Influential

Product Information

I think it was really interesting to take a look at the world of influencers, particularly child influencers, who haven’t had much of a say in the matter too. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. We also have a burgeoning relationship with Almond and Joss from her therapy group - I felt like they fell in love too instantly for it to be truly realistic but it was cute. No fancy pictures were painted, it was authentic and real, and really makes you think about how influencers are viewed. Working in a school or even as a bookstagrammer we focus far too much on what looks good that we don’t see what is happening behind the photo.

And diving into Almond’s personal life, that even though everything looks perfect through a screen, you can have so much more going on than people realise. Also Joss is really cute <3 (shouldn't have actually taken me this long to read the book lol but busy with BMAT revision- now done! I think this book did a really good job of giving us plot, but also making us as readers care about Almond and her feelings. It’s topical Insta vs reality check in, made it so readable and relatable and I’m a several age spans away from YA readers. Influential, is a peep behind the curtain, so to speak into the real lives of social media influencers.

Amara Sage graduated from the Bath Spa MA for Writing for Young People with a distinction and lives in Bristol with her husband and two dogs. Sage Amara’s writing style is accessible, making the book incredibly readable and appealing to a wide range of readers. I also think it’s ridiculously important to have these storylines and to bring these issues into young adult fiction because with the rise of social media and a lot of unsupervised internet access, these things can happen and for a young person it can be really daunting. I love that romance didn’t overshadow the entire book, I think that would have taken away from everything else going on. One of the book’s strengths lies in its exploration of teen mental health through the lens of social media and influence.

Holly Bourne is a great advocate of young teens reading about difficult issues as a 'safe space' to consider and discuss those issues, this book does a great job in that sphere. Sage has a keen eye for the realities of contemporary teenage life; Almond's voice is fresh and believable. Since then it’s become a hub of book recommendations, author interviews, and in 2024 I will be starting my own YA book club. Your words, like your reviews, bring books to life and give them a voice before the front cover is even turned. Almond is an influencer, it’s maybe not her choice, but it’s how it is, and she just has to get on with it.

This was a breath of fresh air in the genre and, with this being what I understand is the author's debut novel, I really am excited to see more from her. Her mother, Eve Fairchild has been vlogging and posting about Almond and their family life since Almond was a baby. I really liked how brutally honest this book was and the ‘…and they all lived happily ever after’ ending didn’t feel very… realistic 👀 That being said, I guess the author couldn’t make the ending too bleak because this is a YA novel after all.