The Influencers

McLemore, an award-winning YA author (Flawless Girls; Self-Made Boys), pens a stellar adult debut. May Iverson has been a social media influencer since her five children were babies; they all grew up on camera. Her dysfunctional family lives a life of extreme wealth and privilege, but that doesn’t seem to be enough for May. Her children are of mixed race and have decidedly mixed feelings about having grown up in the public eye. All are now adults, the youngest has disappeared, and May has remarried. Told through various points of view, including those of the family members and their followers, the novel opens with May’s husband found dead and a fire raging through her enormous house. McLemore writes a gimlet-eyed take on social media’s infiltration of society, with a murder mystery as the novel’s fulcrum. Everyone is a suspect, everyone has a theory, and May’s life will never be the same.