Scroll. Obsess. Unravel: 6 Influencer Stories

Dive into the dark, addictive and often dangerous world of online fame

A TOUCH OF JEN: BETH MORGAN (2021)

In A Touch of Jen, a young couple, Remy and Alicia, become obsessed with an influencer named Jen: they constantly check her social media, analyse her posts, and build a fantasy version of her life in their heads. When they get a chance to meet her in real life, their fixation becomes unhealthy and intense, and soon escalates into violence.

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AESTHETICA: ALLIE ROWBOTTOM (2022)

Aesthetica follows Anna, a former Instagram influencer, who plans to undergo an experimental surgery

that would reverse all her cosmetic procedures and return her to her ‘natural’ face. A slow, unsettling character study of what fame and beauty culture can do to a person over time, the novel explores self-objectification, feminism and ageing in a nuanced way.

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ANON PLS: DEUXMOI & JESSICA GOODMAN (2022)

A fictionalised version of DeuxMoi, Anon Pls. centres on Cricket, assistant to a celebrity stylist, who starts an anonymous Instagram account sharing celebrity gossip. When it blows up and goes viral overnight, Cricket gains fame, influence and insider access. No one knows she’s behind the account but the bigger it gets, the harder it is to stay anonymous…

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FAKE ACCOUNTS: LAUREN OYLER (2021)

Fake Accounts explores the gap between how people present themselves online and who they are in real life. An unnamed woman learns that her boyfriend is secretly running a conspiracy account on Instagram, and the discovery completely changes how she sees him. She becomes obsessed with the idea of truth and identity and starts to question whether anything is real…

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INFLUENCE: SARA SHEPARD & LILIA BUCKINGHAM (2021)

A tense YA drama, Influence follows four teenage influencers living in Los Angeles whose lives look perfect online but are actually full of pressure, secrets and rivalry. The story starts as a look into influencer life – followers, sponsorships, drama – but quickly turns into a mystery when tensions between the girls escalate and one of them ends up dead.

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THE INFLUENCERS: ANNA-MARIE MCLEMORE (2025)

A sharp, character-driven satire of influencer culture, The Influencers centres on a powerful social-media matriarch whose empire collapses after a murder and arson – leaving her five daughters as suspects. It’s less about the ‘who did it’ and more about family dynamics, identity and exploitation. Multiple perspectives give the novel a chaotic, very online feel.