Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone?

The compulsive and conversation-starting new novel from #1 bestselling author Louise O'Neill - coming soon and available to pre-order now! 
2002. 
 
Twin sisters Madeline and Chelsea Stone are joint stars of the AtomicKids sitcom Double Trouble, but everyone knows it’s Maddie who shines most brightly. Until Chelsea beats her sister out for the role of a lifetime and is catapulted into the spotlight. And just as Chelsea’s star reaches impossible new heights, Maddie disappears. 
 
2025. 
 
Chelsea Stone retired from acting after her sister’s disappearance – but living life under the radar is easier said than done when you’re the most famous woman of your generation. 
 
When a storage locker is found containing heart-breaking truths about the year Maddie went missing, Chelsea feels a flicker of hope for the first time in twenty years. This is her chance to discover what really happened to her twin, but to follow the trail she’ll have to face the past and step back into the spotlight . . .PRAISE FOR LOUISE O'NEILL'Darkly delicious' ELIZABETH DAY 
 
'Fresh, glamorous, surprising' MARIAN KEYES 
 
'Compulsive, brilliant' ABIGAIL DEAN 
 
'Utterly gripping and unsettling' LUCY FOLEY 
 
'An absolute page turner; addictive' CECILIA AHERN 
 
'Unflinching, clever and completely riveting' FABULOUS 
 
'An absolute must for your book club, with so many issues up for discussion' PRIMA 
 
'A compelling, clever and beautifully crafted thriller' OBSERVER 
 
'A smart, addictive page-turner' STYLIST

A glamorous, sexy, fascinating read about damaged people and what really happens to child-stars.

Marian Keyes, bestselling author of MY FAVOURITE MISTAKE

Razor-sharp and utterly spellbinding, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MADELINE STONE? boldly cracks open the glittering world of child stardom and, in O’Neill’s uniquely compelling style, lays bare the dark and reaching cost of fame. Questions of identity and destiny underpin this thrilling tour-de-force, which will stay with you long after the final page. I absolutely devoured it!

Catherine Doyle, bestselling author of TWIN CROWNS

An unflinching examination of the destruction wrought by fame. Part Me Too thriller, part family tragedy. It reckons with our celebrity-obsessed culture and confronts our dark impulse to consume and then destroy women in the spotlight. Confronting, compulsive and profound

Sophie White. author of Such A Good Couple and Where I End.

2002. 
 
Twin sisters Madeline and Chelsea Stone are joint stars of the AtomicKids sitcom Double Trouble, but everyone knows it’s Maddie who shines most brightly. Until Chelsea beats her sister out for the role of a lifetime and is catapulted into the spotlight. And just as Chelsea’s star reaches impossible new heights, Maddie disappears. 
 
2025. 
 
Chelsea Stone retired from acting after her sister’s disappearance – but living life under the radar is easier said than done when you’re the most famous woman of your generation. 
 
When a storage locker is found containing heart-breaking truths about the year Maddie went missing, Chelsea feels a flicker of hope for the first time in twenty years. This is her chance to discover what really happened to her twin, but to follow the trail she’ll have to face the past and step back into the spotlight . . .

Louise O'Neill

An absolute page turner; addictive and refreshingly twisted.

By turns utterly gripping and unsettling, this gorgeously written novel is a fascinating look at the ills of influencer culture. A book for our times.

IDOL is darkly delicious and asks important questions of fame, influence, self-help and what it really means when we click "follow". Louise O'Neill is one of those rare authors whose writing grips you from the first page, but who also makes you think. I will read anything she writes.

Louise O'Neill steps into areas that lesser writers are daunted by. She is a pioneer.

O'Neill continues to push at the murk around contemporary taboos, shining a compassionate and compelling light on what drives our appearance-obsessed society, marking us all as complicit. IDOL is a gripping, shocking read I could not put down.

IDOL is utterly compelling and totally fearless. I literally had to ban myself from reading it after 8pm as I couldn't sleep otherwise. Louise isn't afraid to grasp nettles and IDOL is a confronting exploration of toxic female friendships, consent, and the gross hypocrisy of influencer culture. Destined to be rightly huge. It will take a long time to get these characters out of my head.

Compulsive, disturbing and totally addictive, I couldn't put IDOL down. No-one writes the dark extremes of womanhood like Louise O'Neill and I think this might be her best novel yet.

Sharp and sharply plotted, muscular, propulsive, visceral. So good on illusion and self-delusion; the lies we tell ourselves and each other; the damage of toxic friendships, and the legacy of betrayal or imagined betrayal. There were phrases that stopped me in my tracks, they resonated so hard. I hope it flies far higher than Samantha Miller.

