Dangerous Influence - Sally Nicholls - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Sally Nicholls

GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: September 24, 2026

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A contemporary teen fiction about a girl who's tired of being the subject of her influencer mom's videos. A serious topic, made slightly darker by some of the included topics. A good discussion from both sides of the argument, though obviously tilted towards the daughter. Plenty of themes. An interesting book that lends itself to thought and discussion. Recommended.

Plot Preview:

Thirteen-year-old Anna, along with her elder sister Josie, has been featured in her mother's vlogs ever since she was a toddler. Though Josie seems to enjoy her online exposure, Anna is not happy with the extra attention and the teasing, nor with her private moments being available for public viewing. But when a serious issue comes up, both girls decide that enough is enough. How do they convince their mom to stop, especially as vlogging brings in her only income?

The story comes to us in Anna's first-person perspective.

A couple of months ago, I read a graphic novel titled "I Didn't Ask For This", which was about children of influencer parents not having a say in their privacy being exposed for public consumption. That book went the mixed way, addressing the problem more through a legal and legislative point of view than from the personal angle. When I saw this book dealing with the same topic, I hoped that it would do better justice to the serious matter. It does, despite a few hiccups.

The topic is complex enough. The story discusses both the parent's and the child's points of view. But as the writing is in Anna's first-person perspective, it is obviously slightly lopsided in her favour. I still appreciate that their mother's feelings are also included to some extent. I also love how the story points fingers not just at the mother but also at strangers on the internet devouring such content even if they are judgemental towards influencers.

While the topics of reduced privacy and the missing consent are important enough, the story also includes several other issues such as online trolling, body shaming, stalking, parental abandonment, single parenting, financial struggles, bullying and teasing at school, and objectification of young girls by perverts. (I should have taken the word "dangerous" in the title very seriously.) I wish some of the topics had been discarded so that a few important topics could have received their share of the focus. In a book of only 128 pages, having so many topics feels like an overload.

Anna's POV is an interesting one. She makes several valid arguments, but she doesn't often consider things from her mother's perspective. It's easy to see influencers as villains out to exploit their kids for monetary gains, but the book does Anna no favours by depicting her mom as a single parent with no other source of income. It divided my feelings to some extent because I felt sorry for the mom also despite her obliviousness to her kids' struggles. Further, she wasn't entirely selfish but did show indications of being protective and observant at least online. Turning her into a semi-positive figure diluted the intensity of some of Anna's arguments against the vlogging.

The writing is mostly on point. As per this publisher's usual Hi-Lo approach, the story aims at teens but the language is at a lower reading age, making the book accessible even to slow/reluctant readers. I just wish a couple of the lines had been edited to suit the target age group better. The scene with one parent calling another a ‘bitch’ and their child repeating the same word, and the line where Anna talks of an online stranger possibly being "a weird man trying to get in my pants" didn't make me comfortable. Also, the "me and Josie" construction is used a couple of times. I know many children speak this way but I still hate seeing this structure in books. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Overall, the book does do justice to the topic, even if it tries to go in too many directions at once. Several of the included topics are disturbing but relevant to the modern world. Given how many governments (UK, where this book is set, being the latest) are working on restricting social media access to the 16+ age group but still have no laws in place for children of influencers, such books offer a valid and much required talking point.

Recommended, but not to individual readers. Because of the nature of the content, I think this book would do better in an environment that facilitates interaction such as a library storytelling session or a classroom discussion on online privacy. As the book covers some mature topics, it will better suit teens aged 13+.

My thanks to Barrington Stoke for providing the DRC of “Dangerous Influence” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.