Anna-Marie McLemore’s adult debut, The Influencers, arrives at a moment when the first generation of children commodified for content are coming of age—and coming for their parents. What begins as a seemingly straightforward whodunit transforms into something far more unsettling: a surgical examination of how family becomes commodity, and how love gets lost in the machinery of manufactured authenticity.
When August Ingraham, husband to mega-influencer May “Mother May I” Iverson, is found dead and the family mansion set ablaze, suspicion falls on the five mixed-race daughters who built their mother’s empire. But McLemore has crafted something more complex than a simple mystery—this is a psychological thriller that interrogates the very nature of performance, identity, and survival in the attention economy.
The Anatomy of Exploitation
A Family Fractured by Fame
McLemore’s greatest achievement lies in how they structure the narrative through multiple perspectives, including the haunting collective voice of “We Who Were Watching.” This chorus of followers, fans, and fellow child influencers creates an omnipresent surveillance that mirrors our own relationship with social media consumption. The technique is both innovative and unnerving, making readers complicit in the very voyeurism the novel critiques.
The Iverson daughters emerge as distinct casualties of their commodification. April, the eldest, became a surrogate parent while still a child herself, her fertility struggles weaponized for content. Twins June and July perform their lives as “the Summer Girls,” their individual identities subsumed into a marketable brand. January retreats into theater lighting, seeking shadows in a family that lives in perpetual spotlight. And March—the mystery at the novel’s heart—has simply vanished.
The Weight of Performance
McLemore’s prose carries the same precision they brought to their acclaimed YA novels, but here it’s sharpened to a more brutal edge. The author captures the exhausting labor of constant performance with lines that feel both beautiful and suffocating: “June was an aficionado of makeup that looked like she wasn’t wearing makeup, except for her extensive collection of lip glosses.” Every detail of these characters’ lives has been curated, optimized, branded—even their spontaneity is calculated.
The novel’s structure mirrors its theme, unfolding through social media posts, video transcripts, and fragmented perspectives. This creates a disorienting reading experience that effectively replicates the feeling of consuming someone’s life through a screen—never quite getting the full picture, always left wanting more context.
A Mystery That Asks Bigger Questions
Beyond the Murder Plot
While the central murder mystery provides narrative drive, McLemore uses it as a vehicle to explore larger questions about consent, authenticity, and the psychological toll of being raised as content. The investigation becomes secondary to the more pressing question: what happens to children who never had the choice to be private citizens?
The revelation that mysterious “Luke Sweatshirt” is actually Marc Iniesta—the former March Iverson who transitioned away from both his assigned gender and his influencer family—provides the novel’s emotional core. Marc’s story illuminates the impossible choice between living authentically and maintaining family connection when that family exists primarily as a brand.
The Chorus of Watchers
Perhaps the novel’s most brilliant element is its collective narrator—the fans, followers, and fellow influencer children who comment on the unfolding drama. McLemore uses this device to implicate readers in the voyeuristic consumption of others’ trauma while simultaneously giving voice to those who recognize their own experiences in the Iverson family’s dysfunction.
The “We” sections range from touching solidarity (“We had been like January, hiding from the lens, but then realizing that, without the chill of a camera on us, we weren’t sure if we were really there”) to chilling entitlement, perfectly capturing social media’s capacity for both connection and dehumanization.
Technical Mastery and Minor Stumbles
Strengths in Structure and Style
McLemore demonstrates remarkable technical skill in juggling multiple narrative perspectives without losing coherence. The author’s background in literary fiction serves them well here—even as the plot incorporates thriller elements, the prose never sacrifices elegance for pace. The dialogue feels authentic to both the characters’ ages and their specific brand of performed authenticity.
The mystery elements are cleverly constructed, with red herrings that feel organic rather than manipulative. The final revelation about who killed August and why arrives with both surprise and inevitability—a difficult balance to achieve.
Areas for Improvement
However, the novel occasionally struggles under the weight of its own ambitions. Some of the social media commentary feels slightly dated despite the book’s contemporary setting, and certain plot threads—particularly around the financial aspects of the influencer business—could have been developed more fully.
The pacing occasionally suffers in the middle sections, where the multiplication of perspectives can feel repetitive rather than illuminating. While the collective narrator is largely effective, there are moments where the “We” voice tips into pretension rather than insight.
Cultural Relevance and Impact
A Mirror to Our Moment
The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore arrives at a crucial cultural moment. As the first generation of children raised on family vlogs and mommy blogs reaches adulthood, questions about consent, exploitation, and psychological harm are becoming increasingly urgent. McLemore doesn’t offer easy answers, but they do provide a framework for understanding the human cost of treating family life as content.
The novel’s exploration of gender identity through Marc’s story feels particularly timely and handled with sensitivity. McLemore avoids both sensationalism and oversimplification, instead showing how transitioning becomes infinitely more complex when your very existence has been commodified.
Literary Connections and Comparisons
McLemore’s work here recalls the satirical precision of Ottessa Moshfegh and the family dysfunction explored in Celeste Ng’s novels, while maintaining their own distinctive voice. The multi-perspective structure echoes Lauren Groff’s ambitious narratives, though with a more contemporary digital-age focus.
Readers familiar with McLemore’s YA work—particularly The Mirror Season and Lakelore—will recognize their skill with complex family dynamics and LGBTQ+ themes, though the adult context allows for darker exploration of these territories.
Verdict: A Necessary Examination
Who Should Read This Book
The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore will particularly resonate with readers interested in contemporary culture, LGBTQ+ narratives, and psychological thrillers that prioritize character development over action. Anyone who has found themselves wondering about the psychological impact of growing up online will find much to consider here.
Fans of literary mysteries like Tana French’s work or Gillian Flynn’s psychological explorations will appreciate McLemore’s approach to crime fiction as social commentary.
Final Assessment
While The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore isn’t without flaws—the ambitious scope occasionally leads to uneven pacing, and some cultural commentary feels slightly heavy-handed—it succeeds brilliantly as both entertainment and examination. McLemore has crafted a novel that works as a murder mystery while functioning as a deeper meditation on authenticity, family, and the price of fame in the digital age.
The book’s greatest strength lies in its refusal to provide simple answers to complex questions. Instead of condemning or absolving May Iverson and her family, McLemore shows how systems of exploitation can entrap everyone involved—creators and consumers alike.
Recommended Similar Reads
For readers who enjoyed The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore, consider these similar works:
- Flashlight by Susan Choi – For complex family dynamics and identity exploration
- The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer – For themes of authenticity and performance
- Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton – For social media culture critique
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – For Hollywood glamour hiding dark truths
- Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess – For exploitation within family structures
Anna-Marie McLemore’s The Influencers stands as a remarkable achievement—a mystery that solves more than just who committed murder, but begins to unravel the larger mystery of who we become when our lives are content, and what we lose in the translation from human to brand. In an era where everyone is a potential influencer, this novel serves as both warning and witness to the cost of commodifying authentic human experience.
The Influencers is Anna-Marie McLemore’s first adult novel, following eleven acclaimed YA works including National Book Award nominees The Mirror Season and Self-Made Boys.