When it comes to social media, we all know that pictures are painted to create an image, particularly when it comes to influencers. So nothing is quite what it seems.

Sam has curated her own persona, one with a huge following, sponsorships and she written books that are bestsellers. She’s living the influencer’s dream… that is until she writes something from her past that those involved disagree with the version of events she paints. Enter free fall status…

O’Neill shows the power of social media and how anonymity can wield such an ugly sword. But she also shows how memories can be perceived differently by parties – they say there are three sides to every story: my side, your side and the truth. But what is the truth of that eventful night? As the book goes on, O’Neill made me question the reliability of Sam’s narrative and I love an unreliable narrator so one who starts off steady and gradually head to unreliable central really got my attention.

Having read Asking For It a few years ago, I fully expected Idol to be a hard hitting thought provoking discussion about a controversial topic. It did not disappoint! O’Neill tackles quite a few subjects that made me think – consent, the power of the influencer, the reliance of ones own memories. I really enjoyed Sam’s very bumpy journey of damage limitation. I really must read more from Louise O’Neill!

'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.'

This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own hone\st voluntary review.

I am a huge fan of Louise O'Neill. I have read almost all her books at this stage and always impressed when I see her in interviews.
This book did not disappoint. The concept was thought provoking and the setting (in the popular world of a influencer/health guru) is particularly topical.
I liked the unreliable narration of the lead character and how the story unfolded.
Where the book lacked for me was that I found it repetitive in parts and the unresolved situation with Gabriel.
That aside, it was a fascinating read that will stay with me long after finishing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advance copy of this book.

When I started reading Idol, I really thought I knew where the story was going. Famous woman goes back to small town to confront her former best friend about allegations she made online. But I didn't expect the complex story and the many twists and turns to the plot along the way. And that ending!

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. I will definitely be recommending it.

What happens when an inspirational leader is knocked off her pedestal by an allegation of abuse? For once its a female not male. The twists as she goes back to her home town to correct the narrative. Going back to high school rivalries and loves. A roller coaster of emotions and memories from different perspectives.

I really enjoyed this book, and raced through it. The story contained a bit of everything including betrayal, trolling on social media, followers on social media, wellness gurus, addiction, and love in all its many forms. It could easily have been a frothy beach read but I felt the author actually discussed some really important contemporary issues in a well thought out way contained in a very readable story.
thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book

A gripping and disturbing thriller with some difficult subject matter. Sam is an influencer - but what does that mean for her values and her relationships? She is an unreliable and unlikeable narrator but it's difficult not to have sympathy for many of the characters who are still haunted by what happened in high school over twenty years ago. It's a book of many twists and turns, and keeps you guessing to the very end.

This book is definitely one that has stayed with me. I finished reading this book a week ago, and it's one I keep thinking about. Haven't felt like that about a book for a long time!

This book would be perfect for a book club, as there is so much to talk about - so many discussions to be had.
Lots of twists, and just when you think you know what's going on - boom - something happens to change your view on the characters again.

This book is all about the characters, and how reliable they are with the truth - what is the truth? How does your version of the truth compare to the actual truth. Really interesting premise.

I enjoyed the book a lot, and think it will continue to stay with me for a long time!

Idol is a book that I haven’t read anything remotely like it, there are a lot of sensitive issues covered within this book and at times is quite a dark read.
Samantha Miller is a lifestyle guru and a social media influencer with 3 million followers, she has it all and her followers eat out of her hand so she writes a book about an incident that happened in her teenage years, it’s an instant top seller but with it comes trouble as her school best friend remembers what happened very differently and is threatening to take legal action over it as she feels she is easily identifiable. You get to hear both sides of the story and it will split a lot of people, it was a shame for me as from the off I didn’t like Samantha so I probably never gave her a fair hearing, had the lead character been a bit more realistic I would have warmed to her.
This was a decent thriller it does touch on sensitive topics and it opened my eyes to what being a celebrity might look like and that it’s not as great as we think it is. The book reveals a lot of dark secrets and it was this that made it a really good read.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK Transworld Publishers for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

I chose to read this book because the premise sounded intriguing. Social media surrounds us; influencers can become niche superstars but who are they really? Is it all a façade?

Samantha Miller is one such influencer. She tells her adoring 3 million followers how to live their lives, unfortunately she appears to have lost sight of hers.

In the current climate of trial by social media, & various legal cases which have hit the headlines, this is a very timely read. The reinvention of oneself, & believing it, is scary especially as many people (youngsters in particular) believe every single carefully chosen word & filtered/posed photo. What is the truth?

Definitely a story for now. Recommended.

Sam is a social media star, riding high in popularity, who then struggles to cope when her carefully curated world crashes down around her.
The book takes a wry look at influencer culture, fame and the self-help industry, and examines toxic friendship and the pitfalls of telling “your truth”.
Its well written, and sharply observed but I just felt a bit ambivalent about it all - perfectly readable but perhaps not the perfect book for me!
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

This book would make a great beach read, it covers the frothy world of authors/influencers and is very topical, looking at whether someone's ''truth' actually is true and balances of power in relationships and friendships. Sam, the author, writes about a formative sexual experience with a former friend, only for that friend to accuse her of assault. Who is telling the truth?

