Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A Influencer by Ellery Lloyd

8 reviews

mysterymom40's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Stalking, Torture, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Child abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Bullying, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Miscarriage

paulineerika's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

This book was less than 300 pages, yet felt so much longer. What should have been tension-building came off as dragging instead.

A large part of the problem is that there are two different stories going on here and they never quite intersect the way they should (even at the end). On the one hand, you have Dan and Emmy, with their strained marriage and possibly competing views on social media and Emmy's influencer career. On the other hand, you have a stalker story that is also related somewhat to Emmy's influencer career. Had the authors focused just on one or the other of these plots, I think the book would have been tighter and achieved that suspense they were looking for. Unfortunately, you just end up with two half-developed stories.

And honestly, the stalker story required a lot of willing suspension of disbelief. It felt almost like a parody by the end.

Another problem? Neither Dan nor Emmy are particularly likeable characters. Gillian Flynn got away with this in Gone Girl, but there's significantly less success here. You need either Dan or Emmy to at least be somewhat fleshed out to be understandable, if not likeable. But neither one of them gets the character development they need for this to be pulled off. They're two-dimensional and stereotypical. 

Ultimately, this book comes off as what the authors think a thriller should be like, rather than an actual thriller. The attempts at commentary about Instagram and influencers fall short and the stalker bit is just unnecessary and unsuccessful.

Disclaimer: I won this book in a #bookstagram giveaway.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide, and Mental illness

ju_harue's review

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

O thriller em si, não curti tanto, tinha potencial mas não me pegou tanto, acho que não foi tão bem trabalhado quanto almejou ser em algumas formas dos desenrolar dos fatos.
Porém as discussões sobre redes sociais, os impactos que os influenciadores podem exercer nas vidas dos seguidores, a exposição, o que é verdade e o que acaba sendo o trabalho; isso achei bem colocado, a um ponto de questionar sobre o que consumimos meio automaticamente, como refletem em nós e o que iremos expor. A construção dos personagens achei um tanto quanto confusa, me pareceu querer abordar vários tópicos e características que algumas vezes se divergiam em outras atitudes dos mesmos, fiquei com a impressão que queria abraçar muitas coisas e nao tinha necessidade de tanto.
Em resumo, não foi um livro incrível pra mim, mas também não foi horrível. Tem vários gatilhos que deixarei listados no Storygraph para quem tiver sensibilidade (e que podem ser spoilers).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Pregnancy, Violence, Death, Child death, Medical content, Miscarriage, Abortion, Death of parent, Hate crime, Stalking, Torture, Medical trauma, and Suicide

Moderate: Grief, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Mental illness, Blood, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Eating disorder

haleysversion's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Vomit, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Grief, Suicide, Infertility, Murder, Medical trauma, and Stalking

danaslitlist's review against another edition

medium-paced

2.0

What was the point of this book? Honestly,  what was the point of that ending? Because if this was supposed to be a critique on social media and the dangers of mommy bloggers why the hell would the author attempt to make us sympathize after everything we witnessed? Is that a commentary on how bad guys win? If so even that failed spectacularly.

I’m so mad that I wasted my time but even more mad that this has the bones of a great story but absolutely fumbled everything else 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Self harm, Child death, Kidnapping, Stalking, Infertility, Grief, Abortion, and Mental illness

trhines23's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Abortion, Blood, Body shaming, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Excrement, Grief, Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

beca_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book explored the exploitive nature of families online. We follow a mother who runs an Instagram account documenting her life as a mother of two children. The catch is she isn't very truthful and plays up for the camera to gain popularity and be relatable. We also get the point of view of her husband a writer who is trying to write his second book. He is wary of putting their kids online and has suggested this to his wife. Lastly we have the point of view of a stalker we don't know who this is and leaves you guessing throughout the book which I really liked. The Stalker has had a past with the mother and now wants revenge and will go to extreme lengths to do so. Overall, this is a really good book, and one of its kind. I felt the writing was quite wooden at times, this may have been due to the authors info dumping about social media. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Infertility, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Stalking, and Suicide

katiereadsthings's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Suicide