A romance sweetens up the dark commentary on influencer culture.
When a superfan becomes a nanny for her favorite internet star, she uncovers some devastating truths—though she’s concealing secrets of her own.
Surfacing from a deep grief following the loss of a friend, Caitlyn Davis finds a lifeline when she’s hired to work as a nanny for influencer Bella Greene, one of her absolute idols. When she and her friend were younger, they had followed Bella’s every move, meeting her several times during meet-and-greet events and participating in group chats. Though her memories of Bella are wrapped up in her complicated loss, Caitlyn heads off to a tiny island off the coast of Washington, determined to make a new start. And at first the omens are good; she connects quickly with 7-year-old twins Olive and Max, whom she has seen featured in Bella’s online content since they were born, and Bella seems grateful for everything she does. Plus there are instant sparks with super-hot chef Hannah, who makes all the family’s meals and also runs a charming local business. Bella’s husband, Tim, seems distant most of the time; the whole family, plus Bella’s assistant, Adam, are still adjusting to life on the island, having moved there from LA following a scandal that has temporarily stopped Bella in her influencer tracks. But she has a plan to get her brand back online. In the meantime, Caitlyn is experiencing visions of her lost friend and feeling like she’s being watched, and someone is leaving pentagrams and dead animals around Bella’s property. Will all these events and memories, betrayals, fears, and ambitions overlap? You bet! But it’s a twisty, interesting path to get there, and Caitlyn’s strength and vulnerability are very relatable, even if her ghostly visions may not be. Spirits are one thing, but the most pervasive evil lies in the shadowy toxicity of the internet—and those who will sacrifice anything for fame.
A romance sweetens up the dark commentary on influencer culture.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9798874899158
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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