Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I was totally hooked by this from the beginning. The build up of the image Sam had created for herself and the way it came crashing down was brilliantly done. It perfectly reflected the celebrity culture where image is everything and a certain persona can be sold to vulnerable followers. History is re-written and a narrative is created that actually blurs the line between reality and the sales pitch for ‘likes’. Another excellent read from Louise O’Neill that I will be highly recommending.

Wow! Louise O'Neill has done it again. This book is superb! As always Louise is masterful in the way she writes. Sam is an influencer & even though she's very unlikeable as a person you can't help caring about her. I felt as if this book was a true life story as the characters were so well written & diverse topics explored & dealt with in a superb manner. I loved this book & it will stay with me for a long time.

Louise O'Neill is gifted in capturing current events and hot topics in her writing and her latest offering is no exception. The growth in power of influencers and the questionable ethics of the "wellness" industry are captured perfectly in Idol.
We meet Samantha Miller a wellness guru who has risen to the top of the industry after her escaping her demons and wants to help her "girls" achieve the same. Ahead of her latest book Chaste, she writes an articling a life see defining experience from her teenage years she shared with her childhood friend Lisa. An email to Sam's manager paints a very different version and having an advocate of #believewomen, she now finds herself on the other side of the story trying to stop her career and life falling apart.
This is a thrilling novel and I couldn't put it down. As in previous novels, O'Neills creates wonderfully flawed and often despicable but are so difficult to truly dislike. She never shies away from dealing with dark topics, which are always dealt with both intelligently and sensitively. I would have given 5 stars but for me the story began to drag towards the end.
This will definitely be a top summer read.

This is an honest review in exchange for an ARC

Leave it to Louise O'Neill to excel at every genre! IDOL is an intoxicating, addicting and timely novel, as well as, if I'm to put it simply, a wild ride of a book. O'Neill is a master at making you become so invested in the lives of utterly unlikeable people that you simple cannot wait to see what happens to. I could not put this down!
Toxic friendships, internet outrage, fame and wellness gurus - truly the recipe for disaster in the most engaging way possible. Louise's analysis of cancel culture (and whether it actually exists), power, privilege and the extent of damage one person can do with the possibility of forgiveness and redemption still ahead of them is incisive. By the end, she refuses to wrap this up, but rather gives the opportunity for the reader to answer themselves all the questions she poses throughout the novel.
If you found the Alix chapters of SUCH A FUN AGE, you are going to love IDOL.

Samantha is an influencer and self-help guru who has become a celebrity with millions of women followers ready to buy all her books and tickets to her exclusive seminars. She has become insanely wealthy and her latest book, Chaste, is expected to be a big seller too. Samantha writes an article about a sexual experience she had with her best friend, Lisa, as a teenager and the piece goes viral. But her world is turned upside down when Lisa says she remembers that moment differently and raises issues of consent. Samantha goes back to her hometown where Lisa still lives to try to reason with her former best friend. The book looks at how memories can differ and how we block out experiences we don’t want to look at too closely. It’s a fascinating and topical read but loses steam as Samantha’s unreliable narration and obsession with her high school days starts to annoy and Lisa is not fully fleshed out as a character to truly understand her. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

This one had me thinking about it long after I’d finished it. Louise always delivers a punchy, impactful read that’s relevant to current affairs. In her new novel, Samantha Miller has become the go-to guru for self-help. Her ‘girls’, her fans who read her books and lap up her wisdom, think she’s an oracle, someone who’s been honest about her past and is now living her best life. Her new work, Chaste, is a bestseller and to promote it, she’s written an open essay about her sexual awakening with her female BFF. The essay goes viral – which works for Sam – but not for Lisa, who says she doesn’t remember that night in the same way. In fact, what she recollects, if it gets out, will topple everything that Sam has worked for in recent years. And Sam can’t have that. But whose story is true, and whose ‘truth’ is a fabrication? Whip sharp in her observations about the cult of the celebrity and the impact social media has on many, this is not just gripping, it’s addicting. You’ll want to read this in one sitting.

This was a really enjoyable read and reinforces why exactly I hate social media.

Samantha is a guru/influencer/idol, however you would describe her. She has a following of millions of her "girls" on social media and encourages them to speak their truth.

