Reviews - Followers | The StoryGraph

1.18k reviews for:

Followers

Megan Angelo

3.62 AVERAGE

fionaian's review

3.0

dark mysterious medium-paced

A strong prediction about our not-too-distant future enthralled by reality TV and social media influencers. If this dystopia ever becomes reality, it will be a very dismal future. I have picked up on reality TV since the start of the pandemic, and I'm fascinated by the choices of everyday life people who prime their whole life to be in front of the camera for all to see. This book explores how two roommates from the mid-2010s diverge after trying to make it big in social media and the publishing world. It's extra mind boggling when one of the characters drags her daughter into being a reality TV show since she was born without giving her another choice. It makes me wonder about all the talk of how 10-20 years from now, children of social media influencers will tell their own story of growing up in front of the camera without their choice. They might resent their parents, or follow in their footsteps if that's all they know in life.

ahoeft09's review

3.0

My ultimate takeaway is that this ended up being a lot more intriguing than I thought it would be, but didn't really start jibing for me until 2/3 through the book. The story was definitely not what I expected, and both the blurb and title kinda threw me for a loop. I was looking for quite a bit more depth to both Orla's/Floss's celebrity life (the day-to-day, the feelings that came along with it) and Marlow's celebrity life, again day-to-day. I think that, paired with all the interiority, would've painted a clearer picture of what was going on and gotten me more invested in the individual characters earlier on. That said, I get why things were glossed over (Flossed over? heh) for the sake of pacing.

I also ended up inhaling the last 2 hours (audiobook!) in one go. The climax of the long-teased 'spill' was fascinating and I could've read an entire book about that event.

jslive's review

4.0

"Followers" by Megan Angelo is a highly readable -- even fun -- take on the disintegration and (speculative) rebirth of internet fame.

cag168's review

2.75

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

nixbix_reads's review

4.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This had me hooked right from the start! The synopsis sounded so interesting - a story with a dual timeline with a dystopian vibe - I just had to know what had happened.

I thought both timelines were really captivating. The present-ish day one follows Orla & Floss as they are determined to be famous. As they go from blogger & influencer to reality tv personalities, we get the dark side of their type of fame - what they have to do to get there & stay there, how fake & scripted everything is, and how fleeting everything is. Contrasting with that is Marlow’s timeline 35 years later. She lives in Constellation & is a government appointed celebrity. The internet as we know it no longer exists, and these celebrities are filmed almost every hour of the day, living their lives as juicy storylines & long running advertisements beamed out to their millions of followers.

I found the present day timeline to be really gripping as we go closer and closer to the event that changes everything. It’s dark and Orla & Floss are not likeable characters. I found the future timeline to be fascinating, to see a version of the future so similar but so different to our current day. This piece of speculative fiction was truly entertaining & thought provoking.

toebean5's review

4.0

For some reason I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. It had a bit of the same vibe as Brian K. Vaughan's The Private Eye, meaning the whole "the internet can be pretty messed up and if everyone's search history was public there would be mayhem." And that was all interesting- you don't need to do much to convince me that social media and the quest for notoriety can be incredibly damaging individually and as a society. (*She says, on a social platform*) But what really resonated with me the most was the relationships between the women. I found them all incredibly realistic. There was one line that really punched me in the gut (sorry, I did the audiobook so I can't quote directly), where Orla realizes that to her, their friendship was the end; but to Floss, it was just the means to an end. And how hurtful it is to realize that- to realize that while you thought you were enjoying a friendship (of sorts), the other person was scanning the room the whole time waiting for something better. Some people may think "I didn't like any of the characters," but I didn't care much. I don't need to want to be their friends to understand the story and feel for them and their choices.