I read it in one sitting! Louise has a way of making her characters deliciously, unapologetically human and gloriously messy. Sometimes you want to look away but it's impossible. IDOL is her best yet.

Electrifying. I devoured IDOL in two greedy gulps - it is so smartly and sharply observed. It's going to stay with me for a long, long time - Louise's writing is so compelling, gripping and addictive.

Daisy Buchanan, Sunday Times bestselling author of INSATIABLE

As an author I am envious of the incredible achievement IDOL is, but as a reader I am so thankful for the three days of page-turning reading it provided. Sophisticated, gripping and compulsive, I couldn't tear through the pages fast enough. I was just so desperate to find out what happened! I'd even go as far to say that IDOL is my book of the year. This is going to be massive.

IDOL is such a cleverly constructed novel, taking a scalpel to the superficiality of social media and the wellness industry. O'Neill writes so perceptively about adolescent friendships, toxic relationships, and how our personal truths can be littered with self-delusion. It's a timely story - a morality tale for the Instagram generation - and all the more compelling for it.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed hating a character as much as I hated Samantha Miller. This fierce tale of toxic female friendship is unlike anything I have read. Highly original, unflinching and with a devilishly dark conclusion, I loved every page of it.

Idol is sharp, unflinching and timely, and made me question what's real in a world where likes and clicks matter more than ever. It's a book that dazzles and mesmerises, and will linger in your thoughts long after you finish reading.

I'm completely in awe of what Louise O'Neill has done with this brilliant and riveting book. Idol is absolutely astonishing. It's one of those rare novels you desperately want to eke out - to make it last forever - but then can't help yourself rushing through, staying up all night to finish. It's so well-written and pacy, I was literally breathless for the last 100 pages.

IDOL is that rare combination of thought-provoking and page-turning - the very definition of a novel for our times

IDOL is Louise O'Neill at the very top of her game. This is a clever, zeitgiesty read, which will play with your emotions as if they were scrabble tiles and give you characters that you love then hate on the turn of a page but you won't be able to stop reading. This is going to be one of the most talked about books of the year

Brutal, compulsive, brilliant. Louise O'Neill exposes the contradictions and quandaries of influencer culture with her usual perceptiveness.

'An absolute must for your book club, with so many issues up for discussion'

A tinder box of a book... smart, sparky, and packed full of combustible emotions.

O'Neill's darkly compelling thriller asks disturbing questions about memory, truth and the power of social media to destroy its own idols

'IDOL is fresh, glamorous, and surprising, taking an issue we all care about and with a deft twist, recalibrating our position. It dazzles us before revealing the darkness at its heart. Louise O'Neill is not afraid to take on a taboo but somehow always makes it utterly compelling. This is such an exciting book.' Marian Keyes 
 
'Follow your heart and speak your truth.' 
 
For Samantha Miller's young fans, she's everything they want to be. She's an oracle, telling them how to be their best, true selves. With three million followers and a recent number one bestseller, Sam is more influential than ever. 
 
Determined to bare all to her adoring fans, she's written an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager with her female best friend, Lisa. She's never told a soul, now she's telling the world. The essay goes viral. 
 
But then - years since they last spoke - Lisa gets in touch to say that her memory of that night is far darker. It's Sam's word against Lisa's - so whose 'truth' is really a lie? 
 
'You put yourself on that pedestal, Samantha. You only have yourself to blame.'

Louise O'Neill

Praise for Idol

An absolute page turner; addictive and refreshingly twisted.

By turns utterly gripping and unsettling, this gorgeously written novel is a fascinating look at the ills of influencer culture. A book for our times.

IDOL is darkly delicious and asks important questions of fame, influence, self-help and what it really means when we click "follow". Louise O'Neill is one of those rare authors whose writing grips you from the first ...

An absolute page turner; addictive and refreshingly twisted.

By turns utterly gripping and unsettling, this gorgeously written novel is a fascinating look at the ills of influencer culture. A book for our times.

IDOL is darkly delicious and asks important questions of fame, influence, self-help and what it really means when we click "follow". Louise O'Neill is one of those rare authors whose writing grips you from the first ...

An absolute page turner; addictive and refreshingly twisted.

By turns utterly gripping and unsettling, this gorgeously written novel is a fascinating look at the ills of influencer culture. A book for our times.

IDOL is darkly delicious and asks important questions of fame, influence, self-help and what it really means when we click "follow". Louise O'Neill is one of those rare authors whose writing grips you from the first ...

Books by Louise O'Neill

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter