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
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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