Fiction/Nonfiction Quick Reviews: The Social Media Edition

The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke (2025)

Ruby Franke turned her children's lives into a YouTube sensation with her channel 8 Passengers, but no one truly understood what her children were going through until she was imprisoned for child abuse and her oldest daughter, Shari, told the story.  In this memoir, Shari recounts the years of pain, embarrassment, and abuse she and her siblings endured and Ruby's disturbing involvement with the life coaching program ConneXions, which only seemed to make everything worse in their house.  I've never seen 8 Passengers, but I watch a lot of commentary videos on the downsides of family vlogging and this channel is often referenced.  It's so sad to hear about what this mother put her children through, portraying herself as the perfect mom while her children's lives and privacy were being monetized.  Shari is so brave for wanting to tell this story and also telling it in her own voice for the audiobook.  It can't have been easy to relive all that.  4 stars

Everyone Is Lying To You by Jo Piazza (2025)

Former college friends Bex and Lizzie reunite years later when Bex, now a super-successful tradwife influencer, invites Lizzie, a journalist, to an influencer conference to write about a huge upcoming deal of hers.  While there, Bex's husband is found murdered on their idyllic ranch, and then Bex (and her children) disappear.  It's up to Lizzie to clear Bex's name and find her before it's too late.  I'm a sucker for social media-related stories, and it was so interesting to get this behind-the-scenes look at the "real" life of an influencer - the work and, of course, all the lies that go into it.  I liked that we got both Lizzie's and Bex's POVs, and the pacing was pretty good.  Some of the twists and reveals were shocking, others more expected, but what was maybe most intriguing (and disturbing) was the amount of manipulation going on, the lengths that people will go to in order to gain some power, fame, and money.  4 stars

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