The Influencer

A Short Story

De: Joyce Maynard

Narrado por: Hillary Huber, Patrick Lawlor

Insta-fame has deadly repercussions in a timely short story of dark psychological suspense by New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard.

Tammy Partridge and her boyfriend, Kevin, are on a photo-ready road trip across America in pursuit of influencer fame. Only a couple hundred followers so far, including Roxanne, a superfan of the beautiful young couple. But when Tammy’s body is discovered in the Utah wilderness, and Kevin is nowhere to be found, the picture-perfect adventure suddenly goes wrong—and viral, with three million followers and counting. Motives are questionable. Conspiracy theories cloud the dark corners of the internet. As everyone spins their own version of the truth, reality is getting harder to see. Except for Roxanne, who’s been following closer than anyone else.

©2022 Joyce Maynard. (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

could have been longer

not bad for a short story but I would not have minded if it was longer

too much

It could have been an interesting story and a warning about domestic violence and the danger of being in a powderkeg with your abuser but it ripped off the Petito story so much that it just felt gross and cartoonish. Being that similar, the changes just felt disrespectful. The narrator was great though.

Factionalized account of recent headline case

This is a thinly disguised re-imagining of the Gabby Petito story. It does a credible job of explaining what could have occurred between the couple, neither of whom are very sympathetic. I usually like this author, but this short story lacks character development and is actually rather dull, probably because the true-life case is so recent.

Taken from a True Crime Case, is that Cheating?!

I wouldn’t have read this if I would have known it was based on a real case, but if you can separate that then you will find interesting the self centered people of the story and appreciate the humor. I admit that was a bit tough for me.

Strange

Very modern and strange. Social media. Trying to get rich. Best character is the dog.