S5E2 The cult of celebrity influencers: Louise O’Neill on fame spirals and addictive relationships

Social media influencers live the lives we wish we lived - perfect and flawless… Or so we think. IDOL is the story of online health and wellness guru Samantha Miller, whose spiral downwards shows that life behind the camera lens is not always so rosy - that we don’t always know who we’re idolising.

Louise O’Neill is a prolific Irish author with multiple titles to her name. Through IDOL she draws on some of her own, testing experiences with social media, digging into its darker side. And through a tumultuous relationship she also plays with the concepts of memory, self perception and truth.

In this episode we find out how the fallibility of memory can be used to create dynamic and interesting characters, we learn about the lasting impacts of addictive relationships, and we explore the concept of abstract characters.

IDOL is out now. Find a copy here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can view the full transcript here.