Idol: The must-read, addictive and compulsive book club thriller 2022

Product Information

I ditched it 3/4 of the way through to read the last 2 chapters and don’t feel like I missed anything. I really can't put into words just how uncomfortable many, many moments made me without any payoff whatsoever. O’Neill does a good job at undermining – and then reinvigorating – the reader’s confidence in Sam until the very last page, and the book is brimming with twists and turns. The protagonist is a hot mess but yet there's also something so charismatic about her that you can't peel yourself away from. We start by meeting our protagonist, Samantha Miller-- a social media lifestyle guru who has built a business empire and sold books on the back of recreating herself after her sexual assault and struggles with addiction.

The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket (if applicable) is included for hard covers. It seems like there’s your truth and there’s my truth and there’s nothing in between,” says Lisa to Sam. Samantha Miller 40, is an influencer and has 3 million followers on Instagram (mostly white and female), she travels the world as a motivational speaker and her new book Chaste is top of the bestseller list.The only problem is, that Sam has just written about the encounter in a recent article as evidence of her sexual awakening. I hope to introduce new features during 2022 and join the Bookstagram community on Instagram properly, so come and follow me there too! This led me to believe this would be a book about a lesbian MC and possibly closeted best friend dealing with these allegations, but this is genuinely one of the straightest books I've ever read.

Idol's damaged but successful protagonist, Samantha Miller, has made her fortune telling young girls how to live better on the internet.

There were some great moments in this when we see how Sam's following is mostly white young women (but that's not her fault) and she receives criticism from BIPOC influencers in the same sphere for her cultural appropriation when it comes to the type of practices she preaches which seem to be a mixture of different faiths and organisations. Louise contributes regularly to Irish TV and radio, and has a weekly column in the Irish Sunday Times. She’s on the cusp of a major discovery: the location of the lost Babylon idol, a golden statue of immeasurable value.

She's perfectly portrayed, from her pick n' mix spirituality and clean eating, to her insistence on speaking "her truth". Before the release of her latest book, Sam is accused of sexually assaulting her former best friend, Lisa. All in all, a page turning tale of toxic people, and how it only takes one whisper of a thing to bring the whole house of cards crashing down, one day cock of the walk, next a feather duster, 4. I think this is what makes Idol work so well for me: O’Neill spends time exploring the different angles of what it means to be a flawed social media influencer, encompassing the perspectives of Sam herself, her manager, this antagonist, Lisa, her mother, etc.But I keep coming back to the portrayal of Sam as an influencer and what the role of influencer culture plays in our society. After all, it’s standard practice for publishers to give out free copies and digital copies aren’t exactly going to cost anyone anything. Her version of events is debated and dissected on socials with the keyboard warriors questioning her actions and taking a very harsh view on her life-choices. I think it's a timely story in lots of ways, not least of which because of the public fall of a guru or two we've seen in the past couple of years, but also as we navigate this new-ish world of social media and celebrity being so. I enjoyed every page and when I was forced to put it down I couldn't wait to get back to it as soon as possible - always the sign of a great read.

Challenging our perception of the sparkle and the glamour of these folk who get placed on a high pedestal, these ordinary people who become idolised by the masses, IDOL puts the influencer under the microscope and asks a question about truth and self. Idol asks us to confront whether we really remember the past accurately—and what happens if we aren’t the person we remember being?To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.