She Treads Softly: Under the Influence

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Under the Influence

Under the Influence by Noelle Crooks
8/8/23; 352 pages
Gallery Books

Under the Influence by Noelle Crooks is a recommended, highly for some readers, novel set in the world of a major influencer.

Harper Cruz is looking for a new job and applies to work for self-help influencer Charlotte Green. Harper is hired as Charlotte’s Visionary Support Strategist in Nashville for triple her last paycheck. If she thought the job offer was high pressure, once she arrives in Nashville Harper realizes just how high pressure and cult-like the job at The Greenhouse really is where everything is all about making Charlotte Green look good and working long hours doing exactly what she wants.

This very easy to read novel feels like an update on The Devil Wears Prada. Readers who follow or are familiar with self-help "Hey you" social media influencers will likely relate much more to this novel than I did. It held my attention and I finished it, but ultimately it will be forgettable for me. However, I think a younger reader who follows influencers on social media will enjoy it more than I did. It also fits the description of an airplane book, interesting enough to hold your attention but you won't care if you misplace it. Apparently if you are familiar with the influencer the Charlotte Green character is based on, it makes it a better novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Gallery Books via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.