I appreciate the originality of this book, it's very clever.

It takes a while to get used to the format though, which is unconventional.

The characters were flat and I'd have d the author to have spent more time developing them.

The story was very fast-paced, dark and gripping.

If you're into psychological thrillers, you should need to give this one a try.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy of this for an honest review.47 s liztheliterary 287 30

Amazing concept but the book itself still needs a little work in my opinion. I came across a few grammatical errors and name changes ( Kendall instead of Kaylyn, or Gigi instead of Kiki). I didn't how it was obvious who some of the characters were based on in real life.

This would have been infinitely better if the author focused more on the action scenes, the shark scene. I loved it. It was such an original scene and I wish there was more of it. I couldn't care less about Cal - Carrie is a much more interesting character to focus on.

Apart from these points, I quite enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a "Love Island gone wrong" vibe.

UPDATE: the author has reached out to me regarding the errors and was willing to fix them. You can see they care a lot about this book and that's wonderful.17 s Cherlynn | cherreading1,786 982

"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 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- 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.arcs11 s aashna256 148

thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

let me just start this review off by saying that if i wanted to read a podcast script, i would read a podcast script.

influencer island is pitched as fyre island meets the hunger games (literally, within the novel itself) and follows reporter cal everett as he seeks to uncover the truth about a reality show gone horribly wrong.

this book had potential. from the summary, i was expecting a thriller that involved social media influencers fighting for their lives on a secluded island and what i was given was... not that.

for one, i could barely differentiate between the influencers. each one of the contestants was given a one-line introduction and we never really got to know them beyond that. the main pitfall of having the entire book written in the form of a podcast script means that we rarely get to know something about characters that they wouldn't be willing to tell the public. the podcast narrator and main character, cal, also felt one-dimensional. his motivations were hazy at best and it didn't make sense to tell the story through his perspective at all. carrie was a potentially interesting character, but ultimately, i just didn't find myself caring about her. additionally, one of the influencers (bella) is israeli-american, and she repeatedly asserts that her heritage has taught her to work hard because nothing in life comes easily. nothing about the influencer's ancestors displacing and killing palestinians should be treated as some kind of family story meant to teach their children to always fight for what they want.

the plot itself was also difficult to keep track of. there would be 3 sentences about what cal is trying to figure out about wyatt james in the present, and then it would switch back to carrie and the other influencers recounting what happened on the island. neither of these plots were engaging on their own, and because there were too many flashbacks and timeskips, it was almost impossible to stay invested in the mystery. i kept waiting for the book to pick up the pace, for there to finally be some kind of big reveal or bloody final showdown, but i was already 80% through before anything exciting happened.

the ending had potential to be an exciting reveal, but by the time it came around i just wanted the book to be over. in order for the ending to be successful, you had to be really invested in the individual characters' pasts, and as i mentioned before, i simply wasn't. nothing about this book made it possible to care about superficial internet personalities or a struggling reporter.

there were too many pop culture references throughout the book- it actually calls out katniss by name and ns the influencers' experience to squid game- which not only dated the book but made it more underwhelming. if the author is constantly and blatantly drawing comparisons to iconic dystopian media within their own text, it's fair for a reader to have high expectations, and influencer island causes those expectations to be shattered.

this author presumably set out to write a book that would be hailed as a nuanced commentary on influencer culture but ultimately failed due to how chaotic it was. the author shot himself in the foot with the comp titles and the best part about the book is honestly the cover.2022 arc9 s Stu Corner183 40

Thank you to Kyle Rutkin for the arc. Much appreciated.

Whenever I hear the word "influencer" a piece of me dies inside.

When I heard that a book about a group of "influencers" getting slaughtered on a reality TV show -set on an island in the Bahamas- was coming out, I said "sign me up!" To be honest, I was expecting something a bit more Laymon-esque. This book is not that.

The story -for the most part- is a script for a podcast, by a reporter trying to find out what happened to the celebrities on the island, the whereabouts of the reclusive artist who founded the project, and his involvement in their deaths.

The characters -who are as shallow and superficial as you would expect- and their backstories, are focused on a bit too much. I wanted a Splatterpunk-Battle-Royale, damn it! Instead I got a straight-up podcast-investigation of the events leading up to something similar to one.

With all that being said... I quite enjoyed some of the investigation side of things, the missing brother, and a conspiracy plot that I won't spoil . It was a quick read too -around 3-4 hours- which means that I must have enjoyed it.

3 Stars.arc cults island-horror ...more8 s Kirsty Carson395 40

3.5 rounded up to 4.

“How far would you be willing to go for fame and ?”

Welcome to Influencer Island, an experience for ten competitors to travel to paradise and compete for social media glory.
Overnight, millions of users send off their submission videos, hoping for the chance to party with the biggest influencers and celebrities in the world.
Or so they thought…
By the time the contest went offline, over a dozen influencers were declared dead or missing. No winner was announced. The only hope for a conclusion lay in an unaired podcast produced by Cal Everett, a young reporter with his own mysterious connection to the murderous contest creator, Wyatt James.

I was immediately enticed by the blurb of this book and couldn’t wait to get started. I enjoyed the unique way in which Rutkin structured his story through podcast write ups, social media posts, news etc which gave the story an original twist.

I thought the book was dark and twisted and the concept was intriguing, but for me it fell a little short. I don’t know if it was because I felt I couldn’t relate to any of the characters and maybe I was expecting more ‘drama’ or ‘mayhem’, but I just wasn’t all that invested in the outcome for any of the ‘contestants’ and thought the whole plot was flat. I was left feeling I wanted more, and that the ending didn’t really have the impact I expected. Shame really because I thought the ideas in the book were ace. 8 s Trisha5,108 192

This one had so much potential. I loved the idea behind it. A bunch of influencers are invited to an island to see - what will each of them do to become THE most famous influencer of them all?

I didn't even mind the unconventional story style - it's written in Podcase or interview format where POV are interjected in to scenes with a name and then : and what they said (think Daisy Jones and Opal & Nev). It's an interesting way to tell the story and, honestly, I think it added to the suspense and dread.

But the build up was huge. The twist at almost the end just didn't quite live up to the hype the story had given me. It was almost there but just not quite and I ended up being disappointed. I did a few of the really gruesome scenes the sharks and the hunting showdown. They were great pulse-pounding, fast scenes that really drew me in. I just wish I'd loved the ending more.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.8 s Thushara 356 93

3.75
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