Two bored teenagers.
One stupid game.
The wrong place to play…
Alyssa wants to be seen. Less wants to be someone. She takes two buses to class, posts pictures of her lunch, and pretends it’s all effortless. He hides his privilege beneath thrifted clothes and a sketchbook full of impossible designs. Together, they are inseparable – two outsiders constructing a version of themselves the world might finally applaud.
Then Alyssa stumbles upon the hidden world of phrogging – living unnoticed inside other people’s homes. She and Less slip through Los Angeles’ glossy veneer: influencers, producers, pop stars, all so busy performing their perfect lives they don’t notice the shadows in their attics, the scratching in their walls.
An act of rebellion. A harmless thrill. A social experiment.
Until they choose the wrong house.
Until the influencer they idolise catches them in the act.
Until the cameras, already rolling, capture everything.
What begins as a reckless adventure becomes a nightmare of lies, power … and murder…
I'm thrilled to be sharing my review of Bad Influence by Will Carver today. Many thanks to Orenda Books for my advance copy of the novel and to Anne Cater from Random Things for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.
I have been called an influencer. It's not a title I embrace, laden as it is with accusations of inauthenticity, entitlement and downright lying. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that through my reviews, I hope to influence other readers to read the books I recommend. Bad Influence is Will Carver's latest and is one of his most fun reads yet. It's also exactly the sort of book I started blogging for.
Endless scrolling on social media has become a habit for many of us and we're fed by algorithms that echo and inform our interests and beliefs, Even in these artificially created echo chambers, however, there are still the controversial click-bait posts which gain traction and divide opinion between ardent supporters and those vehemently opposed to the point being made, with the inevitable trolls muddying the waters still further. Meanwhile, the early innocence of reality television, which began with Candid Camera and The Family before the competitive social experiments of the likes of Big Brother and the scripted reality of Towie and Made in Chelsea eventually led to the diet of manipulative, shocking excesses that litter TV schedules today. In Bad Influence, Will Carver skewers the inanity of modern popular culture but while he satirises both those desperate for fame and the audiences who lap it all up, his most acerbic observations are saved for those who exploit their craving for adulation and drama.
The social media posts which are interspersed throughout the novel reflect the ubiquitous toxic positivity or pseudoscientific content that promises us a better version of ourselves if we only follow their advice. There are also more honest updates, including an excerpt from a filmed diary entry at the start of the book, from somebody who recognises the ridiculousness of it all and yet still wants to make an impact. They dream of being famous so they finally learn what it's like to be seen. Their attempts so far have failed but now they realise there's a much easier way – all they have to do is break into an influencer's house and live there without them knowing. The term for this is phrogging and while there have been other crime fiction novels that feature sinister home invaders, Alyssa and her best friend, Less just want to have some fun.
The characters in Bad Influence could have been easy to dislike. Alyssa's reckless desire for fame coupled with Less's privileged background mean they are not your usual more sympathetic protagonists. Neither is Paige, a fitness and wellbeing influencer who started off believing she was helping others by using science, knowledge and her experience to stop people being duped by fads but has since been seduced by the inevitable demands and endorsements that follow becoming popular. Nevertheless, as their worlds collide, Will Carver perceptively examines what drives them to behave as they do. We learn more about their lives and the struggles each of them face and ultimately appreciate that in spite of their flaws, they too are victims of the puppeteers controlling what we watch on our TV and phone screens.
It gradually becomes clear that people can only be influenced or inveigled so far before they start to try to regain control of their lives. Paige decides she needs some time away from her daily demands and tells her followers she is taking a break. Unfortunately for her, she is not only the willing yet uninformed subject of a new project by a pair of wildly successful, unscrupulous producers, her house is the next target of Less and Alyssa, who have become addicted to the thrill of phrogging. A shocking encounter changes everything and Paige finds herself in a nightmare which threatens to expose her carefully curated image.
Of course, just as with reality television and social media, Will Carver astutely reminds us that not everything should be taken at face value and we shouldn't believe all we see or read. Bad Influence is a provocative, penetrating exposé of the hypocrisies of modern living but it's also a darkly humorous tale which marries the unlikely combination of soul searching and revenge perfectly. Bad Influence is Will Carver at his best as he proves yet again that books can be entertaining and thought-provoking. I wholeheartedly – and genuinely – highly recommend it!
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Will Carver is the bestselling author of the ‘January’ series – Girl 4, The Two, The Killer Inside, Dead Set – and the critically acclaimed ‘Detective Pace’ series, which includes Good Samaritans, Nothing Important Happened Today and Hinton Hollow Death Trip, all of which were selected as books of the year in mainstream international press. Will is also the author of several standalone literary thrillers.
His books have been longlisted or shortlisted for the Amazon Readers Independent Voice Award, the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, Not The Booker Prize and the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award. In 2026, Kill Them With Kindness won a prestigious Fingerprint Award for Genre-Busting Book of the Year.
Will spent his early years living in Germany, but returned at age eleven. He studied theatre and television at King Alfred’s Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition business and lives in Reading with his family.
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