Unfortunately, after that strong opening, the middle portion of this book felt quite slow. I became impatient, waiting for the next impactful moment after the big bang first act.

I love how this was told in alternating pov's thats a go to for me in books as it adds a whole new aspect to the book. It had a very intruiging opening that made you want to know whats next, it had the right amount of gruesome and horror horror making it a perfect YA read.

I thought this book was amazing and it really had me hooked. The author's unique approach allowed the writing to be very captivating. I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a new read.

The first chapter was amazing and intense, but, unfortunately, the rest of the book wasn't that good. Influencer is a story told in alternating points of view. One of them is the baddie, which adds another perspective to a pretty dark and creepy story.

The biggest issue is it requires accepting some rather extreme ideas: that a teenager can make other teens turn against their friends to the point of trying to kill them in a matter of two weeks. While teenagers are complicated, this was too far-fetched. It's a good premise for a teen thriller, but hard to believe. Also, some descriptions of actions are very weird, such as the kiss in the first chapter.

Finally, the story feels very rushed towards the end. The action was ok, but it ends so suddenly and we only get a short epilogue briefly showing the lives of the characters months after the whole ordeal.

All in all, Influencer is an average teen thriller that starts really well, but doesn't live up to that first chapter.

This is quite a dark story, though it is YA - well written but not with any particularly likeable characters, it definitely falls into the horror side of the thriller genre. An enjoyable read nevertheless!

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the best possible way, this book reads like a Netflix halloween release, though its one I would hate to see ruined by an adaptation.

While some of the plot points are a little far-fetched, there is something enjoyable about the more OTT aspects of the story.

Having the 'influencer' as one of the dual POVs was a risky move as he really was an awful character but it worked.

The opening chapter was horribly detailed and left the reader uneasy, something which felt more adult than much of the rest of the book however, for the most part, it was a strong YA title.

There was something lacking in the last few chapters which could have brought home a 5 star rating but it just fell flat in some parts.

Thank you Netgalley, Adam Cesare and Hachette Children's Group | Hodder Children's Books for the eArc of Influencer.
Narrated by: Isabela Merced, Christopher Briney, Brittany Pressley. ( Audible Original uk )

This is my first read of Adam's Cesare and I'm ashamed to say that I still have the Clown in the Cornfield still to read! The Influencer is a YA psychological horror with a duel POV in first person. We follow both Crystal, who seems to feel out of place with her friends and Aaron, who is the new kid on the block and an Influencer.

This book starts off with a bang, a home invasion murder and it packs a punch. This immediately pulls you into the storyline, gory, scary and engaging. You don't stop engaging either, As we follow our 2 POV, you soon realise the direction and with the great character development, who they really are. I couldn't stop reading and has some great twists. The psychological aspects leave you wondering about cohesive control and with social media aspect, it's very relevant. Definitely an American Psycho/ YOU feel narrative which has been modernised

Even though it is a YA, I suggest reading the triggers as I wouldn't recommend reading for sensitive readers.

4.5 stars on Storygraph, 4 stars for Amazon, Netgalley and Goodreads

I haven’t read any of Adam Cesare’s work previously, I know, I know, I’ve been told multiple times that I’m missing out! I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be picking up his previous works and not just his most prolific ones. The Influencer is a YA coming of age story, very culty in its roots and action packed.

I love a good cult read, and The Influencer reminded me a lot of Manson and his followers. Initially Aaron gets his followers to do all his dirty work but eventually he has to get his hands dirty when things don’t go according to plan. It made me really question why the internet has turned into this dirty thing. How can some people just blindly follow influencers and believe everything they say? Why do they trust someone so implicitly without knowing them? The phrase “not knowing what goes on behind closed doors” springs to mind.

The writing is fluid and so easy to follow. The story seeped through my eyes and into my brain as easy as drinking a cold can of coke. The differing points of view helped get a broader sense of what was happening. The author really encaptured what its like to be a teenager in this modern world.

Paul and Harmony annoyed the hell out of me. Like how can you go from being a regular teenager, with regular problems to doing the work of a complete nut job. I felt sorry for Paul, he really did get swept away with the excitement. Harmony was just an all out bitch who deserved everything she got.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me which is a shame because I was really looking forward to it. Thank you to NetGalley and hachette uk for giving me the opportunity to read this as an arc

Adam Cesare's book's always have me hooked and feeling creeped out, which as a horror fan is a perfect combination for me. The mixture of social media elements and darkness was such a great mix, it was a bit different than what I first thought but I still found myself glued to this book.

I have had Clowns in the Cornfield on my TBR for a while now so haven’t actually read anything by Adam Cesare until now, but boy did this start with a bang! The opening scene of this book can be described as nothing less than one of the best beginnings in a book I have ever read.