Sam also speaks her truth, one day writing about her sexual experience with her female best friend.....however her friend remembers it a very different way and the issues of consent are laid bare here.

It was a very interesting choice for O'Neill to change the gender balance of stories which are sadly too prevalent in society at the moment. It is one of those stories where you will love then hate then pity then hate some characters as the story progresses in the present day but also as the truth emerges over what happened all those years ago.

A really interesting, thoughtful, balanced novel about a very current issue in society which I think was handled very sensitively.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this book. The issues it covers are so current, and it would have been very easy to write a one-dimensional, yet still engaging story in this space (social media/sexual assault/influencer culture) and yet I found myself shifting from one perspective and opinion to another as I read, so much so that I was really absorbed from start to finish. It’s such a nuanced take on the issue of consent and the impact of trauma, highly recommend.

In a nutshell, if you like novels about people obsessed with social media, what other people think of them and how memories can vary, then this novel is for you. I found it read YA for me and there was a lot of ' he said, she said' and it went back and forth for a bit too long. A nice twist to this but overall I was a bit meh.

I've been a fan of Louise O'Neill's previous books which have dealt with important issues of rape, non-consent and domestic abuse in an accessible way via commercial fiction but this book didn't work as well for me. Again, it handles big contemporary issues of non consent but here in a girl on girl way, as well as tackling social media, self-image, memory and story-telling that rewrites the past.

For all the good intentions, I found the story lacked focus: it feels underdeveloped and loses pace at times, and I'm never really a fan of split narratives which jump back and forwards in time. The two female characters at its heart seem overly schematic with driven Sam and weak Lisa, and there's a lot of 'that day' story telling to ramp up artificial tension by withholding critical information about the events at the heart of the story which the characters all discuss but which remains a blank to readers - and a deus ex machina conclusion that feels overly abrupt.

Despite some personal niggles, I'd recommend this to fans of chick lit with a more serious edge.

𝘐𝘥𝘰𝘭 is Louise O’Neill’s highly anticipated new book, due out in May 2022. OK, so first off, I really wanted to like 𝘐𝘥𝘰𝘭 and I did to a point. Samantha Millar is a very successful motivational speaker cum Guru with over 3 million Instagram followers. She encourages “her girls” to live “their truth”. Sam leads a glittering life in Manhattan, has a bestselling book called 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 & is in demand for every talk show. She is portrayed as a woman in total control.

When Lisa, an old school friend, posts an incriminating email about Sam which subsequently goes viral, her life & career goes into free fall. It becomes obvious Sam is a deeply troubled woman & is still dealing with bulimia & mental health issues from her carefully curated past. All is not as it seems.

The book is told in alternating chapters between the present day & Sam’s teenage years. A lot of the narrative is “𝘏𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥, 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥” conversations between Sam & Lisa about a seminal event in their lives. Neither woman has moved on from their school days & Sam is still obsessed by events that happened in her past, despite being a 40 yr old woman. I found this very tiresome.

One of the main themes of the book is the subjectivity of memory & how our perceptions of reality can differ. How reliable are our memories & can they be trusted in this #MeToo era? There has to be some type of hook in a book to draw the reader in or at least a character that’s halfway likeable & in whom you are invested. 𝘐𝘥𝘰𝘭 had neither in my opinion. Sam is petulant, self-obsessed & whiney. Lisa was not sufficiently fleshed out as a character for me to care about her one way or the other. It felt at times like I was listening to two particularly annoying teenagers having a protracted argument. The ending was no surprise as the tone of the book had been leaning in that direction from the get-go.

Saying all that, this is still an entertaining book which many will enjoy, especially the early chapters. However for me Sam’s obsessive & childish behaviour gradually became more irritating. I’m sure this will be a huge success for Louise O’ Neill & I wish her all the best with it. For me it’s 3⭐️

Many thanks to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for this Arc in return for my honest opinion.

