My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my free digital ARC!

This is my second book by de Vigan and I liked this one more than Loyalties I think! I was expecting a little more from the thriller/mystery side of things, and was surprised that this was wrapped up fairly quickly by the middle of the book. The story then jumps ahead and switches perspectives to the characters who are children at the beginning of the book. 

The main thrust of the book is the truly disturbing nature of parent-child content on the internet. I have nieces who are obsessed with this sort of kids content on Youtube, and I do find it a bit odd. A few they watch are dubbed (badly) from other languages, which is a little disconcerting in itself, but mostly these kids just seem like badly scripted actors. When you think about the parent behind the camera who is (usually) making the kids make these videos and profiting from it... Yikes. 

This is the murky world de Vigan delves into, and she does a great job of highlighting how quickly and violently the promise of internet fame and fortune can change a person. Scruples are thrown out the window and everything has the potential to become profitable content. de Vigan does a good job showing the mental toll this can take on the children involved. 

Mélanie, the mother who runs the Youtube channel, is one of the most antagonising characters you could hope to meet. I'd like to think de Vigan is exaggerating for effect here, but sadly there likely are mothers and fathers like this in the world, completely sucked into the world of validation and likes, becoming nothing but a performance for their audience. 

I wasn't fully convinced of the need for the POV from Clara, a police officer who becomes a little obsessed with the case which makes up the first half of the novel. It could have been a tighter story had this been cut and the focus was more on Mélanie and the two kids. 

Overall, a compulsive and frightening read about the grim reality of kid influencers.