Followers

By Megan Angelo

‘An eerie masterpiece’ Christina Dalcher ‘Think Black Mirror with a comic twist’ OK!

When everyone is watching you can run, but you can’t hide…

2051. Marlow and her mother, Floss, have been handpicked to live their lives on camera, in the closed community of Constellation.

Unlike her mother, who adores the spotlight, Marlow hates having her every move judged by a national audience.

But she isn’t brave enough to escape until she discovers a shattering secret about her birth.

Now she must unravel the truth around her own history in a terrifying race against time…

An explosive and unsettling novel set in the near-future, perfect for fans of Station Eleven, Black Mirror, The Circle and Friend Request.

Everyone is talking about Followers

‘A first-rate dystopian tale’ The I

‘A compelling look at the power of technology and social networks. You won’t be able to put it down’ Vogue.com

‘Megan Angelo’s debut novel will have you hooked…think Black Mirror with a comic twist’ OK!

‘Suspenseful, thought-provoking and terrifying’ Daily Mail

‘One of 2020’s most anticipated books. Looking for a razor-sharp take on the future of humanity and social media? Meet Followers’ Entertainment Weekly

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jan 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781474086349

Megan Angelo

Megan Angelo grew up in Quakertown, Pennsylvania and graduated from Villanova University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour and Elle, among other publications. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family. Followers is her first novel.

Reviews for Followers

[thereserose5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a really enjoyable read! The science fiction/dystopian elements felt very real in their subtlety and I was invested in both of the narrator's stories because of their flaws and authenticity. Highly recommend!

[brangwinn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The cover is deceiving. Harlequin Books, well I haven’t read many of them and I was expecting an easy read. Dystopian is never easy reading. Time travel and evil plots are not the Harlequin I remember from my high school days many years ago. This is much better! Makes me wonder if social media is making us overshare our lives.

[pinkpurlandprose · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Many thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Graydon House Books and Megan Angelo for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of Followers. My thoughts and opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.For the next thirty years we, as a society, continue along our path of indulgent social media behaviour trying to procure followers. This leads to an event that causes a break in society so severe that the government has taken over the internet. This way they can “protect” its citizens’ information. Now there is a town dedicated to technology, for people whom the government chooses and puts them on social media. With cameras watching them 24-7, they have a chip implanted in their heads and chips in their fingertips. The feedback from your followers is instant and you must make adjustments or you’ll be out. Marlow has grown up with this implant that provides a feed to her whole life. She was targeted as a young girl who needed anti-depression medication. She has millions of followers. Her whole life is geared to promoting products and the government controls all aspects of her life. It’s not just what she promotes, what she wears but also who she marries and when she’ll have kids. I mean every part of her life and she can’t take it anymore. She is not happy. She wonders what it would be like to be free of it all. This book is set in two different time periods with alternating chapters. The time is now and it is a couple of years before the big event. Orla is living in New York writing for a rag of a publication about what the latest influencer is doing. Think TMZ for bloggers. She came thinking she would fulfill her dreams of being a writer but can’t seem to break free of the rut she’s in. She hasn’t even been able to work on her novel. Along comes Florence who rents a room from Orla. Floss, as she likes to be known is trying to break into the biz and become an Instagram sensation. She is a constant partier and a bit of a troublemaker. Orla has never seen anyone with such confidence. Soon the two of them figure out that they can help each other. Orla can make Floss’s dreams come true and Floss can then help Orla get her novel published. There is obviously a connection between the two time periods, but you don’t find it out for quite a while. It was about 20% of the way through before I could relax, realized that I wouldn’t know until I knew, and started to latch onto the two stories. I was really confused about Marlow’s time period because I didn’t understand how the world worked. It is an easy read and for the most part, I enjoyed this story. It is a cautionary tale about technology, what we place importance on and what will happen if we continue down the road. At times it got a bit preachy, like, yes I get it, we are all doomed but I never appreciate being hit over the head with what the author is trying to say. The story does it well enough on its own. But overall, I enjoyed it.Funny thing happened. I finished the book and I was feeling like, boy, this is really way out there. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love books that ask what if and what will the future be like but I felt like it was overkill. Two days later I was listening to the news about this new app causing all kinds of problems. It’s an app that looks at your face and then will scour the internet for every piece of information about you. Not just the stuff you post but what other people post, crowd shots, your business photo. Then, from all that, it can figure out where you work, your personal information like driver's license and social security number. The government was looking into shutting the app down, or taking it over because it was violating all kinds of privacy issues for individuals. So I felt like, hmmm, maybe this book isn’t that far out there after all…

[xaverie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I genuinely don't know how I feel about this book. It's two different time periods, one that feels like Ben Elton-style satire and one that feels like Black Mirror/Truman Show soft horror, and then it merges at the end into melancholy sadness.

I don't know if I love or hate the ending. I'm going to give it four stars because I'm thinking about it.