burning to be you

Crystal Shaw was so excited to go to university in London. Growing up on a tiny island as a member of the Shaw family, as in the popular family channel At Home with the Shaws, Crystal is looking forward to a break from the constant content creation. She wants to study journalism, to take what she’s learned from all her mother’s social media channels and do something different. But she does still have to post for her personal channel and the family channel, as part of her arrangement to move away.

Alyssa is also at university studying journalism. She’s been a longtime fan of the Shaws, and she’s hoping to get in with Crystal. She has some dark secrets, but she just wants to find a safe place, a warm family where she would be appreciated. She thinks the Shaws are that family, especially since her family doesn’t seem to care about her.

The women become friends, going to classes together, talking about starting a radio show about local news together, going out clubbing together. Crystal even invites Alyssa home with her for Christmas. Alyssa agrees, hoping to become a part of the Shaw family, even if just briefly. Crystal wants Alyssa to come home with her to direct some of her mother’s endless demand for content, because Crystal just wants a break.

But when they get there, Crystal finds more than just the usual family content-production push. Her younger sister Opal is looking pale and isn’t eating much. She is run down and weak, and Crystal is worried. Years before, she had another sister who had died. She had showed similar symptoms to Opal’s. The family is worried that Opal has the same illness, that it’s genetic. But what Crystal finds out about her sister’s illness is far more damaging, and could potentially bring the entire family business down.

When Crystal and Alyssa get back to London, Crystal wants to find a reporter to help her learn more about what happened to her sister. But Alyssa wants to be a part of the family, so while she tells Crystal she’ll help her, she is working behind Crystal’s back to sabotage her efforts. Both women come to a point where they have to decide who they are going to protect and who they are going to burn to the ground, and only one will be left standing in the end.

Tell Your Friends is a crazy thriller with ups and downs and twists. On the one hand is the insanity of influencer culture and how addictive it can be to get those clicks and sponsors. On the other hand is a single white female who doesn’t seem to understand boundaries. And throughout are secrets and lies and personal agendas that can cause great harm. I loved this dark look at influencers and toxic friendships, as I got pulled along on this journey.

I listened to the audio book, narrated by the talented Lily Lefkow-Green. The book is written in alternating chapters, one chapter by Crystal and one by Alyssa, and Green had slightly different voices for both women, using vocal cues to show more about their personalities. That was clever and engaging. The one thing that threw me a little is the speed at which she read. The audio book is a little over 7 hours, which struck me as short for a book of this length. And she did read it quickly. I kept checking my audio book app to make sure I hadn’t inadvertently set the speed faster. I had not. She just reads it quickly. Incidentally, this is not a complaint on my part. I liked it. It was just a surprise. I really enjoyed listening to Tell Your Friends, and that made me want to, umm, tell my friends.

An early copy of the audio book for Tell Your Friends was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.