In the real world, Erin is struggling with anxiety and finding it difficult to connect with her screaming son. So when a famous agent offers to make her the biggest instamum out there, she's over the moon. And when Amanda, a family friend who's visiting from Australia, says she'll move in and babysit to help make it happen, it seems like the stars have finally aligned for Erin's exciting new career.
But when a devastatingly revealing video is posted online by an anonymous troll, Erin's brought crashing back to earth. As everything she's worked for starts to slip away, Erin must find out how far she can trust those closest to her.
"The family friend" is described as "an unmissable psychological thriller about a famous insta-mum influencer and what happens when someone starts to stalk her every move". If this is a thriller, I'm Mother Teresa, and let me tell you, white and blue are not my colors! Where were the thrills? Cause I certainly didn't notice them! True, when she gets insta-famous she gets a troll, but from that description you would believe she had a full-on stalker and nothing further from the truth.
More than a thriller I would describe this as a cautionary tale about how social media and this influencer (fake) world can really fuck up your life.
I had many issues with this books and only forced myself to finish it cause it was an ARC. Besides the no thrills already mentioned, it moved so slow with nothing happening for so long that I would read a chapter and then leave my Kindle to go to Instagram and try to become insta-famous myself (you can check my Bookstagram https://www.instagram.com/diagnosisbookaholic ....wink, wink). Shame on me, advertising myself! 😂
But the two main problems I had were two. One, the plot was so predictable that my initial hypothesis, the one I made in the first chapters, proved to be the correct one, and two, Erin was dumb. Plain and simple, making it so much harder to connect with her. At first she came as selfish, self-absorbed, and some of her actions were truly ridiculous and questionable (the eye drops, the adultered baby bottle). It took her 80% of the story to wake up and realize the situation of dependency she was immersed in.
The ending was also a bit unrealistic. The sudden turn of thinking of THAT character with just a couple of words, and the forensic details (or lack of them rather) that allowed THAT ending were quite far-fetched.
On a positive note, it portrayed well the perils of social media and how what at first sight might look all perfect lives and glamour hides a much darker reality.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harvill Secker for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Hi, Is there a way to get emails when you post on your blog? I just found you on GoodReads and discovered we are about 80% alike on our opinions of books. Would love to not miss a review from you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pam
Hi! If you click on the three lines that are besides the name of the blog you get an option that says “follow by email” to get email notifications every time I publish a new entry. Thank you so much for your interest!
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