Book Review – You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto

“What’s in a name? Well. A name is the beginning of your brand, so, what’s in a name?”

Meredith is a mid-level influencer who meets Aspen at a party. A newbie who is trying to break into the music business. Meredith takes her under her wing, gives her a makeover and tips and the two become best friends. Aspen meets Ben, they get married, have three kids including “instagrammable” twins and Aspen finds her niche as a momfluencer and surpasses Meredith as an influencer. The two have a falling out, Meredith finds one of Aspen’s kids iPad that has her schedule and proceeds to sabotage Aspen. Aspen has no idea all this is happening and is wondering why her life is falling apart. Meredith goes missing and it opens up a well of secrets.

“I learned long ago to stop apologizing so much for everything”

Sometimes, a book doesn’t have to be on all of the lists and have all the bells and whistles that make it complicated. It could just be a simple thriller with all the right components and that’s what this book was for me. I am notorious for saying that most thrillers don’t thrill me but I was thrilled by this. I liked that it was centered around the culturally relevant world of social media/influencing and the pressures of keeping up appearances that come with it. Sutanto painted a clear picture of the behind the scenes of being an influencer and curating a perfect life.

“The only reason crazy bitches exist is because there’s always some asshole gaslighting us into losing our shit”

Sutanto also does a good job of streamlining so many topics so it didn’t feel convoluted. She made sure to get to the point and didn’t drag out plot points. This was one of the rare times where the pain of unlikeable characters didn’t overshadow the book. I was able to enjoy the book even though the characters were terrible people. It was also great to read a book where the lead characters were Asian and their race was not made to be a central point. The characters were allowed to breathe and just be human beings.

“America is obsessed with beautiful missing women.”

There is a twist in the book that some may call predictable but I wasn’t expecting it and I actually gasped. After the twist, everything felt like a speed chase but a fun one. There are other mini storylines and I enjoyed that the chapters alternated between both women’s POV. This is my first book by Sutanto and she definitely left a great impression on me. I definitely recommend.

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