A social media influencer's empire is burned to the ground—literally. The top suspects? The five daughters who made her famous.
"Mother May I" Iverson has spent the past twenty years building a massively successful influencer empire with endearing videos featuring her five mixed-race daughters. But the girls are all grown up now, and the ramifications of having their entire childhoods commodified start to spill over into public view, especially in light of the pivotal question: Who killed May’s newlywed husband and then torched her mansion to cover it up?
April is a businesswoman feuding with her mother over IP; twins June and July are influencers themselves, threatening to overtake May’s spotlight; January is a theater tech who steers clear of her mother and the limelight; and the youngest…well, March has somehow completely disappeared. As the days pass post-murder, everyone has an opinion—the sisters, May, a mysterious "friend of the family," and the collective voice of the online audience watching the family’s every move—with suspicion flying every direction.
A campy and escapist exploration of race, gender, sexuality, and class, The Influencers is an evisceration of influencer culture and how alienating traditional expectations can be, ripe for the current moment when the first generation of children made famous by their parents are, now, all grown up—and looking for retribution.
Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) is a queer nonbinary Mexican American author of nine award-winning magical realism and fairy tale novels for young adults: National Book Award longlist, Stonewall, New York Times Editor's Choice, among others. The Influencers is their adult debut.
View titles by Anna-Marie McLemore
A social media influencer's empire is burned to the ground—literally. The top suspects? The five daughters who made her famous.
"Mother May I" Iverson has spent the past twenty years building a massively successful influencer empire with endearing videos featuring her five mixed-race daughters. But the girls are all grown up now, and the ramifications of having their entire childhoods commodified start to spill over into public view, especially in light of the pivotal question: Who killed May’s newlywed husband and then torched her mansion to cover it up?
April is a businesswoman feuding with her mother over IP; twins June and July are influencers themselves, threatening to overtake May’s spotlight; January is a theater tech who steers clear of her mother and the limelight; and the youngest…well, March has somehow completely disappeared. As the days pass post-murder, everyone has an opinion—the sisters, May, a mysterious "friend of the family," and the collective voice of the online audience watching the family’s every move—with suspicion flying every direction.
A campy and escapist exploration of race, gender, sexuality, and class, The Influencers is an evisceration of influencer culture and how alienating traditional expectations can be, ripe for the current moment when the first generation of children made famous by their parents are, now, all grown up—and looking for retribution.
Author
Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) is a queer nonbinary Mexican American author of nine award-winning magical realism and fairy tale novels for young adults: National Book Award longlist, Stonewall, New York Times Editor's Choice, among others. The Influencers is their adult debut.
View titles by Anna-Marie McLemore
