Title: People Like Her
Author: Ellery Lloyd
Published: January 12th 2021
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 336
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
RRP: $32.99
Rating: 3 stars
She has an easy life – but makes a living from pretending otherwise.
She has a husband who hates the spotlight – but can’t step away.
She has a million followers who adore her – but one who wants her to suffer.
She hasn’t realised her family is in danger yet – but she will.
People like Emmy Jackson. They always have. Especially online, where she is Instagram sensation Mamabare, famous for always telling the unvarnished truth about modern parenthood.
But Emmy isn’t as honest as she’d like the fans to believe. She may think she has her followers fooled, but someone out there knows the truth and plans to make her pay. Because people like her have no idea what pain careless words can cause. Because people like her need to learn what it feels like to lose everything . . .
Review:
Ellery Lloyd is a pseudonym for two authors, Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos, who have teamed together to produce their first novel. People Like Her delves into the murky world of social media, influencers and modern lives. Ellery Lloyd’s debut offers a critical gaze on a very prominent and obsessive fixture in our present-day existence.
People Like Her unveils the life of Emmy Jackson. Emmy is a powerful fixture in the social media world, thanks to the rising popularity of her online musings on modern motherhood. But Emmy’s loyal followers are being duped by their social media queen. While Emmy leads her fans to believe she is being truthful about her parenthood experiences, this is far from the case. Not everyone believes Emmy and a mysterious figure is planning on bringing Emmy down – big time. Someone wants Emmy to understand what life is really like and how the cost of her social media lies can ruin people’s lives. Will Emmy be held into account for her deceitful actions?
With praise for People Like Her coming from authors I admire such as Clare Mackintosh, Karen Hamilton and Jenny Quintana, I was intent on reading the first novel from the partnership of writers Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. People Like Her is a book that I feel is very much in touch with present day society and preoccupations thanks to the penetrating focus on social media influencers.
Stories that are the product of dual writing partnerships can be tricky, but I have read a couple such as Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanan, along with Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb that have proved successful. People Like Her seemed to follow the same consistent voice throughout, I didn’t feel a difference in the narration at all, which is one of the positives of this novel. I also appreciated the honest, no holds back approach to the world of social media. Ellery Lloyd’s novel explores social media and influencers from a warts and all angle. It was a wake-up call for people such as myself, who use a number of different platforms on social media. This novel cleverly exposes the downside of a very influential segment of our present day lives. Breaking down assumptions, falsehoods and staged situations portrayed on social media platforms such as Instagram via the actions of the lead protagonist of People Like Her definitely provided some food for thought.
People Like Her is narrated from the standpoint of three different figures. We hear from lead protagonist Emmy, along with her husband and a shadowy third narrator, who is hell bell on revenge. Portioning the narration from these different fractions gives the reader a good sense of the action. This split style of storytelling also allows for the mystery side of things to untangle from more than one interesting angle. However, I really did struggle overall with the title role protagonist. I found Emmy’s actions to be so wrong on many levels that it turned me off the book! So despite the red herrings, plot twists, up to the minute plot focus and solid interrogation of themes regarding online safety, this one was just a mediocre read for me.
The dour world of social media, privacy, online profiles and morality is explored within the pages of the first author collaboration between Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. A staggering look into a world that has become a part of our social fabric, People Like Her will be of interest to contemporary fiction readers.
People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd was published on 12th January 2021 by Pan Macmillan. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.
To learn more about the author of People Like Her, Ellery Lloyd, visit here.
*Thanks extended to Pan Macmillan for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
