The Influencer

I’ll admit, I approached *The Influencer* with skepticism. Another story about social media’s dark side? But Maynard’s razor-wire prose and the narrators’ electric chemistry won me over within minutes. Hillary Huber’s performance as the titular influencer is a revelation—she nails the performative warmth of a woman who’s spent years turning herself into a brand, her voice dripping with practiced charm until the cracks start to show. When Patrick Lawlor enters as the counterpoint, his gravelly urgency feels like a physical intrusion, and the tension between their styles becomes its own character. The pacing is where this audiobook *excels*. At just over three hours, there’s no fat—every scene either deepens the psychological unease or ratchets up the stakes. That said, the ending (which I won’t spoil) lands with a thud rather than a bang. Maynard sets up a deliciously ambiguous moral dilemma, but the resolution feels rushed, like she hit the brakes just as the story should’ve swerved. And while the lack of background score keeps the focus on the narration, I wished for *something*—a subtle audio cue, a shift in acoustic space—to signal the story’s more surreal moments. Still, these are quibbles. For a single-sitting thriller that’s smarter than its premise suggests, *The Influencer* delivers. Just don’t expect easy answers—or to look at your own ‘gram the same way afterward.