Lots happening around here lately. A couple of extra blog posts last night, with the new release of Henry, Breaking the Pattern and also my New Year Post. If you’re looking for some new reading material, this is a great time of year to find it! Click through to the Release of Henry or my New Year Blog posts.
And be sure to come back this weekend for a special deal!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I’ve picked up a few interesting books lately, but this one is the first one in a little while that is really remarkable. It will, hopefully, do very well and I will be looking for other books by this author.
People Like Her, by Ellery Lloyd (a pseudonym for a husband and wife team, actually) is about an “Instamum”, a mother who has built an Instagram following of thousands and who plays for the camera in order to get followers, sponsorship deals, clicks, and the opportunity to appear on TV. She supports her family with her insta-success, but has found that she needs to be somewhat less than honest in her postings to keep her followers happy and attract new ones.
And unfortunately, not everyone who sees her success is happy with it. The disturbing incidents are escalating as Emmy’s stalker gets close to the family and closer to violence.
Great insights into the world of social media influencers, the lengths people will go to for success, and how quickly it can all come tumbling down.
Ellery Lloyd writes convincingly from both Emmy’s and her husband’s perspective, which makes perfect sense with it being written by a husband and wife team.
Sorry, the Sisterhood, but when it comes to online life, mothers just don’t respond well to other mothers’ success – if comparison is the thief of joy, Instagram is the cat burglar of contentment.
― Ellery Lloyd, People Like Her
Followed by Millions, Watched by One
To her adoring fans, Emmy Jackson, aka @the_mamabare, is the honest “Instamum” who always tells it like it is.
To her skeptical husband, a washed-up novelist who knows just how creative Emmy can be with the truth, she is a breadwinning powerhouse chillingly brilliant at monetizing the intimate details of their family life.
To one of Emmy’s dangerously obsessive followers, she’s the woman that has everything—but deserves none of it.
As Emmy’s marriage begins to crack under the strain of her growing success and her moral compass veers wildly off course, the more vulnerable she becomes to a very real danger circling ever closer to her family.
In this deeply addictive tale of psychological suspense, Ellery Lloyd raises important questions about technology, social media celebrity, and the way we live today. Probing the dark side of influencer culture and the perils of parenting online, People Like Her explores our desperate need to be seen and the lengths we’ll go to be liked by strangers. It asks what—and who—we sacrifice when make our private lives public, and ultimately lose control of who we let in. . . .
