Mélanie, who grew up worshipping Loft Story (the French adaptation of Big Brother), has just one thing on her mind: becoming famous. But her one performance on a reality TV show is a flop. A few years later, now a wife and a mother, she creates her own channel on YouTube: Happy Playtime, which showcases her two children on a daily basis. She soon has millions of followers who “like” and comment on their every move.
Meanwhile, a young woman, Clara, becomes a police officer. Marked by the brutal loss of her parents, she joins the criminal investigation unit. Their paths meet when Mélanie’s daughter, Kimmy, vanishes into thin air. A meet-up with the wrong person? Did she run away? Was she kidnapped? As the investigation runs its course and as Clara discovers the world of influencers, she realises how violent Happy Playtime can be for the two children, who are both the stars of the show, as well as its victims.
With this novel, Delphine de Vigan takes up a dizzying issue: the social media and their excesses. She brilliantly explores an increasingly navel-gazing society, in which everything is staged and up for sale, including family happiness.
€14.95