CelebRate

‘The Winner’ – C. J. Parsons

Fame, fortune, followers. Be careful what you wish for…

Heather thought she’d been left behind in life, until she won a place in the luxurious ‘Triple F’ lottery, where fame, fortune and followers await 12 lucky winners.

The rules are simple: live the lifestyle of your dreams and win £5,000 a week for the rest of your life, plus six months of fame on the country’s most popular app – as long as you’re not bottom of the rankings. Lose your followers, and you lose everything.

But there’s trouble in paradise.

Too many winners are falling victim to tragedy: addiction, depression, even suicide. Someone, somewhere, seems to know their secrets, and is stirring up hatred online. And Heather has secrets of her own.

Suddenly she’s not worried about losing her lifestyle. She’s afraid of losing her life.

This was a nail-biting thriller that built in intensity as the plot developed. I raced to its conclusion.

Parsons’ novel taps into the world of influencers and social media. Except the winners of the ‘TripleF’ lottery are never secure – they have to keep on top of their follower numbers or risk losing the fame, fortune and celebrity status. It is a dream that so many aspire to, like Heather, and when she unexpectedly wins a place as one of the influencers, she thinks she is set up for life. Until it is clear that someone out there is targeting the winners, making them crack under pressure and become the losers.

I really liked the concept explored here and how the world of social media can have such a massive impact on daily life. The world of an influencer just boggles my mind and in this story, the characters are under pressure to ensure their ‘CelebRate’ is maintained. What is their USP? How can they promote it? How can they keep public interest? Whilst Heather appears to seamlessly slip into this role, she is not ignorant to the tragedies of past winners, especially when a suicide of a new friend starts to raise more questions.

I could not fathom who was behind the threats to the influencers, despite Parsons providing clues. I enjoyed how the narrative switches to intimate chapters of the voice of the perpetrator, particularly as it is clear that this person has a lot of information at their fingertips and is intent on destroying the lives of others. The power of trolls on social media is another area that is portrayed in this book which I consider a very sad bi-product of today’s society. Although some of the characters claim they don’t let it get to them, I cannot imagine having strangers making such horrid, criticising comments from the ambiguity of their keyboards: it is uncontrolled bullying and I think this is interestingly explored in the story.

An ordinary person boosted to fame, this book explores the successes and pitfalls of instant “celeb-dom”. Heather herself has secrets and I was intrigued to see how far they would remain that way – because when you are on social media and working to remain current, nothing is left private. I was curious to see whether Heather’s past would remain unexposed and enjoyed watching her character grow over the story, using her experiences as a TripleF winner to understand more about the new circles she walks in.

This was a great read. It developed unexpectedly and I thought the story really grew in intensity as it reached its conclusion. There were plenty of surprises along the way and I found that I became as addicted to the story as the influencers were to their follower numbers.

With thanks to HQ and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.