This book...was not for me.
The characters all melded into one, none of them had particularly distinctive personalities, none of them were particularly likeable.
Also, it is very unfinished. a lot of spelling errors and continuity errors. I appreciate this is an advanced copy but I would generally expect works on netgalley to be ready for publishing.

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of Influencer Island by Kyle Rutkin through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.

Influencer Island by Kyle Rutkin is an adult mystery thriller told in podcast format.  It is about a podcaster who investigates an event hosted by a mysterious artist on a private island.  It is also about a woman who goes to that island to compete in that event and her search to find out what happened to her brother.  It was published on July 30th, 2022.  I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads.


Here's the summary from Goodreads:

FYRE FESTIVAL meets HUNGER GAMES in this dark psychological thriller about a social media competition that turns deadly.
Welcome to Influencer Island, an experience for ten competitors to travel to paradise and compete for social media glory. Overnight, millions of users send off their submission videos, hoping for the chance to party with the biggest influencers and celebrities in the world.
Or so they thought…
By the time the contest went offline, over a dozen influencers were declared dead or missing. No winner was announced. The only hope for a conclusion lay in an unaired podcast produced by Cal Everett, a young reporter with his own mysterious connection to the murderous contest creator, Wyatt James.
As listeners will soon discover, James designed Influencer Island to be more than a battle of social media wits. If the contestants hope to survive, they will have to answer the question at the very heart of the competition: How far would you be willing to go for fame?
PLEASE NOTE:
Influencer Island is a dark, fast-paced psychological thriller. The format is unconventional -- Similar to a podcast transcript, and comparable to titles like World War Z, Sadie, or Daisy Jones & The Six. Due to the graphic nature of the novel, 18+ are recommended.

I really enjoyed the format of this story.  I like novels that are written as an oral transcript because it gives a different vibe to a regular novel and it feels faster pace than a regular novel.  It also makes it feel more real in a way because you feel like you're listening to a podcast.  This did that format quite well.  It was easy to imagine it as a podcast, especially with how it was structured.  It would hint towards certain information and then transition to a different part of the story.  It kept your interest and felt dramatic.

I enjoyed the story in general.  It was a little fantastical, but it was still gripping like you couldn't look away from it.  I wanted to know what was going to happen next, and I kept trying to guess but never really got it right.  That's what made it so engaging, because it really did keep me guessing.  There. were a couple of moments where I got confused about details and felt that the book was contradicting itself, however, I was able to move past that because I might have just misread something.

I liked the characters.  They had interesting personalities, and complex backstories.  The main podcast host was. clearly determined and ambitious when it came to his mission.  The woman going to the island was interesting as well.  I was curious about what happened to her brother and how her brother was connected to all the other people going to the island.

It was fast paced and an intriguing premise.  If you're at all interested in the premise, I suggest that you check out this book.

Influencer Island is a wild ride for sure, it's twisty and dark. I liked the mystery of trying to find out why the characters were called to the island, and some of the horrific imagery the author conjured up won't be leaving my head any time soon. The unique format that the author used to tell the story was overall well done, but there were some points that I felt like I was getting whiplash from the changing perspectives and plot lines. I will say the ending was really gripping, and I really enjoyed the overall theme and tone of the book. It's a really fun yet horrific piece of work.

* sorry it’s taken so long to review *

i enjoyed this more then I thought. The format was a little difficult but eventually I adjusted. The story was really good and often reminded me of another book that had a similar idea. I love the mystery and the island! Great concept well executed

Influencer Island is all about the masks people wear behind a phone or computer screen. It follows the belief that nothing is as it seems behind closed doors. The contestants of Influencer Island are all well known influencers who want to continue building their fame by competing on a remote island for and becoming reformed.

The main characters of this story, Cal and Carrie, share a similar reason behind going to the island. They both have questions about what happened to important people in their lives. While you meet many other characters, Cal and Carrie are the main focus. It was obvious from the start and the many pauses within their story, what they lost drove them to find the truth.

That's what Influencer Island is all about: finding the truth. I particularly didn't care for all of the pauses in the story and while there were gruesome things and scenes that happened, I couldn't get on board with how the scenes developed. They felt unfinished and I wanted more from them. I also felt that the overall reveal at the end was lack luster because it felt random.

The overall originality and delivery of this book were unique and something that I found myself enjoying along the way. It was just the execution that didn't do it for me.

This book was just fine. I liked It as a YA mystery and it had a really cool concept so I will give it props for that! Overall I’ve read better books but that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with this one

I requested this book primarily after being drawn to the title. Thank you for approving my request as I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Told through multiple narrators being interviewed after the events on the island, the truth slowly unfolds as to what has actually happened. Really different, fresh and relevant - I loved it.

Fyre Festival meets Hunger Games, and with a Podcast element? Sign me up. Sounds like my perfect over-the-top thriller.

I was so excited to be chilled by this one, but unfortunately, I just found it too underdeveloped and ... annoying. I honestly can't think of a better word to describe the experience of reading this book other than that it was a genuinely annoying experience. The characters, the plot, and everything about this book had me annoyed. ,

I couldn’t get into this one. I don’t know if it was the way it was written or the story I feel like I spent so much time with the back story of the characters and not enough time getting the story from the island.

I just could not get into the style of this book. It read like reading a documentary and I just couldn’t get into it. Sorry I don’t have a better review, but I couldn’t even read very much because of the writing style.