This was such an interesting premise for a book. This book was completely riveting, it gripped me right from the start and kept me captivated all the way through. I couldnt put it down and I didnt want too. I loved it

Writing aside, the thing I love most about Louise O'Neill is that you can't pigeonhole her work. Each book feels fresh, innovative and defies genre labels. Her novels cover a diverse range of subjects. With "Idol", O'Neill explores the subjectivity of memory, and our carefully cultivated online personas, through the lens of friendship. It's current, timely and really makes you think about the world we are building for ourselves by centering social media in our lives. I thought it was a brilliant read and expect it will be a huge hit. I hope so, as Louise O'Neill deserves widespread recognition and readership.

I am so excited for other people to read this so I can talk about it!
I love Louise's work and this is one of my favourites yet. So dark, somehow manages to touch on so many different topics from consent, to eating disorders, to abusive relationships, to the stronghold that social media influencers have over us.

I had half guessed the "twist" coming towards the end but it didn't stop me enjoying this book! Sam is a brilliant and really fleshed out character - the social media wellness guru who is completely f**ked in the head and doesn't actually have the squeaky clean background we think she does... It's hard to say more without spoiling the plot, but Louise has masterfully woven an entertaining plot with some really thought provoking and important subject matter and I loved it! You can never trust people based on their social media and that is the crux of this story.
Can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this in 2022 but in the meantime thanks so much to Louise / publisher / Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I loved Only Ever Yours and I'm a big fan of the heroines of Almost Love and Asking for It too. Louise O'Neill is great at creating heroines that are complicated, smart, easy to fall in love with and even admire, but harder to like. Samantha Miller is an influencer with such a huge platform that this book may leave other domestic social-media thrillers in the dust. When an old friend makes an allegation against her, she goes back to her home town to try to set things right and salvage her career. Everything is suddenly at stake.

I loved the 1990s aesthetic in the flashbacks and the references to TLC, Britney Spears, Ghostface, the girls dressed as Courtney Love and Amanda de Cadenet, Drew Barrymore and Liv Tyler. For a while, it seemed uncertain what would happen in Sam's hometown once she reconnected with her accuser Lisa, and whether this book was going to be more like Sweet Home Alabama or Single White Female. Then I remembered who wrote it...

Samantha has started to believe her own hype and doesn't know what's true any more. Did her parents send her to a sadistic diet doctor and starve her, or was Dr Anat an eating disorders specialist, the best in the business? Was her father cold and abusive, or a man of his time who loved her? Was she sent to reform school, or did she beg to leave town because her life was out of control - and what did she actually do to Lisa?

Begging to be a movie or mini-series, this book is frankly eye-popping and shows O'Neill on top form, firing on all cylinders. Just don't hold out for a happy ending and remember to change your passwords.

I was absolutely blown away by Louise O'Neill's previous novels Almost Love and Asking For It, both of which I read after hearing her speak so impressively at a literary festival in 2018. Idol is similarly impressive and I found myself completely gripped by it over the course of 24 hours. It focuses on Samantha Miller, a social media influencer, who publishes an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager with her then best friend Lisa. However, Lisa's memory of the event is very different to Sam's and by speaking out Lisa could bring Sam's life and career crashing down. I thought this was a superb study of the precarious and controversial world of social influencers. It is also an incisive look at teenage experiences, memories and our perception of the truth. I found my opinions changing throughout this novel and this is a novel that will stay with me for a while. O'Neill is an amazing and important writer who once again has written deeply and thought provokingly about a contemporary issue. Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I love behind the scenes celebrity glamour novels. For some reason I thought of Britney Spears when I read this one.
Premise
Follow your heart and speak your truth.'

For Samantha Miller's young fans - her 'girls' - she's everything they want to be. She's an oracle, telling them how to live their lives, how to be happy, how to find and honour their 'truth'.

And her career is booming: she's just hit three million followers, her new book Chaste has gone straight to the top of the bestseller lists and she's appearing at sell-out events.

Determined to speak her truth and bare all to her adoring fans, she's written an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager, with her female best friend, Lisa. She's never told a soul but now she's telling the world. The essay goes viral.

But then - years since they last spoke - Lisa gets in touch to say that she doesn't remember it that way at all. Her memory of that night is far darker. It's Sam's word against Lisa's - so who gets to tell the story? Whose 'truth' is really a lie?

'You put yourself on that pedestal, Samantha. You only have yourself to blame.'
I was really curious to see how this one turned out and it was a really interesting, juicy, read and it would be great for a book club!