Idol

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'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.'

An absolute page turner; addictive and refreshingly twisted.
Cecelia Ahern

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.
Holly Bourne

About Louise O'Neill

Louise O’Neill is a bestselling author from Clonakilty, West Cork. Her debut novel, Only Ever Yours, won multiple awards including the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year and the inaugural YA Book Prize. Her second novel, Asking For It, spent 52 consecutive weeks in the Irish top 10 and was awarded the Michael L Printz honour by the American Library Association.
She has since published The Surface Breaks, a feminist retelling of The Little Mermaid, which was shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards, and three novels for adults: Almost Love, After the Silence — named Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2020 — and Idol, which went straight into the Irish book charts at #1. Her memoir, A Bigger Life, is coming in autumn 2026. Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone? is her latest novel.

Details

Imprint: Penguin
Published: 27/04/2023
ISBN: 9781804990865
Length: 320 pages
Dimensions: 196mm x 19mm x 126mm
Weight: 220g
Price: £8.99

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Idol

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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.

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.

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.

About Louise O'Neill

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