Olivia Worley’s “People to Follow”

You guys, I knew I was going to love People to Follow, by Olivia Worley. I love reality TV novels, I love stories of social media performance, I love influencers in fiction. Also, I love locked-door mysteries in which everyone gets cut off from civilization. So good.

Welcome to “In Real Life,” the hot new reality show that forces social media’s reigning kings and queens to unplug for three weeks and “go live” without any filters. IRL is supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, watched closely by legions of loyal followers. But for these rising stars–including Elody, an Instagram model with an impulsive streak; Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Logan, a disgraced TikTok celeb with a secret; and Max, a YouTuber famous for exposés on his fellow creators–it’s about to turn into a nightmare.

It was a little hard to keep track of all 10 influencers at the beginning of People to Follow, especially the crowd of famous-for-being-famous types. I think that’s intentional, because it starts the novel in an island party house full of interchangeable attractive, entitled people. Once the story gets moving, the infighting and secrets help develop the characters.

As the story goes on, the mysterious Sponsor of their free influencer getaway asks them for secrets and promises to cancel anyone who lies. The worst secret, or refusing to participate, gets someone voted off the island for a dark reality show feel.  Oh, I forgot to mention that everyone’s left their phones behind for a social media detox (to be filmed and shown on TV, love it), and that a terrible storm has prevented the crew from arriving on the island, cutting the influencers off completely. My favorite.  As bodies and dark secrets mount up, it becomes clear that the deaths are not tragic accidents and the guest list isn’t random.

So, there are definitely some parallels with Agatha Christie‘s And Then There Were None. All the baddies have been tricked onto an island, where their dark secrets come out and the body count keeps rising. It seems impossible for anyone to be doing all these murders, since there’s no one else around. Such a great premise. The weak part in And Then There Were None is how much of it feels too contrived for me.

In People to Follow, we have a similar feeling with 10 people on an isolated island, facing murderous revenge for their past actions. Mostly I loved it, with all the elements of twisty drama, what’s not to love? But, again, the weak parts for me were moments that felt contrived and forced. I absolutely bought the overall story of influencers going on a trip, leaving their phones, bumping into their enemies, and discovering it was all messed-up Revenge Island. But there were still a few moments that felt like too much coincidence and too contrived (spin the bottle? right now?), and some uneven moments. (We have a collection of backstabbers, liars, scammers, and literal murderers on the island, and then one influencer whose “crime” is basically not personally dismantling weight loss and diet culture?)

Still, even with a few heavy coincidences, a murderwall of interlocking secrets makes for tense reading and so many possible motives and suspects.