I tried to make the book as nuanced as possible and really be truthful to the fact that this is very complicated and very complex territory. And then how people interpret that is really sort of up to them.

I just felt very exhausted with the discourse,” she says. She also felt that there could be pressure to have an opinion or ‘take’ on everything – without the time to stop and think about the topic at hand. The first couple of interviews that I read, I felt really strange afterwards. It made me feel like I was eavesdropping on someone else’s thinking about you and hearing someone else’s opinion of you.” 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 see influencers who have become famous because they have great fashion taste. And now all of a sudden, it's like, 'excuse me, I want to know what you think about Ukraine?'

I thought this was a timely story and although the characters weren’t likeable they were highly interesting. A highly entertaining read! A gripping read from start to finish. People are going to be talking about this book for a long time to come! Thank you to NetGalley and to Random House UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Idol will be out on May 12th - guaranteed to be a hit! This is true not just of events, but also of words – the throwaway remark to a journalist over tea in a nice hotel that becomes controversial, or the piece you wrote when you were starting out that looks very different in 2022 than it did in 2002. Does she worry about that – the idea that, as a colleague jokingly puts it, we’ve all already written or said the thing that will one day end our career? In my experience, her books are easy to read, but not necessarily easy reading. With her last book, After the Silence, for example, I found the main protagonist difficult to like. It takes self-assured expertise and talent to handle strong characters within multifaceted stories, but these are writing qualities that Louise O’Neill has in abundance, and she uses them with superb skill. I enjoy reading her books because I know I’m in safe hands.

By the way, the deleted end scene in Idol is well worth seeking out, if only to ‘compare and contrast’. I found that useful, and I’m delighted with the ending Louise chose (evil grin emoji). Right, enough about Idol … I’m off for that much needed ‘cleansing’ hot shower now. In the process, she encounters Josh – Lisa’s husband, Sam’s own first love, and a key player in the story that shattered their friendship. What happened that night? And was Sam’s childhood really as dysfunctional as she has made it sound since leaving home all those years ago? I think this is what makes Idol work so well for me: O’Neill spends time exploring the different angles of what it means to be a flawed social media influencer, encompassing the perspectives of Sam herself, her manager, this antagonist, Lisa, her mother, etc. There is a compelling scene later in the book where Sam is meeting with Shakti’s board of directors, mostly old, white guys. One of them is adorably “woke” because of his younger daughter’s influence. They are discussing how Sam can distance herself from Shakti, given the allegations against her, so Shakti can go public. Sam, of course, balks at the idea of stepping away from her baby when men who have similarly been accused of sexual assault haven’t fallen from grace. Idol - like all of Louise's books - is a timely and incisive take on important socio-cultural issues. As always, her commentary is searing and her writing scalpel-sharp. Essentially this is a story about the subjectivity of memory and the curation and manipulation of the past to spin a suitable narrative. This is also a book about friendship and envy, and although this book is set in New York and Connecticut, the story throbs with the bitterness of Irish begrudgery. That’s the premise of the sixth novel from 37-year-old West Cork writer Louise O’Neill, called Idol. Idol is the story of a woman named Samantha Miller, a Connecticut-born, New York-based wellness guru and online influencer. Her self-made origin story is filled with enough troubles and triumphs to make her seem both a down-to-earth person and an experienced guide in how to return from the depths of depression and addiction.So why did I struggle with this book? Well, for starters, I truly could not stand Samantha. She is perhaps one of the most horrible characters that I have come across. Although I accept that not all protagonists are perfect - they are, in fact, better when they have some flaws and complexities to their personality - with Samantha I was repulsed by her. She is a narcissist, and perhaps one of the most toxic people that has been portrayed within a book that I have read. Part of it was the book did really well. And there are a lot more eyeballs on you. I was quite high profile at the time, doing a lot of TV and radio. It felt like a lot of people really hated me. I suppose I felt really scared a lot of the time. The reason why I came to this novel was that I thought the premise sounded interesting. O'Neill seems to be drawn to this kind of narrative, where it is one character's word against another; one character seeing their "truth" as opposed to the other. I enjoyed her first book, "Asking For It" but I struggled with her novel "Almost Love." Despite this, this one intrigued me. But she says she comes to the influencer part of Miller’s story with a certain degree of sympathy. “Because I do think it seems like a really difficult job.” Miller is earnest in a way that perhaps isn’t quite so natural to the Irish psyche. “An Irish person, I think, would take the piss out of themselves a little bit more,” says O’Neill.

I think it’s really important for people to know the full recovery is possible. Because for years I thought that like I would only be 80 per cent recovered or 90 per cent recovered. But I felt it was very manageable. I was like, ‘oh, this is fine, I can manage this’. But then when something happens that throws you off balance…”Almost exactly five minutes after our appointed meeting time, O’Neill arrives, embarrassed by both her uncharacteristic lateness, and her shoes – neutral slip-ons which don’t quite match her vibrant print dress. The explanation for each is the same: her adored dog, a collie-corgi cross called Cooper, vomited on the pair she was planning to wear just as she was going out the door. I think we all sort of have [the belief], ‘this is who I am as a person’. And if someone tries to destabilise that, it can actually feel dangerous. It can feel incredibly threatening. Idol by Louise O'Neill is a fast and addictive read that I found really intriguing. Well written and filled with darkness.