Review: Get Rich or Lie Trying Symeon Brown

Discover the truth about the billion-dollar online economy that made the internet's best known stars

Being an influencer is now the top future career choice for children. What if you could spend your life adored by fans, receiving freebies and countless riches. What if you could bypass the worst job market for generations?

But as Symeon Brown explores in this searing expose, the reality is much more murky. From YouTube pranksters in LA to Brazilian butt lifts, from pornographers on OnlyFans to fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes, these are the stories that lurk behind the filtered selfies and gleaming smiles.

Exposing the fraud, exploitation, misogyny and environmental destruction at the core of the influencer economy, Get Rich or Lie Trying asks if our online race for fame and riches is costing us too much. A revealing window onto a broken financial model that often resembles a pyramid scheme, this incredible blend of reportage and analysis will captivate and horrify you in equal measure.

Review: I didn’t really have any expectations going into this book, which is sometimes the best way isn’t it? I knew that I wanted to hear what this writer had to say about the influencer economy, living so much of my own life online as I do, but I had an open mind about what else they were going to throw at me. I feel like I learned quite a lot from this book, some about brands I had heard of and others from a world that was completely new to me. 

There were a couple of sections of this book that didn’t appeal to me as much as others, but that's the great thing about nonfiction that’s broken into sections like this, I could skip over the end of a chapter or two and still be connected to the text. I think I expected a broader look at more brands and more corners of the internet and what I got was a deeper look at a few choice brands in key areas. I did like that though because it meant I got to learn more about people/brands I hadn’t heard of. 

I didn’t expect as strong a message of the fact that the influencer economy, like so much of the world, is incredibly misogynistic and led by the male desire and patriarchal rules. I like the way this book exposes that by looking at particular money-making schemes and ways people can grow their brand quicker that are just more successful and an easier way to live life if people are exploited along the way. This book was definitely uber depressing in places and showed just what a raw and cut throat world influencer culture is. I enjoyed this book on audio, although it would have been good to be able to skim the chapters of a physical book beforehand to see what appealed to me first.

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