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twiinklex 's review for:

Influencer Island by Kyle Rutkin
2.0

"Fyre Festival meets Hunger Games" is a lot to live up to and unfortunately this book didn't deliver.

The story started out promising and I enjoyed the podcast format. It felt both refreshing and fitting (though also messy at times), considering the novel's exploration of our obsession with social media and influencer culture.

However, I feel like the book tried to cover too much in just 200 pages. The bloodthirsty competition that the synopsis hints at is only a small portion of the story and hence very disappointing. Add weird arsty and bizarre cult-like elements, a romance subplot (that I had zero investment in), social commentary, many blah characters (some have hardly any lines or scenes), and you have everything stretched too thin.

I got increasingly bored and despite some okay twists, I wasn't impressed because it was too little, too late. I wanted Squid Game, Battle Royale and Hunger Games levels of bloodbaths. This book wasn't it.

Thank you to Greater Path LLC and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.