YOU WILL NEVER BE ME

Sutanto turns from her lighthearted mysteries about older Asian American amateur sleuths to probe the toxic friendship between a pair of online influencers. It’s fake, it’s fatal, but it’s still heartlessly funny.

Aspen Palmer was nobody when Meredith Lee spotted her at a party eight years ago and chatted her up. She wasn’t even Aspen Palmer yet; her name was Ryleebelle—a terrible name for someone looking for likes—and she had yet to marry realtor Ben Palmer. Meredith, who marketed herself as “The Right Kind of Asian,” gave her new friend a new name, taught her how to navigate social media without a net, and then watched as Aspen’s numbers surpassed her own. Along the way, the pair recast themselves as momfluencers who modeled a lifestyle that went beyond fashion and beauty tips and dragged their young daughters into the spotlight. Inoffensive Ben, who doesn’t make nearly as much money as Aspen, comes along for the ride; the sperm donor who fathered Meredith’s baby is lucky enough to be forgotten. Six months ago, the two friends had a memorable spat over numbers and authenticity and all the rest of it, and since then they’ve avoided each other like poison until a series of disruptions causes one of them to decide that the rift between them doesn’t go deep enough; they need a break that’s altogether more decisive. Having established her credentials in YA fiction and gentle, albeit often manic comedy, Sutanto spins on a dime to show Meredith and Aspen dishing on each other with sublime and incandescent hatred. Even after tragedy strikes, their numbers continue to go through the roof. Until.

Social media mavens will nod in recognition; everyone else will come away relieved that this could never happen to them.