Influencer Island is a novel which asks but one question, “What would you do for fame and followers?”. From the word go you are thrown into a story of murder, mystery and mayhem, all for the number of followers at the top of your screen.

This novel follows a group of influencers who are sent by the mysterious artist Wyatt James to a remote island where they must compete for money, fame and followers. However, their time on the island takes a deadly turn and our influencers are suddenly no longer fighting to keep their follower count, but their lives.

Influencer Island is set in a question and answer format, with each of the characters showing their unique voice and style throughout. I was very impressed by Kyle Rutkin’s ability to showcase each of the characters in this way whilst giving them their own personalities and characteristics. However, I did feel that the general characteristics of the ‘background’ influencers was very generic with narcissistic qualities which isn’t what all influencers in the real world are like. However, for the money and power hungry characters featured in this book, we can for the moment, let this slide.

Personally, I found this book was very similar to FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven, with a lot less violence and horror. Influencer Island was more of a mystery with a smidge of gore thrown in for shock factor. For me, I would have liked a lot more action on the island in terms of character relationships, trials etc…however, what you get is more of why are we here kind of mystery.

I would recommend this book if you are a fan of thrillers and mysteries set in the current time era we are currently living in. This book takes on the world of TikTok and Instagram and makes it the characters nightmare instead.

Small side note, I am obsessed with the cover art of this novel and Kyle Rutkin’s other novel, She Died Famous. The consistency of cover art lets us as an audience know that this is a Kyle Rutkin novel!

I actually enjoyed the style of this as a podcast, although I did find a few of the interviewees a little difficult to distinguish and the influencers / contestants. My major is issue is the ending and plot just made no sense and it all descended into farce.

Great cover!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the free ARC copy.

The writing style of this book is horrible. I made it through about 10% before I decided it wasn’t going to happen for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book.

Finishing this book was a real struggle for me. I was bored for the whole story and really struggled to stay focused on what was happening. There was nothing about any of the characters that stood out to me or made me want to read more about them. I just didn't care about the characters, the outcome of the story or how it even got to the end.

Thank you NetGalley and Greater Path LLC for providing me with an eARC of this book in return for my honest review.
Influencer island's format is unconventional and set out as a script of a podcast, it's an original concept that I really enjoyed! It's definitely a fyre festival x Hunger Games, I did get a laugh at the some of the influencers names that where obviously based off real life influencers. I really enjoyed this book, but I wish the author had gone into more detail of the "Hunger Games"/challenges element of the book. I believe this book has a really interesting take on influencer culture as well. I couldn't really get into the love story between Cal and Carrie, I don't know that it was completely necessary...

**I received this as an ARC for free from Net Galley.**

This book ticked off a lot of boxes for me. I love reality tv, Hunger Games, podcasts, and the disaster that was Fyre Festival. All of that was rolled into one neat package in the form of this book. This is a perfect summer read, as it is quick and easy and doesn't take itself too seriously. The one issue I had was that the ending kind of went off the rails. I'm all for the I didn't see this coming type of ending, but this took a turn into, does this ending even make sense anymore? All in all, I would recommend as a beach read.

Overall a 3 star rating. What to rate this story was difficult. I wenr back and forth from a 2 to a 3; settling on a 3. For a most part, I was enjoying this book. Unfortunately, the further along I read,the more I started to dislike. The author had a great synopsis. Isolated stories are my favorite and couple with what happened with Fyre Fest, I was excited to see it played out.

I understood what the author was trying to do/say. What he had to say about social media and how society behave was on point. Unfortunately, he just couldn't tie it all together. Which was disappointing. I read the prequel and enjoyed it very much and was excited to see how the story continued. It started off strong, but when the ending came, it was anticlimactic.

#NETGALLEY #influencerisland

•Shoutout to the author and publisher for giving me a free eARC copy through NetGalley (my very first one at that!) Here are all of my own opinions.

•What initially drew me to this book was the creepy cover and the description of it being a thriller heavily involving social media. The format is unconventional, like you are listening to a podcast. If you read the AGGGTM series, it’s kind of like that, except the entire book is set up that way. I loved that! I imagined myself hearing and listening to it as a podcast the entire time I was reading and it worked well for me.

•The story itself, my gosh! I loathe the word “influencer” 🤮 but basically this famous, mysterious, world-known artist who nobody knows the true identity of, invites all of these really well-known social media influencers to a beautiful remote island where they have the opportunity to partake in a “competition” that will help them gain even more likes and follows. So cringey to me, but it kind of resembles Hunger Games just way more gruesome, dark, and horrific.

•The pace is FAST and had me hooked from the start. Because it is quick, we don’t get a lot of depth from many of the side characters, there’s just not enough time and pages. There were times I would have to go back and try to remember who was who but overall I think this story wouldn’t have worked had it been slower paced.

•Overall, I did enjoy reading this and I though it was a super interesting take as, we all know, social media really has a good on so many of us now a days (whether you want to admit it or not). I think it’s important to remember that it’s okay to be on and use social media but to maintain a healthy balance with it along with real life because what truly matters is in well, real life.

I loved this book. I loved everything about it, I feel like this book was fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Just a wonderful read!

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. I was only able to read about 30% before I lost interest. I know the author was very clear about the format that this book was written in and that was not a problem with me. I just did not connect with the story and I found that it took too long to get into it. I'm sure its a great read for the right audience.