You Will Never Be Me is a suspenseful and all-consuming psychological thriller that will draw you into its obsessive, toxic relationship. It combines social insights with smart and sharp humour to excellent effect.
This peels back the façade of perfectly curated social media lives to show the hard work and sometimes deception involved. Both Aspen and Meredith are incredibly self-obsessed and have their lives determined by their status and need to be liked. They fit that mould of influencer that is obsessed with their follower count and perception at all costs. Some of the best scenes involved the behind the scenes work to create that idyllic feed. This warps their entire perception of themselves and the world around them—everything has to be just so for the aesthetic of it all. This means that the line between fantasy and reality becomes increasingly blurred. I loved how we saw this across a collective of influencers though, creating this wider-spread atmosphere where the currency is your influence and that is a precarious place to be in. The mighty can always fall.
It is also interesting that both of them eventually become family influencers, reminding you of the exploitation of children often used in that industry. There has increasingly been conversations coming from the ‘child stars’ of these family influencers that shows just how dark and uncomfortable these channels can be for the real people behind them. Of course some aspects of this are exaggerated and do not necessarily reflect all the real life examples, but you can imagine some of this is very close to reality.
Ironically, Jesse Q. Sutanto exposes the false sense of authenticity and vulnerability as an additional weapon in the arsenal of influencing. Nothing is real, everything is filtered just so. It makes for darkly hilarious reading at some points and deeply disturbing at others. This toxic bubble also lends itself perfectly to the unhealthy relationship at the core of the book. It is a minefield of jealousy and unspoken competition. The methods Aspen and Meredith use to one-up each other are underhanded and downright nefarious. Sutanto pushes things to the extreme, but only in increments so that the tension and stakes feel like they build somewhat naturally. It is a cesspool of negativity and toxicity which completely contrasts the positive outpouring of their content.
Sutanto magnifies this further with the use of dual timelines, following each ‘friend’ at the pinnacle of their fame as they grow increasingly envious of the other. You chart their rise and fall in this claustrophobic social bubble. It also allows for some sprinklings of surprises as the twists and turns unfold. I also enjoyed how certain relationships were skewed very differently through each perspective and timeline. Neither one of these protagonists are particularly likeable, even if you can understand elements of their motivations. They also constantly feel like unreliable narrators, adding another element of manipulation and control. It means as a reader you are always on the backfoot and second-guessing what is in front of you. After all, within this space, what is an influencer if not a manipulator.
In addition to the space of beauty and family influencing, there is also an element of true crime. Sutanto focuses particularly on influencers within this industry and how easy it can be for cases to become sensationalised, to the extreme of dehumanising the real people involved to treat them as characters in a story instead. They become vessels to project your theories and preconceived ideas on. However, Sutanto adds a brilliant twist to this that slots in perfectly with the manipulation and unease throughout.
You Will Never Be Me places obsession and toxic influencer culture firmly in its crosshairs and delivers an explosively entertaining and skin-crawling story.
You Will Never Be Me is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
Will you be picking up You Will Never Be Me? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
When cracks start forming in an influencer’s curated life, she finds out that jealousy is just as viral as a video in this riveting suspense novel by bestselling author Jesse Q. Sutanto.
Influencer Meredith Lee didn’t teach Aspen Palmer how to blossom on social media just to be ditched as soon as Aspen became big. So can anyone really blame Mer for doing a little stalking? Nothing serious, more like Stalking Lite. Then, Mer gets lucky; she finds one of Aspen’s kids’ iPads and swipes it. Now, she has access to everything: the family calendar and Aspen’s social media accounts. Would anyone else be able to resist tweaking things a little here and there, showing up in Aspen’s place for meetings with potential sponsors? Mer’s only taking back what she deserves–what should have been hers.
Meanwhile, Aspen doesn’t understand why her perfectly filtered life is falling apart. Sponsors are dropping her, fellow influencers are ghosting her, and even her own husband seems to find her repulsive. If she doesn’t find out who’s behind everything, she might just lose it all. What everyone seems to forget is that Aspen didn’t become one of TikTok’s biggest momfluencers by being naive. When Meredith suddenly goes missing, Aspen’s world is upended and mysterious threats begin to arrive–but she won’t let anything get in the way of her perfect life again.
