This is a clever and thought provoking novel about the dangers of social media. Melanie is a social media star and shares everything about her life and her children's lives and she meets Clara, a police officer who values her privacy, when one of Melanie's children is abducted.
This writing is skilful and engaging and the novel will change how you think about the online world.
Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book is very different from the books I read. Reading it I had a feeling that the story was not a fictional-all people and events were described in documentary manner-facts, facts, facts. It gave me better understanding about lives of influencers and generally about social media, what I have never before was interested in.

This is an insightful novel that offers a refreshing perspective on childhood and social media.

The main two character Clara and Melanie could not be any different, Melanie a social media influencer and Clara a police officer. They meet when Clara is heading the investigation into Melanie’s missing daughter Kimmy, who’s been abducted.

It’s a seriously great read and one that now makes me think twice when I’m about to upload something on my social media pages!!

A shrewd examination of contemporary influencer culture. Gripping but not unnecessarily violent or vulgar, loved it.

A very timely and slightly petrifying book when thinking about what will come next with so many children being exploited for likes and subscribers online. I thoroughly enjoyed the pace of the novel with the contrast between the police reports and character accounts. I thought that the before, current and after effects of social media and reality tv really added to the tension and helplessness of what may come next...
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

I was interested in this book after a few news I've been reading these days and I'm glad I did.

This is an insteresting book, very relevant and important to reflect on the use of kids online.

Mélanie has become a social media sensation, sharing her family’s life on YouTube, while Clara works as a young police officer tasked with investigating the abduction of Mélanie’s daughter Kimmy. Delving into various eras, from Big Brother to the influencer generation, and extending into the 2030s, Delphine de Vigan provides a chilling portrayal of a world where even family happiness is broadcasted and commercialised.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Part thriller, part social commentary, this book is a stark warning about the dangers of social media, both for those who live their lives through it and for those who become obsessed by it.

I was enthralled by this story, I was invested in the mystery of the abduction and at the same time both captivated and terrified by the critique of the world of influencers. ‘Family influencers’ are a familiar feature on sites such as YouTube and whilst I was aware of their existence and some of the concerns regarding how they operate, this book really opened my eyes.

One aspect which the author addresses is the total lack and effect of laws governing the business of social media. Social media and it’s influencers develop and change their practices much quicker than the laws which are created to protect those who are exploited by it. This presents an image of a lawless community who take advantage of the vulnerable, often their own children, for their own personal gain and gratification.

There are no lessons learned and happy ever afters with this cautionary tale. The last part of the book moves to the near future and we see the disturbing long term effects of Melanie’s choice to broadcast her life on the internet.

This is a sharp, timely and brutal tale about the world in which we live in today.I thought it was brilliant and would definitely recommend it.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my free digital ARC!

3.5 stars

This is my second book by de Vigan and I liked this one more than Loyalties I think! I was expecting a little more from the thriller/mystery side of things, and was surprised that this was wrapped up fairly quickly by the middle of the book. The story then jumps ahead and switches perspectives to the characters who are children at the beginning of the book.

The main thrust of the book is the truly disturbing nature of parent-child content on the internet. I have nieces who are obsessed with this sort of kids content on Youtube, and I do find it a bit odd. A few they watch are dubbed (badly) from other languages, which is a little disconcerting in itself, but mostly these kids just seem like badly scripted actors. When you think about the parent behind the camera who is (usually) making the kids make these videos and profiting from it... Yikes.

This is the murky world de Vigan delves into, and she does a great job of highlighting how quickly and violently the promise of internet fame and fortune can change a person. Scruples are thrown out the window and everything has the potential to become profitable content. de Vigan does a good job showing the mental toll this can take on the children involved.

Mélanie, the mother who runs the Youtube channel, is one of the most antagonising characters you could hope to meet. I'd like to think de Vigan is exaggerating for effect here, but sadly there likely are mothers and fathers like this in the world, completely sucked into the world of validation and likes, becoming nothing but a performance for their audience.

I wasn't fully convinced of the need for the POV from Clara, a police officer who becomes a little obsessed with the case which makes up the first half of the novel. It could have been a tighter story had this been cut and the focus was more on Mélanie and the two kids.

Overall, a compulsive and frightening read about the grim reality of kid influencers.

Not precisely what I was expecting from the synopsis but still a valiant effort. I wish it had been about one hundred pages shorter, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

If social media and the world of oversharing that we live in ever gives you pause for thought, this novel from award-winning French author Delphine de Vigan will make you want to delete all social media and maybe even bin your smartphone,

Melanie and Clara couldn't be more different; Melanie lives her life online, sharing her family's life in minute detail on social media. Clara is a police officer who guards her privacy fiercely. The women meet for the first time when Melanie's daughter Kimmy, a YouTube child star, goes missing, presumed kidnapped. Clara is one of the officers assigned to investigate the case and it is her job to trawl through endless hours of mind-numbing footage of Kimmy and her brother Sam for clues as to Kimmy's disappearance.

The book switches around 2/3rds of the way through to the future - the year is 2031 and the YouTube child stars of today have come of age and are only beginning to unpick the deep psychological damage inflicted upon them as a result of having been exploited as children.

Part-thriller, part-social commentary, Kids Run The Show is an incisive look at social media and the damage caused by parents exposing their children to a life online and failing to afford them any kind of privacy from the early days of their childhood. It's one that should be read by all ages - young adults and their parents alike - and it should provoke conversation around what we as a society aspire to be and how the internet is breaking us in so many ways. 4/5 stars

This was my first encounter with the popular French author Delphine de Vigan and I am afraid it was disappointing, mainly because the novel lacked depth. The plot is thriller-like (there is a kidnapping related to a popular YouTube channel with children), but at the same time the book also wants to comment on the issue of child stars in the age of social media and influencers. This is a potentially interesting topic, but De Vigan just skims the surface and never goes beyond repeating banalities of unhealthy child exposure by parents.

