childishness/shallowness of it all really shines though in this novel.
All the characters in this book were pretty loathsome - mostly living lives built on childhood resentment for various reasons - it was hard to have any sympathy for any of them - and that includes the girl we are meant to feel sorry for - Lisa.
It was a book that was well paced however and it could have fallen into a very repetitive circle of cause and effect but it managed to avoid that and rattled along at a good pace. The ending however was signalled early on so no great surprises.
Great cover though and it certainly is a timely novel with the increasing influence of instagram/youtube etc
I can't tell you how glad I am I have grown up in a time when these things did not exist.

This book had me hooked from the moment Sam, a world-renowned influencer and wellness guru, received some unexpected and troubling news from her agent. I was absolutely drawn into second guessing Sam’s plight and I changed my opinion about most of the characters in this book again and again. I would say this book is a fairly accurate depiction of the twisted world of social media influence and cancel culture and the author highlights the extremes in pretty stark detail! Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with where Sam is and how she got there so you have to suspend disbelief a little, but I was fascinated, gripped and saddened in equal measure, right until the end.

I absolutely tore through this book. There's nothing that grabs me more than a messy, female unreliable narrator. And Louise O'Neill's Samantha Miller definitely delivers that.

With echoes of Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects, this book had me completely gripped as I delved deeper into Sam's past and weighed it against her present trying to separate the fiction from the fact.

Idol also gets bonus points for taking a *much* needed side swipe at female social influencers who place themselves on a pedestal and use their power to peddle dubious health and wellbeing goodies to their captive teenage audience.

I'm always sceptical of the gurus who spout their wisdom and am never sure if it's bases on sound evidence or science. This book sheds a light on that showing how the recollection of a childhood and what actually happened can differ and it can shape a persons life - and when the truth comes out it can destroy you.

A good read and one which makes you think.

Very much a book of the day. The topic is a bit hard to use as a vehicle to write a book around. #metoo dimes it all up.

An intriguing MeToo book that looks at Instagram-influencer culture and toxic female relationships. This was a complex and compelling read.
Our protagonist is a famous influencer whose has written a memoir recalling a sexual experience she had once with her best friend in high school. But her world is shook when this friend emails her saying that she didn’t consent to this experience...
We alternate with flashbacks to their teenage years as different versions of the past are recalled. This was a brilliant read. It took awhile to get into it. The protagonist is unlikeable. But things come together in the end in such a brilliant way. It was gold. What a twist!

There's an interesting yin yang in my feelings about Idol - written by an author who in her previous novels, especially Asking For It, has always challenged my world views and had me thinking long into the night about the narrative she has presented. Her journalistic articles too are deep and affecting.

On the one hand Idol is a page turner. Watching the fall of an Internet sensation after an allegation of sexual assault and her desperate attempts to rewrite the past, to the point of obsession, is in many ways wildly entertaining. You don't want to stop reading until you find out how it ends even though it's perfectly obvious from the outset that there won't be any real surprises in this she said she said story.

On the other hand I felt this was more, and I'm reaching for the right word here, sensationalist? Sam reaches almost stupendous caricature status as the story progresses, while her accuser, the childhood best friend, is almost a cardboard cut out, slinking around in the shadows, never really offering the reader any grasp of her realities. Even the final "confrontation" is shouty and honestly a bit shallow when comparing it to the depth of writing I've come to expect from this author. I didn't feel sorry for any of them frankly, and the final " twist" - I use that description for lack of a better one rather than inferring a typical psych thriller twist - was a bit of a flail in the darkness.

I did enjoy it, it has some interesting insights into those trials by social media we see all the time - and I read it over a couple of sittings it was gripping. But it didn't challenge me in the same way and I likely won't return to it in my head now I'm done.