People Like Her by ElloryLloyd

Emmy is an Instamum, crafting and curating her experience raising her two children for the ‘squares.’ Her husband Dan is skeptical of her lucrative online persona, and it’s creating a rift in their marriage. When one of Emmy’s followers becomes obsessed, everything she’s built is threatened, along with her family itself.
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What stood out to me most about this book was the insider look at what life is actually like for one of these influencers. And man oh man, I’m not going to lie, it was equal parts fascinating and nauseating. 

I personally know someone who took a crack at doing the Instamum thing, and I’ve got to say, this book NAILS what it entails. There’s the perfectly sculpted backdrop, every aesthetic of your life planned and produced, then one little posed ‘oopsie’ that allows people to relate and say, “See, she’s human and struggles just like me.”

Ellory Lloyd is a husband and wife writing team, both of them seriously strong writers. They’ve done their research, and I would not be surprised if they also know someone personally who is an Instamum, leading to their understanding of the machinations behind it. They know this. They get this. 

This is a cautionary tale about the ways in which social media can overwhelm our lives, dictating the choices we make. The more we become editors of our own little ‘magazines,’ the less we stay connected to the present and perhaps even to ourselves.

The end is brilliant but haunting, containing the notion that any one of us can be seduced by social media, sucked in by the deep need for adoration, drained by all it demands.