There is a section around two-thirds in where it risked getting interesting, with a flash forward into the 2030s – I thought an opportunity to address the fall-out, the psychological damage, the impact of legislation, the technological advances – but…no…

I heard good things about De Vigan’s previous work, so I hope this is an outlier.

Kids Run The Show by Delphine de Vigan.
Translated by Alison Anderson.

I have read several cautionary novels about social media over the last couple of years and this one is the most affecting and thought provoking. A sharp, intelligent , well researched read from award winning French author, Delphine de Vigan, Kids Run the Show main characters are two women roughly the same age , exposed to the same media when growing up and who are leading vastly different lives.

Melanie is a social media star, she broadcasts her children's life on YouTube, they open gifted products, participate in "fun" games that Melanie creates, take part in meet and greets with their fans, eat, sing, dance and live all under the constant gaze of Melanie's camera.
Clara is a police officer , hard working and living a rather solitude life. These two very different women meet when Melanie's daughter is abducted and Clara is one of the officers assigned to the case.

The book examines the age we live in , where everything is broadcasted. From the early days of reality tv, to the rise of social media to influencers, to children on YouTube, to the monetization of children and family life. The book is set over several decades, jumping right up to ten years from now when the children who are currently making their families wealthy from unboxing toys online and recording themselves gaming are adults.

This is an excellent read. I liked the clear and stark writing style and enjoyed how these characters were developed. It's a clever, hard to look away from compelling read. Recommend.

This story describes how two women's paths cross unexpectedly when 6-year-old Kimmy goes missing. Melanie is a social media superstar who has made a career out of featuring her children on her social media accounts more or less since they were born.

She started with eldest son, and her popularity has gone from strength to strength with the appearance of each new child. So while Kimmy may only be six, she has been exposed - in every sense of the word - to a degree that people many years her senior cannot even imagine.

Clara is the same age as Melanie, but her life could not be more different. She is the police officer leading the search for Kimmy, and she is far more interested in the real world then she is in social media.

This book is a devastating critique of the often superficial values and ruthless monetization of everything under the sun in what has become an endless appetite for financial gain, fame and followers that dominates the social media landscape today.

The damage done to the generation that has grown up seeing private lives cannibalised for public enjoyment is likely to be incalculable, and its repercussions continue in the form of intergenerational harm as young children, who are given no choice in the matter, become yet another object for consumption.

De Vigan makes the latter point very effectively. A parent's power over a young child is near-absolute, and the children may often have little choice in the matter. While the messages in the book can at times feel a little repetitive, their veracity is unquestionable. This is an insightful look at what our global social media obsession is doing to our mental health and our moral principles - not to mention our kids!

Shortly after Mélanie has her first child, she’s on Facebook posting about her son, thrilled by comments and likes. By the time her second child is old enough to charm audiences, Mélanie sets up a YouTube channel which garners a huge audience together with a constant stream of freebies from brands eager for endorsement. When six-year-old Kimmy disappears, Mélanie is faced with the consequences of her exposure of her children’s lives to an audience whose craving for more equals her own for their approbation. Years later, the damage done to these two children who will never know privacy is made clear, but Kimmy decides to take her revenge.

The narrative switches between Mélanie and Clara, a police officer involved in Kimmy’s case. Each is very different from the other: Mélanie’s constant need for validation from her virtual audience contrasts with Clara, rooted in the real world by her parents’ determination to instil her with their liberal values. De Vigan explores the exploitative nature of family channels, both in terms of the children portrayed, permanently robbed of their privacy, and of the child audience subjected to endless product placement and endorsement. It’s a novel that gave me a great deal to think about, but I felt it was a little laboured, the same points made many times over. Mixed feelings, then, but largely positive and certainly a novel with important things to say about privacy and consumption.

Book review 📚
Kids Run The Show by Delphine De Vigan - 4.5/5 ⭐

What a disturbing and mind blowing read. Once I had finished I had to take a few to just digest everything I had just read. I cannot even begin to put this into the right words.

Firstly, Delphine is an absolutely phenomenal writer. This book came across so accurately that you could almost call it an autobiography of relevant influencers. She absolutely blew my mind with this book and there is no rating high enough to give her in her skill!

Secondly, as a mother AND an educator to children, this book is so scarily accurate it's unreal. Parents gaining from their children by plastering them all over social media?! And trust me, my kids have watch enough of a certain child on YouTube for me to now see that child in a totally different light. I'm flabbergasted at how insightful Delphine made this book in a FICTIONAL way when it's actually happening.

Thirdly, this is a must read book! Whether you have children or not. It really does open your eyes to certain aspects of social media and the way financial profit is made. I will be thinking about this book for years to come. Truly, utterly and emotionally mind blown.

Thank you to NetGalley and Europa Editions for allowing me to read this ARC - this is an HONEST review from my own personal opinion.

This was an insightful and interesting book with plenty of commentary on social media and current society. I enjoyed the characters, and how well written they were. While the last half of the book fell flat for me, I still enjoyed reading, and think this book provides important conversations on media consumption and the future of society.

Immersive, whip-smart and confronting, this book tells the story of a generation of child ‘influencers’, who are forced into the role by their parents at a very young age, and the impact it has on their lives.

I was incredibly impressed by how cleverly this book was written and how well-shaped all of the narrative voices are. I completely lost myself in this world, and the scary thing is although it is currently far-fetched and fictional, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that we will be living in a similar world in twenty years’ time.

Very interesting read. Extremely relevant and so realistic. Scary to think how parents can use their kids for financial gain and not be regulated for it. A very eye opening book that everyone should read.