Kathleen Barber | FOLLOW ME

Plot (via Goodreads):

Audrey Miller has an enviable new job at the Smithsonian, a body by reformer Pilates, an apartment door with a broken lock, and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers to bear witness to it all. Having just moved to Washington, DC, Audrey busies herself impressing her new boss, interacting with her online fan base, and staving off a creepy upstairs neighbor with the help of the only two people she knows in town: an ex-boyfriend she can’t stay away from and a sorority sister with a high-powered job and a mysterious past.

But Audrey’s faulty door may be the least of her security concerns. Unbeknownst to her, her move has brought her within striking distance of someone who’s obsessively followed her social media presence for years—from her first WordPress blog to her most recent Instagram Story. No longer content to simply follow her carefully curated life from a distance, he consults the dark web for advice on how to make Audrey his and his alone. In his quest to win her heart, nothing is off-limits—and nothing is private.

Review:

So, I will admit it right now - I LOVE a stalker story. Yes, I love the really creative stories like You by Caroline Kepnes and I love the old school stories about a bad man following an ordinary woman or a bad woman following an ordinary man and everything in between. I love a stalker story. I find there are so many different directions they can go in and when you have a master storyteller like Kathleen Barber telling you a story about a stalker, you know damn well it is going to be an exceptionally well told story with fantastic characters. There is something about how Kathleen Barber can take a story that is so haunting, paced so efficiently, and still be so eerie the entire time. Well for fans of her debut, this one is a little bit faster paced and even creepier than her debut.

I loved that this one had a multiple perspective story-line where we hear from the woman being stalked, her best friend with a rather interesting personality and colorful past, and the man stalking Audrey. I loved these two women and the contrasts between the two. Their voices were exceptional and I loved how they saw themselves compared to how they viewed each other. The perspectives of the stalker were so unsettling and creepy that I kept checking my locks. Now, the thing that really baffled me with this one was that it was such a modern stalker story with the way that it tied to social media, yet the vibe within the story was such a great old-school stalker feel. It was like your favorite 90s thriller movies combined with a social media modern take and I was loving every single page. The stalker scenes were exceptionally creepy and kept me invested while also terrifying me.

If you're looking for a wildly entertaining read with exceptional characters, a stalker story-line, and a sensational ending that I never saw coming - this is definitely the read for you. I liked that this one was an enjoyable and thought-provoking and provocative read and yet it had a really strong message behind it regarding what we share about ourselves on social media. This is definitely one I would recommend for a quick weekend read - reader beware, once you pick this one up, it's going to be damn near impossible to put down. I want to especially thank Kathleen Barber again for another great story because as far as I am concerned, her work will be featured on this blog as long as she continues to write...and I hope she never stops.

Special thanks to Gallery Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5/5