Publishing House: Soho Press
Release Date: June 4, 2024
Where To Find It: Bookshop
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Synopsis
How far would you go for eternal youth?
29-Year old Sophia Bannion is hired by HEBE, a wellness/skincare brand akin to GOOP in New York City’s SOHO neighborhood. The company seems perfect. Everyone is thin and beautiful. They eat a strict vegan diet and are all sober. No toxins, poisons, or PFAs are entering their bodies. As Sophia makes it through her day she realizes something is too perfect about the company. The founder, Tree Whitestone is ageless, but soon Sophia starts to see cracks in her perfection.
As she starts to gain more insight into the true secrets behind the company’s success, and the secret ingredient in their newest product “youthjuice,” her own life begins to unravel. Her past isn’t quite stuck in her past and the skeletons in her closet demand to come out.
My Thoughts
Elizabeth Bathory meets Gwyneth Paltrow in this gothic horror satire of the beauty industry, and I am here for it. I will be honest, I struggled with this book. Sophia’s struggles with self image and aging hit home in a way I didn’t expect. I mean what woman or girl hasn’t struggled with her image? When Sophia is given the opportunity to test the new product, discovers it’s basically magic, and then finds out the gory truth of the secret ingredient, part of me thought well, if it works. Morbid, I know. But there are women on TikTok putting period blood on their face claiming it cures everything so…
Sophia isn’t a perfect narrator. She has her own issues that she has to deal with, but who of us doesn’t? That’s what makes her character so relatable. She deals with the pettiness that too often plagues female friendships, the loss of relationships and she discovers and rediscovers herself, and just how far she is willing to go for beauty.
If you love body horror, and have a severe distrust of the beauty industry, you will love this book.
Rating
4/5
Alicia Coast 