Idol by Louise O’Neill. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
I read Louise O’Neill’s Idol in two sittings with my heart in my mouth as we witness Samantha Miller’s life publicly unravel. The novel lives up to its thriller descriptor. Yet, weeks after finishing it, I was frustrated by how a particular aspect of the story was handled. It’s not something I have seen mentioned in any of the reviews I’ve read, but I still feel this way months later.
From the blurb, we know that Samantha Miller’s career as an influencer is going from strength to strength. Her latest book Chaste is an instant bestseller, and her follower count has hit three million. While promoting Chaste, Samantha publishes an essay about a sexual experience with her best friend, Lisa, while they were teenagers. But Lisa’s memory of that night differs from Samantha’s.
They cannot both be right, so whose version of that night is the truth? As Samantha faces increased scrutiny, she wonders whether the life and career she has built will come crashing down around her.
Idol is a compelling exploration of influencer culture, cancel culture, the Me Too movement, and trauma's effect on someone’s memory. This brings me to my main issue, the dynamic between Samantha and Lisa, both as teenagers and in the present, is complex. Yet, Louise O’Neill never fully engages with how this “she said, she said” story would be viewed or experienced through an LGBTQ+ lens. Neither character is explicitly queer. In her essay, Samantha emphasises that they are both straight.
I get it: For many people, myself included, sexuality is fluid, and the words we use to describe ourselves often change (again, I include myself here). But, for me, the whole thing felt like a plot device that while not Louise O’Neill’s intention ended up being more than a little dismissive of lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, and other m-spec women’s experiences of sexual violence.
Idol by Louise O’Neill is published by Bantam Press, an imprint of Transworld Publishers and Penguin Random House. Idol is available in hardback, trade paperback, ebook, and audiobook format.
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