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.

I thought this book really delivered on the fear level and it was an interesting look at the media and how influencers are portrayed. i thought the story was interesting enough and the plot was engaging i wouldn't say i loved it but i did find myself interested enough and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free ARC copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
As much as this book does have it flaws I do recommend it. I had been in a bit of a reading slump before reading this and it was the perfect book to snap me out of it. The twists the plot takes keeps the story fresh and moving but it is also a books that is a reasonably fast read. It's other big selling point for me was that it perfectly captures the felling of horror I have when listing to a true crime podcast or TikTok at night.
I do wish that some of the characters where fleshed out more, lots of the concepts are fascinating and I would have wanted more about almost everything. The book could have been twice as long with all the parts that could have been fleshed out more. That's not to say that it is a bad book, it just left me felling like lots of interesting stories and plot got pasted up.
SPOILERS. All of the contestants are reveled to have been connected to the main character's brother's disappearance and death. unfortunately most of them die before we learn this and then we never find out how they are connected or knew him. Much of the Hunger games aspect felt rushed. In all honestly looking back it feels more like a saw trap disguised as the hunger games. END OF SPOILERS
This all is not to discourage reading this book I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was fun trying to find the clues about whats going on along the way.
One of my favorite things about NetGalley is how I'm able to read thing I would not pick up normally. This book is one of those books and for its flaws I am glad I got the chance to read it.

I struggled to get into the narrative of this book due to the unconventional interview format that was used. I also found it overly violent. Just not my cup of tea. I read a lot of thrillers and am not overly squeamish but I did not make it through this one. I did find the concept of people willingly participating in this type of grand experiment/art installation interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want to read a book structured like the transcript of a Netflix documentary? Do you like pop culture conspiracies? Do you value entertainment and a book’s ability to keep you turning pages over realism? Can you suspend disbelief for the course of an entire book?

Pre-reading:
I think this is going to be a garbage fire of a book, but hopefully, it's one of those so bad it's funny books.

Thick of it:
Okay, so podcast man is the murderer? (No.)

Also, tell me you only want to write dialogue without telling me you only want to write dialogue. Fully teasing, love the format. Good book dialogue is my favorite.

How have NFTs become this much of a thing? They’re so beyond stupid to me.

Could do without the Star Wars Adam Driver fanboy shit, but that’s my own bias.

Is glitch meant to be twitch? (It must be Instagram)

So a clean girl and a TikTok emo, got it.

Not a chad.

Should be “their lives” shouldn’t it? I know it’s an early copy, but hope this guy has someone to make these edits for him.

Bella Hadid. Chrissy Teigen. The names aren’t subtle lol, but it’s fun.

Okay, who doesn’t know the Cheshire Cat? That’s unbelievable.

I really like the organization of this book. Def reads like a Netflix doc.

Wait who the fuck is tony? The guy who helps Cal find the business card. (I never find out)

Also, how does anyone have the time or money to do all this? I’ll suspend disbelief because it’s entertaining, but it’s a big, big ask.

Ditto on the ppl wearing ski masks in the tropics.

But how can you fly without air traffic control? Did they just ground all other flights?

Joss is sure able to get an awful, awful lot of info on this guy. (This means nothing)

I feel like this book’s greatest criticism is going to be that there’s no way that this would happen, like people wouldn’t go along with it. But if you’re willing to suspend that disbelief, then it’s very entertaining. And I think that’s mostly down to the structure of it. It’s aggressively compelling and page-turning because you just want to know more. It has good tension too because you’re discovering alongside the characters, and it doesn’t have that annoying thing when you’re waiting for characters to catch up to conclusions that the reader has already drawn, or to get info that the reader already has.

Some of the POV switches are a little hard to identify, and you’ll be reading along like this makes no sense, and it’s because they’ve switched without any obvious tell. Obviously works better in film because you see something else, but it’s tricky to do in a book when it’s that rapid fire.

Idk how you trap great whites in the tropics. Do they even live there?

I’m still very much on my bullshit of Cal and Wyatt being the same person because they’ve only ever encountered each other alone or while he’s on drugs. (Amounts to nothing lol)

That’s a really dumb way to win. I don’t buy that she wouldn’t just shoot her anyway.

I’m annoyed that we don’t get to know how all the other contestants were related to her brother.

Mean girls reference.

This is too far-fetched to function.

Post-reading:
What a weird book. Again, I went in expecting a garbage fire. It was not that. I quite happily read it. Is it good-no, but it wasn't so bad that it was funny either. Just a fun concept, but very unpolished. I was weirdly on board for the first half and willing to suspend disbelief, but it really unraveled in the end. I think the book’s formatting and organization are super interesting and largely well done. It definitely reads like a Netflix documentary. The characters aren’t developed enough. It’s very flat. Similarly, the contest ends up not making much sense. If you’re going to market it as a murder competition, have the competition take longer than a day and a chapter or two. The book never felt like it had stakes. The first half of it was excellent in building tension because there were so many questions, but then it became pretty obvious that you weren’t going to get answers, and the few answers you would get would make zero sense. Give me a heavy edit with more psychological horror and flesh everything out. Right now it reads like a failed first draft. (But I would still be willing to read the other books in the universe. I’ve had a glance at them on Goodreads and the covers are so aesthetic.)

Who should read this:
Campy thriller lovers
Readers who just want to be entertained and aren’t worried about plot holes or if a book is possible

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton-wacky POV murder competition
* The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager-murder artists
* Piranesi by Susanna Clarke-different book formatting, secret societies
* Crush in the Cascades by Lisa S. Gayle-Listen, I’m struggling for similar books, but also a reality show with romance

I requested this novel because the premise sounded SO INTERESTING!! Hunger Games mixed with the Fyre Festival?? SIGN ME UP! But overall, it was such a cringey book that I found myself praying for it to end. I would have given it a 1 star, but some of the dialogue was so funny that I gave it an extra star for the entertainment reasons. Everything was so unbelievable and hilariously dumb that I found myself laughing out loud at everything that happened and reading passages out loud to my friends to hear their reactions. However, I do recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun read, because I thought it was so outlandish that it was funny. But in terms of actually being a good book? Hmm... I would say no. I cared for none of the characters, and the plot just got more and more ridiculous and felt like a fever dream.