Rating: 4 stars
Format: ebook
The story is told in alternating voices, we meet Lainey, half of a set of twins, who is painfully shy and describes her anxiety as an elephant on her chest (totally relatable to many with anxiety) and adores her brother Aiden, partly because he always includes her in his social adventures, and partially because he's her brother in twins-against-dad-destroying-the-family when he divorced their mom, moved across the country, and remarried.
Then there is Bliss. Bliss is a theatre nerd who loves to sing, and also happens to have cerebral palsy. Bliss lives in New York City with her parents, who are always fighting about money (they don't ever have enough) and her younger brother. Bliss is determined to get the lead in the school musical, despite being only a sophomore, like Lainey. Bliss also wants to be a social media influencer to showcase her musical theatre chops on her quest to get to Juliard.
We also meet Elizabeth. Elizabeth is Bliss's real persona, the person behind the screen. The one who struggles with her parents financial issues, has to deal with the real, daily challenges of living with cerebral palsy, and the ins and outs of being a student at a fine arts high school.
Along the way we meet some friends - Lainey's best friends Mia and Shula, as well as her step-mom, Marissa. We meet some of Aiden's friends, mainly Rafe, and we meet three of Elizabeth's friends - Sonia, Kaitlin, and Raven. Each plays a role in the unraveling of the story, where one teen is determined to become a social media influencer, and another teen is determined to avoid the spotlight at all costs.
Influenced strikes a chord because it is a glimpse into the reality so many teens are experiencing today; that desire to become social media famous, to be an influencer, it's a dream so many young people want to accomplish. As we watch Bliss navigate the highs of reaching 100,000 followers, and the higher highs of hitting a million followers, readers are given a backstage pass into the intense efforts that go into the job (yes, being an influencer is basically a full time job) of being an influencer with a massive following, and the income that goes along with the responsibilities.
Influenced also shares the darker side of social media, something that is rarely shared with public eyes. The idea of parasocial interaction, which is basically when followers think they are actually friends with the influencer's persona, and mix up reality a bit in the process.
Both Bliss/Elizabeth and Lainey work through some incredibly intense experiences in this powerful read, a book that I think belongs in every middle school and high school library, along with the shelves of social worker and counselor's offices everywhere. Authors Littman and Otis do an incredible job taking a very sensitive topic with limited mainstream knowledge and bring it alive in a way that readers can learn from, and hopefully, grow with both Elizabeth and Lainey.
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