'Beauty doesn’t fade. It feeds. Dorothy Wagner has spent her whole life wanting nothing more than to be seen. But after failing to make her mark (any mark, really) as an influencer, she takes a job at a company focused on cutting-edge deepfake technology. And there, in secret, she creates her salvation.
'Isabella: an impossibly gorgeous girl who takes social media by storm. Dorothy’s code is brilliant, and Isabella seems real, so real that she garners millions of followers. Brands beg to partner with her. Everyone wants to meet her IRL. The adoration—and the cash—flows in. Dorothy is finally happy. She’s getting all the attention she ever wanted—isn’t she?
'Then the cracks begin to show. Dorothy can barely stay ahead of the partnership requests, and love letters and the rabid fans filling her DMs trying to track Isabella down. All this time working in secret with all this pressure is getting to Dorothy—she can’t tell where she ends, and her creation begins. And when someone gets a little too close to her secret, a violent confrontation sends Dorothy on the run, forcing her to confront what she’s willing to sacrifice to keep her secrets.'
If you spend any time on social media it's impossible for you not to be aware of 'influencers', people who have small celebrity followings seemingly for no reason. These influencers don't tend to create anything but a brand centred on themselves. They're the kind of celebrity where no one can actually tell you what they're a celebrity for, they just are. They flood their platforms with photos and videos sharing their opinions, of their heavily curated depiction of a daily life, and it nets them sponsorships and fans offering them money. It's a community that millions aspire to break into, yet almost all will fail at.
This is the life that Alma Katsu takes a look at in her latest book, Incarnate, which follows Dorothy Wagner, a young woman who's become used to being ignored, overlooked, and even the focus of bullying throughout her life. She wants more for herself, but doesn't have the confidence or self worth to really push for it. When Dorothy comes to work for a for a company with cutting edge deep-fake and effects technology that allows them to create digital doubles of people Dorothy decides to use the tech to create Isabella, a fake avatar for her to use to finally get what she wants.
Thanks to her ability to make Isabella whatever she wants, Dorothy is soon able to make her into the most popular new internet celebrity influencer. She's getting dozens of sponsorship offers, and more fan mail than she can keep up with, but she's loving the ability to finally live out her fantasy life; even if it is through a fake avatar. However, as things continue the line between her and Isabella begin to blur with horrifying results.
The internet is a wonderful vehicle to explore themes of horror, especially ones that connect to deeply personal themes such as identity, and desire, and Katsu uses it wonderfully in Incarnate. Those familiar with The Portrait of Dorian Grey will likely see some similarities here, and that's definitely not a bad thing, and if anything I'd say that Katsu has done a wonderful job at creating a more modern, updated spin on the story that will appeal to younger readers especially.
Incarnate is able to wonderfully pair together psychological horror, exploring themes of loneliness, self esteem, the desire to be popular, with body horror, with neither one of them taking full centre stage but instead working in tandem to create a narrative where you never feel fully comfortable or safe. Some of this discomfort also comes from how well Katsu is able to portray social media and just how insidious it can be. This is unsurprising considering Katsu's former role as a Social Media Researcher for the US government, and makes you come away questioning just what disturbing things she might have learned about social media's affects on people.
I dare say how you experience social media, your exposure to it, and your own views will likely shape just how much you enjoy Incarnate, and how much the horrors of the book will hit home for you. As someone who uses it very little, but has seen some of the worst sides of it, I feel that Katsu has done a great job at translating these horrors well, and created a truly twisted tale.
Incarnate is available now from Titan Books for £9.99
