The Influencer

A Short Story

By: Joyce Maynard

Narrated by: Hillary Huber, Patrick Lawlor

Insta-fame has deadly repercussions in a timely short story of dark psychological suspense by New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard.

Tammy Partridge and her boyfriend, Kevin, are on a photo-ready road trip across America in pursuit of influencer fame. Only a couple hundred followers so far, including Roxanne, a superfan of the beautiful young couple. But when Tammy’s body is discovered in the Utah wilderness, and Kevin is nowhere to be found, the picture-perfect adventure suddenly goes wrong—and viral, with three million followers and counting. Motives are questionable. Conspiracy theories cloud the dark corners of the internet. As everyone spins their own version of the truth, reality is getting harder to see. Except for Roxanne, who’s been following closer than anyone else.

©2022 Joyce Maynard. (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

could have been longer

not bad for a short story but I would not have minded if it was longer

Factionalized account of recent headline case

This is a thinly disguised re-imagining of the Gabby Petito story. It does a credible job of explaining what could have occurred between the couple, neither of whom are very sympathetic. I usually like this author, but this short story lacks character development and is actually rather dull, probably because the true-life case is so recent.

Taken from a True Crime Case, is that Cheating?!

I wouldn’t have read this if I would have known it was based on a real case, but if you can separate that then you will find interesting the self centered people of the story and appreciate the humor. I admit that was a bit tough for me.

too much

It could have been an interesting story and a warning about domestic violence and the danger of being in a powderkeg with your abuser but it ripped off the Petito story so much that it just felt gross and cartoonish. Being that similar, the changes just felt disrespectful. The narrator was great though.

Strange

Very modern and strange. Social media. Trying to get rich. Best character is the dog.

A short tale.

This is a story about a young woman who wants to be an influencer. She ends up in a relationship. She baits her boyfriend into posting their life online. His parents buy them a van they can use and live in to drive around the country to gain a following. However, she ends up dead.

too close to the truth

Unfortunately this story is too close to what happened IRL. I happened to be in Utah when the real story broke and was unable to take our trip to the Teton National Park because of the investigation. This story depicts the life that people think that influencers should have and think they can get rich quickly. They don't take into account the stress of living their life on line 24/7. Especially when they're doing it without knowing much about each other.

iNFLUENCED

Interesting story which sounds a lot like Brian Laundrie and Gabby Gabby Petito story, only this one was written IN 2022. It was longer than it needed to be.

Sad!!

This story does a good job of telling about the pressures of those seeking to influence others with their lifestyle, the often "forced" enjoyment displayed and the ultimate selfishness and depression that comes through no matter how hard these people try to portray otherwise. That old saying, "you can't please everybody" is very, very true. However, to do this based on the very real life and subsequent sad deaths of a young couple is hard to swallow. People who live their lives out in front of a camera trying to show the "good, bad and the ugly" mostly end up showing the ugly... disrespectful of their parents and each other, often ending in separations and divorces. There are things that could have been worked out in private but are egged on by the comments of people who get their kicks out of viciously destroying lives. This was in fact the very thing the original internet creators would do, find someone who was basically a normal human being, then create gossip/rumor out of whole cloth just to see how they'd react, even betting how long it would take for these individuals lives to be destroyed, or so it's been admitted in books about the Dark Net. Some make it their business to investigate, follow/stalk, harass and enact retribution like the superfan in this story...causing and even willfully misinterpreting what they see, based on their own personal experience, that actually has nothing to do with whatever is going on between the actual couple. It's like this author took this opportunity to take her own personal revenge on the young man. Years from now someone will listen to this story, then look up Petito and Laundrie, thus keeping alive their memory for a short time. Neither will be remembered for any "real" good thing, rather as an object lesson like Romeo and Juliet. Both end in avoidable deaths! Sad!!

Joyce never disappoints!

This story seems based on the Gabby Petito saga and at first I was not happy the male character was portrayed sympathetically but as we delved deeper: OMG!! Joyce, you hit this one out of the park!! But then again, when don’t you?