Idol: The must-read, addictive and compulsive book club thriller 2022

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Samantha’s brand thrives on her apparent honesty and in using this revelation, Samantha felt that it would bring comfort and inspire other young women to be true to themselves.

Everything is presented through this lense of contempt and bullshit to build tension that O'Neill obviously didn't know how else to build, to then falls entirely flat in the last reveal. She’s not easy to like but she’s very damaged and at times you feel sad then you feel angry at her behaviour and manipulation. There’s an imbalance of power because those with huge platforms have more power in which to tell a story. There's an interesting yin yang in my feelings about Idol - written by an author who in her previous novels, especially Asking For It, has always challenged my world views and had me thinking long into the night about the narrative she has presented. This has, for some reason, messed with my head so much that I literally have flashbacks to scenes from this book and it's genuinely causing me distress.

It’s certainly not a book that is easy to read because it’s so dark but it’s equally impossible to put down. I love this aspect of her writing and I think Idol is perfectly timed in terms of how it examines the subjectivity of memory, the power of cancelling celebrities and cancel culture in general when allegations are made. People claimed they wanted the the truth but when faced with it, it was too messy for them to accept. As her world begins to unravel, she flees her life on New York’s Upper West Side and heads for her suburban hometown and tracks down her high-school best friend – the one accusing her. The question wasn’t whether it was a worthy topic but whether Louise O’Neill has anything to add to the conversation.

I hope to introduce new features during 2022 and join the Bookstagram community on Instagram properly, so come and follow me there too!This book is a fantastic take on truth and memory, as well as how one can warp the truth/memory for their own gain. This is Sam at her peak, literally moments after her speech to her “loves“ the world she has created with all its power and monetary benefits begins to implode. However, I thought that the revelation of the 'truths' happened far too quickly and some were only skimmed over (the ex and Becky). Samantha remembers it as a positive experience, but the other woman, Lisa, remembers it very differently.

For her previous book, Asking For It, which deals with rape culture, Louise spoke to survivors of sexual violence who told her that two people can be in the same room and what one person sees as the most traumatic experience of their life, the other sees differently. As a social media storm erupts, things deteriorate as Sam tries to reconnect with Lisa and Josh to confirm her truth. With everything at stake, what will happen and what will become of Samantha and whose account is the truth or is there more than one truth? While she was 40 years old, it was obvious that she had never let go of some things from her childhood (namely not being chosen as 'the one' by the boy she liked). I was completely captured by the story being told and, even though at times I was annoyed with the characters or felt like the plot was stagnating a bit, the way the book was written kept me turning the pages, eager to know more.Her version of events is debated and dissected on socials with the keyboard warriors questioning her actions and taking a very harsh view on her life-choices.