I'm not sure if this was intentional, but Louise O'Neill creating a central character that was quite unlikeable made it very difficult to read this book. Samantha Miller is a sort of 'lifestyle guru' who has a legion of fans on social media. While I think O'Neill is making a commentary on the culture of online influencers and novice 'gurus', I did not find that the premise made it a compelling read. While the underlying premise centers consent, I just did not find the main character made the novel an enjoyable experience.

An influencer with 3 million followers telling you how to live your life. At this point the only way is down. A compelling read following the delusion lives of people who can't differentiate between real life and their virtual world. Whilst it might frustrate you, you won't be able to put it down.

Samantha Miller has it all - millions look up to her; but when her would comes crashing down around her because of an essay she wrote about a sexual encounter in her teens she doesn’t know what to do or how to cope.

Idol is a poignant novel about how social media can both build and destroy a person and how difficult it is to rebuild the damage and trust one has built over years of using various social media platforms. In this age of technology we live in, nothing stays private.

From Instagram following being diminished in a heartbeat; unfathomed statements being posted on Reddit and bombardments from journalists about your private life.

What is the truth in this world we live in and how do we prove it when everything we see or read is ‘real’? Or is social media all a lie?

This amazing psychological thriller tells the story of an event that took place years ago between two old schoolfriends but they both see it differently. Sam, a successful author has a wonderful memory of a shared sexual encounter between two best friends but Lisa, left behind in their hometown and now married to Sam's ex boyfriend from school remembers a very different time of being forced into this encounter with no choice but to give in and surrender to her friend's strong personality and desire.
This is a fantastic book that is written so well. It opens up the dialogue about consent and abuse from both sides of the coin.I really enjoyed it. The author put other characters in the story with differing memories, involvement and opinions of their school life. I was in that world fully with my feet in the middle of all that was happening!!. A superb read!!. You'll really enjoy it too!!.
Many thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC book for an honest review.
#Netgalley, #randomhouse, #oneilllou.

Idol introduces us to influencer Samantha Miller. Samantha’s career is booming with millions of followers online, a bestselling new book and sell-out events. Emboldened by this success, she is determined to speak her truth, and writes an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager, with her female best friend. The essay goes viral. But then – years since they last spoke – her old friend gets in touch to say that she doesn’t remember it that way at all. In fact, her memory of that night is far darker.

First of all, this book is so readable. Compulsively so. Take this as your warning. Influencer culture is quite the ‘hot topic’ these days – is it good, is it bad, is it real, is it fake etc. And O’Neill’s portrayal of Miller feels real. I recognised her instantly. It was interesting while reading Idol to think about and explore our relationship with social media and how we view and judge public online personas. When things start to unravel for Miller, it serves as a reminder of the importance to question why we put so much merit into an online ‘personality’ like Samantha’s. It’s a reminder that we should continue to question and discuss the narratives and opinions “fed” to us via social media.

It also examines how we can reframe the past to suit our own narrative, and how we revisit past traumas. This was especially interesting to me but it felt a little undercooked. I would have loved to see O’Neill explore this in more detail, as I found it to be a really intriguing way to discuss such a topic. By not perhaps exploring it in greater detail, I was left wondering a little bit about what the author was trying to say.

Overall though, even though the book deals with some dark and tough subjects, I found it to be the most addictive of O’Neill’s books in terms of a reading experience and one that I imagine will accompany many people on their holidays this summer!

Idol by Louise O’Neill is published on Thursday, 12 May 2022, by Transworld Publishers Ltd. Thanks to them, NetGalley and the author for my advance copy. This is, as always, an honest review.

Idol by Louise O’Neill did not disappoint. Looking at the nature of celebrity, particularly of online influencers, I found it to be a totally compulsive read, which I’m actually still thinking about now, a few days since I finished it.

What I think the author does really well here is to have the reader questioning the truth of everything they read. With the same history retold so differently by different people, is someone lying? Or can the same incidents really have been recanted and remembered in totally different ways?

Samantha Miller has something of a God complex, proclaiming herself the leader and saviour of her “girls”. It is interesting to witness her addiction to fame and adoration, and her inevitable increasing desperation to reverse her reputation’s decline as the plot unfolds.

I think this would make for a brilliant book club selection as there is so much to discuss. With thanks to Bantam Press for gifting me a digital copy to review.

Enjoyed this novel based on a celebrity influencer and guru who’s built a huge wellness following, only to watch it go terribly wrong after an accusation. This was a very interesting spin on modern mores and values.

Wow, a powerful and beautifully written book!

Very interesting, very modern and culturally relevant in a world where social media celebrities and influencers dictate fashion and trends. A lot of difficult topics are covered, the atmosphere is dark and heavy, the characters are quite unlikable, but the book is compelling and a real page-turner nonetheless.

Who is telling the truth? Lisa or Sam? Are they both? Whose truth is the truer one? Very thought provoking, loved it, 5 full stars for me!