Kids Run the Show - by Delphine de Vigan

Book Synopsis

A cautionary tale for a world in which social media has shattered the boundaries of intimacy.

The first time that Mélanie met Clara, she was stunned by Clara's sense of authority, and for her part, Clara was struck by Mélanie's pink, glittery nails, which shimmered in the dark. "She looks like a child," thought the first. "She looks like a doll," pondered the second.

These two women, both of the same generation and exposed to the same forms of media throughout their lives, could not be more different in adulthood. Mélanie is a social media superstar, broadcasting her children's daily lives on a family YouTube channel. Clara is a young police officer, assigned to the case after Mélanie's daughter Kimmy is abducted.

Traversing the Big Brother generation, the social media influencer generation, and right up to the 2030s, Delphine de Vigan offers a bone-chilling exposé of a world where everything is broadcasted and monetized, even family happiness.

Review Quotes

★ "An intelligent and affecting look at the void that lurks inside our social media fantasies of domestic bliss."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The novel's pace and sense of journalistic realism are enhanced by de Vigan's spare, direct prose, elegantly translated by Alison Anderson... If de Vigan's chilling tale is as prescient as it seems, so-called kidfluencers are just one of the psychological ticking time bombs planted by the dissolution of privacy in our culture of unfiltered digital exposure."--Madeleine Feeny, The New York Times Book Review

"A scathing tale for a social media era."--Sophia June, NYLON, November 2023 Must-Read Book Releases

"Tackles the complexities of influencer culture assiduously and provocatively...fast-moving and sharp."--Claudia Rowan, The Telegraph (UK)

"De Vigan has written a blistering critique of influencer culture, the erasure of privacy, and the exploitation of children."--Molly Odintz, CrimeReads

"I inhaled this unsettling literary thriller."--The Bookseller (Editors' Choice)

"A scathing criticism about privacy, social media, and parental rights."--Elisa Shoenberger, Book Riot

"Kids Run the Show has the shape of a thriller, but it's more sociological than mysterious and more interesting than involving."--Star Tribune

"Alison Anderson's translation from the French is smooth and lucid, making Kids Run the Show a quick read...In the end, the story is suspenseful, a plotty page-turner with multiple twists."--Frenchly

"Blending suspense and social commentary, de Vigan's tale offers various perspectives on social media and its constructs of reality."--Booklist

"One of France's foremost contemporary novelists, de Vigan returns here with a cautionary tale about social media and the monetising of our every move."--Stephanie Cross, The Daily Mail

"Kids Run the Show is a razor-sharp exploration of social media through the lens of influencer culture, penned by a talented writer."--Chris Haigh, Set the Tape

"Following a social media star and a petite cop linked in a tragic kidnapping, Delphine de Vigan's Kids Run The Show is spooky and wry, haunting and detached, bleak but chic. I loved it."--Anna Dorn, author of Exalted

"A thrilling story about children exposed to social media by their parents from a young age."--La Croix

"Delphine de Vigan plunges her reader into the fascinating and brutal world of influencers."--Le Figaro

"A captivating thriller reminiscent of The Truman Show."--ELLE