Such a Bad Influence

A razor-sharp debut thriller about what happens when one of the first child stars of the social media age grows up … and goes missing.

Hazel Davis is drifting: newly unemployed, living in a city she hates, and significantly less successful than her infamous younger sister, Evie. Evie grew up online, having gone viral at age five in a daddy-daughter dance video. She had an Instagram following in elementary school, and brand sponsorships before she had a driver’s permit. Now she’s a megapopular lifestyle influencer, with a million-dollar career at an age when few teens know what they’re going to major in.

But to Hazel, @evelyn is just Evie, her beloved little sister—and a kid who has been exploited for her entire childhood. Ten years older and spotlight-averse, Hazel has managed to dodge the family business, but she’s deeply protective of Evie and skeptical of the way everyone seems to want a piece of her: Evie’s followers, her YouTuber boyfriend, her frenemies across the influencer industry.

So when Evie disappears—in the middle of a live stream, during a brand-sponsored trip to Los Angeles—Hazel knows something is terribly wrong. Determined to find her sister, Hazel throws herself into the darkest parts of internet culture to untangle the threads of truth behind Evie’s disappearance. After all, Hazel knows Evie better than anyone else … doesn’t she?

Internet fame, the allure of parasocial relationships, and some of our deepest cultural obsessions collide in this electric thriller by a debut writer to watch.