People like Her

With a million-plus Instagram followers, former fashion editor Emmy Jackson, the co-narrator of this unnerving debut from the pseudonymous Lloyd (husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos), is Britain’s most famous Instamum. Emmy claims her Mamabare account offers an unfiltered view of life raising three-year-old Coco and five-week-old Bear, but Emmy’s embittered husband and co-narrator, Dan, can attest that her posts contain about as much truth as the novel he published eight years ago. Still, without Emmy’s endorsement deals, they couldn’t pay their bills, so Dan (aka Papabare) keeps quiet and plays his part. Little do the Jacksons know, someone watching their lives unfold online deeply resents their “perfectly imperfect” existence, and is determined to destroy it. Some of the multilayered plot’s more nefarious twists strain credulity, but clever red herrings, sharply drawn characters, and steadily mounting dread largely compensate. Lloyd dramatically highlights the artificiality of influencer culture and the toxicity of society’s social media obsession. [em]Agent: Hillary Jacobson, ICM Partners. (Jan.) [/em]