Unfollow Me follows a hugely popular mommy YouTuber named Violet Young, who has over a million subscribers who faithfully watch her daily vlogs about her life and family. But one day, she completely disappears from the online world. Overnight, Violet has taken down her YouTube, Twitter, Instagram accounts — it’s as though she’s never existed.
What’s interesting about this story is that it’s told from the point of view of two of her most avid fans as they investigate Violet’s disappearance and try to figure out what happened to her. They are pretty much in a panicked frenzy as they scramble to determine why Violet shut down all her social media accounts.
First, there’s Lily, who is living alone with her three-year-old son Archie and Yvonne, a 40-year-old married woman who is desperately trying to get pregnant. The story is told from alternating timelines between Yvonne and Lily and later on in the story, from Violet’s husband, Henry.
What follows is quite a fast-paced narrative as Violet’s story begins to unfold from alternating perspectives with some surprising twists in the process. This is one of those stories where none of the characters are what they seem, which is one of my favorite types of tropes. Thus, it’s up to the reader to determine who is lying and what is real, which is no easy task. It’s also worth mentioning that most of the characters are mostly unlikeable, which added an extra exciting element to the story.
The book dealt with a variety of themes such as obsession, celebrity worship, lying, loss, jealousy, grief, Internet trolls, online stalkers, online influencers, privacy, and, of course, social media addiction. What especially intrigued me about this story, however, is that it’s not really so far-fetched as I see this type of thing all the time online.
This story about a mommy vlogger sucked me right in, and before I knew it, I was as obsessed as Violet’s fans about finding out what happened to her. I also enjoyed how the story illustrated how the lives that people portray online might not be actual fact, and in the case of this story, everyone involved seemed to have their share of dark secrets. It also makes you question the information we share about ourselves online and how the trolls we encounter on Social Media may not be as harmless as we think.
I’ve discovered that I really enjoy stories about the world of social media, and this one did not disappoint. Unfollow Me is a multi-layered creepy psychological thriller with dark undertones and a fun mystery to solve, which rendered it truly unputdownable for me. I love the types of stories where you can’t trust anyone, and that was definitely the case here, and the web that the author created was exceptionally intricate. I also thought that the ending was satisfying, as was the fun epilogue.
I thought Unfollow Me was brilliantly paced, well-constructed, emotionally intense, and flawlessly executed. All in all, this is a chilling and eye-opening book about the impact that Social Media influencers have on the lives of others, and I loved it.
Leave a Reply