Idol: The must-read, addictive and compulsive book club thriller 2022

(Hardback)

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The breakout novel from a standout voice in fiction - author of ASKING FOR IT and AFTER THE SILENCE. IDOL is a sure-fire conversation starter destined for the top of the bestseller list. 'IDOL is fresh, glamorous, and surprising, taking an issue we all care about and with a deft twist, recalibrating our position. It dazzles us before revealing the darkness at its heart. Louise O'Neill is not afraid to take on a taboo but somehow always makes it utterly compelling. This is such an exciting book.' Marian Keyes 'Follow your heart and speak your truth.' For Samantha Miller's young fans - her 'girls' - she's everything they want to be. She's an oracle, telling them how to live their lives, how to be happy, how to find and honour their 'truth'. And her career is booming- she's just hit three million followers, her new book Chaste has gone straight to the top of the bestseller lists and she's appearing at sell-out events. Determined to speak her truth and bare all to her adoring fans, she's written an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager, with her female best friend, Lisa. She's never told a soul but now she's telling the world. The essay goes viral. But then - years since they last spoke - Lisa gets in touch to say that she doesn't remember it that way at all. Her memory of that night is far darker. It's Sam's word against Lisa's - so who gets to tell the story Whose 'truth' is really a lie 'You put yourself on that pedestal, Samantha. You only have yourself to blame.'

Reviews

An absolute page turner; addictive and refreshingly twisted. * Cecelia Ahern *
By turns utterly gripping and unsettling, this gorgeously written novel is a fascinating look at the ills of influencer culture. A book for our times. * Lucy Foley *
IDOL is darkly delicious and asks important questions of fame, influence, self-help and what it really means when we click "follow". Louise O'Neill is one of those rare authors whose writing grips you from the first page, but who also makes you think. I will read anything she writes. * Elizabeth Day *
Louise O'Neill steps into areas that lesser writers are daunted by. She is a pioneer. * Marian Keyes *
O'Neill continues to push at the murk around contemporary taboos, shining a compassionate and compelling light on what drives our appearance-obsessed society, marking us all as complicit. IDOL is a gripping, shocking read I could not put down. * Kiran Millwood Hargrave *
IDOL is utterly compelling and totally fearless. I literally had to ban myself from reading it after 8pm as I couldn't sleep otherwise. Louise isn't afraid to grasp nettles and IDOL is a confronting exploration of toxic female friendships, consent, and the gross hypocrisy of influencer culture. Destined to be rightly huge. It will take a long time to get these characters out of my head. * Holly Bourne *
Compulsive, disturbing and totally addictive, I couldn't put IDOL down. No-one writes the dark extremes of womanhood like Louise O'Neill and I think this might be her best novel yet. * Juno Dawson *
Sharp and sharply plotted, muscular, propulsive, visceral. So good on illusion and self-delusion; the lies we tell ourselves and each other; the damage of toxic friendships, and the legacy of betrayal or imagined betrayal. There were phrases that stopped me in my tracks, they resonated so hard. I hope it flies far higher than Samantha Miller. * Sarah Vaughan *
I read it in one sitting! Louise has a way of making her characters deliciously, unapologetically human and gloriously messy. Sometimes you want to look away but it's impossible. IDOL is her best yet. * Angela Scanlon *
Electrifying. I devoured IDOL in two greedy gulps - it is so smartly and sharply observed. It's going to stay with me for a long, long time - Louise's writing is so compelling, gripping and addictive. * Daisy Buchanan, Sunday Times bestselling author of INSATIABLE *
As an author I am envious of the incredible achievement IDOL is, but as a reader I am so thankful for the three days of page-turning reading it provided. Sophisticated, gripping and compulsive, I couldn't tear through the pages fast enough. I was just so desperate to find out what happened! I'd even go as far to say that IDOL is my book of the year. This is going to be massive. * Laura Jane Williams *
IDOL is such a cleverly constructed novel, taking a scalpel to the superficiality of social media and the wellness industry. O'Neill writes so perceptively about adolescent friendships, toxic relationships, and how our personal truths can be littered with self-delusion. It's a timely story - a morality tale for the Instagram generation - and all the more compelling for it. * Hannah Beckerman *
I don't think I've ever enjoyed hating a character as much as I hated Samantha Miller. This fierce tale of toxic female friendship is unlike anything I have read. Highly original, unflinching and with a devilishly dark conclusion, I loved every page of it. * Liz Nugent *
Idol is sharp, unflinching and timely, and made me question what's real in a world where likes and clicks matter more than ever. It's a book that dazzles and mesmerises, and will linger in your thoughts long after you finish reading. * Cressida McLaughlin *
I'm completely in awe of what Louise O'Neill has done with this brilliant and riveting book. Idol is absolutely astonishing. It's one of those rare novels you desperately want to eke out - to make it last forever - but then can't help yourself rushing through, staying up all night to finish. It's so well-written and pacy, I was literally breathless for the last 100 pages. * Lucy Vine *
IDOL is that rare combination of thought-provoking and page-turning - the very definition of a novel for our times * Hush *
IDOL is Louise O'Neill at the very top of her game. This is a clever, zeitgiesty read, which will play with your emotions as if they were scrabble tiles and give you characters that you love then hate on the turn of a page but you won't be able to stop reading. This is going to be one of the most talked about books of the year * Sarra Manning *
Brutal, compulsive, brilliant. Louise O'Neill exposes the contradictions and quandaries of influencer culture with her usual perceptiveness. * Abigail Dean *
'An absolute must for your book club, with so many issues up for discussion' * Prima *
A tinder box of a book... smart, sparky, and packed full of combustible emotions. * Daily Express *

Author Bio

Louise O'Neill grew up in Clonakilty, a small town in West Cork, Ireland. Her first novel, Only Ever Yours, was released in 2014 and won the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, the Eilis Dillon Award for a First Book and the Bookseller's inaugural YA Book Prize. Her second novel, Asking For It, was published in September 2015 to widespread critical acclaim. It spent 52 consecutive weeks in the Irish top 10 bestseller list. Both novels have been optioned for screen. Louise's first novel for adults, Almost Love, was published in 2018, followed shortly by The Surface Breaks, her feminist re-imagining of The Little Mermaid. Her second novel for adults, After the Silence, was published in 2020 and was an instant bestseller in Ireland. It won Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and has also been optioned for screen. Idol is her third adult novel. Louise contributes regularly to Irish TV and radio, and has a weekly column in the Irish Examiner.