Once the opening is done the story switches to the POVs of two different characters in the story, one being the sociopathic titular influencer and the second being one of his 'prey'. Here the story slows down considerably from the opening, where it turns into a more psychological attack. The main character of Aaron was fantastically written, he gave off some very “American Psycho” vibes, his inner thought process fascinating all the way to the end. As he manipulates a friend group and his followers into doing things that go beyond the norm for an influencer.

I will add that this book is not for the feint of heart, parts of it get quite gory, but it is a book that has sat with me and I have thought about daily since I listened to the audio.

Thank you Netgallery for the Arc copy.

I loved Influencer by Adam Cesare!
To be honest, it wasn't the biggest surprise as I'm a big fan of the author having read the Clown in a Cornfield series (which is amazing and I highly recommend it!).
This one was just as good, and I can definitely see the author becoming a favourite horror author!

I enjoyed reading about the characters, and the plot was a lot of fun, though the pacing was a little slow at times, but it always picked up, and it never bored me.
The writing was just as great as always, and Influencer is definitely a book I highly recommend!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a review.

This started with one hell of a bang! I really enjoyed the serial killer references all throughout, and Aaron came across as a very Patrick Bateman (American psycho) character.

I personally found this book too slow to get into, I don’t know if it gets better as the book goes on but I had to DNF this book at 30%

This was a chilling, American Psycho esque peek into the mind of a modern day psychopath. It was such an interesting take on the genre with the power of influencing behind it. Cesare just consistently delivers excellent YA horror that makes your spine tingle.

Thanks to netgalley for this ARC due to be published on 26/09/2024.

Wasn't sure what to expect as I thought it'd be mostly focused on social media. However, it's a lot more complicated than that and a fun read.

Really enjoyed the split between the main characters from one chapter to the next. It kept a good even pace without giving too much away even though Aaron's character was very clear that he had sinister intentions!!

While I enjoyed the premise of this book, I found it quite slow and dragged out until the end and I didn’t really feel connected with the characters - in some parts they didn’t even feel like friends.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 star rating)

For transparency, I read this view as an ARC reader through NetGalley the book is due to be released October 2024

This is a book told through two alternating view points, one an average, timid girl, the other a rich kid who is literally psycho.

Overall I really liked the plot of this book, it is an extremely interesting concept. And one I personally haven’t seen done before.

However, at times the execution and writing felt a little… obvious. For me personally it did not feel like there was any “edge of my seat” tension because I could guess what was coming chapters in advance, and the ending was a bit meh.

I also didn’t feel like I was super emotionally connected to any of the characters, they all felt very two dimensional and there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of character development (on a deeper level) for any of them until the last chapter by which time, what is the point?

Another point to consider is that the book was very “tell tell tell” what was going on and what the characters thought and did, rather than showing us their personalities through the actions they took and letting us make our own assumptions and opinions about the thought process the characters were going through. This book might have been better written in third person rather than through the first person POVs of the “baddie” and the “goodie”.

I would be interested to read more by this author at some point in the future.

A YA Psychological thriller set around a teenager using manipulation, conditioning and other techniques used by famous cult leaders, such as Charles Manson, to convince others to join him in murdrer.

This book started off great! Like jumping into a horror film. And then it trails off and focuses more on the school and befriending aspect of the story. There's a lot of this before it gets into the nitty gritty parts, but the only thing was there wasn't much of an explanation as to WHY the main character is doing all of this....should have been a little more of an elaboration on this.

After striking it big with the wildly entertaining Clown in a Cornfield (2020-24) trilogy Adam Cesare continues with YA in Influencer. Although this book has its moments rarely have I come across a book which has such gullible characters, who follow an ‘influencer’ who shows little or no charisma. Horror novels, which lean heavily on thriller elements, need to be framed around a certain level of reality, which is totally absent in Influencer. To put it into context, I found Clown in a Cornfield more reliable than this! The story has a split first person narrative Aaron (the influencer) who is new to the school where the action is principally set, and Crystal, an introvert who struggles to make her voice heard in a tight group of friends. The novel concerns how the arrival of Aaron changes the dynamics of the friendship group, which was believable enough, as was how he instigates Crystal being cut-off and shunned from the group via a horrible episode of cyber-bullying.

It was easy to route for Crystal, as Aaron was so deeply unpleasant and is obsessed with the number of followers he has via an anonymous Instagram account, he is known as ‘The Speaker’, where he reads (rubbish) poetry and spouts philosophy to his followers. However, very early in the story the very observant Crystal outs him as The Speaker which causes his to change his plan for the group. Aaron also has a very dark background which is connected to his true intentions with what he wants to do with his ‘Speaker’ platform, whilst Crystal watches from a distance. If you can forgive how stupid these characters were then this is a very readable thriller and does not dwell on a patronising ‘social media is bad’ message. Influencer was originally released as an Audible Original and for a YA novel is violent, bleak and is aimed at older teens. AGE RANGE 14+