The sinister side of the wellness industry is rich ground for a horror novel, but this debut falls short.
In this debut novel, a former pianist takes a job at a groundbreaking holistic wellness company, where she learns the extent to which her new employers will go to make their privileged clients happy.
The unnamed narrator of the book—who eventually takes the name Anna when her employers claim her given Chinese name is too complicated—is the daughter of immigrants who fled China following the Cultural Revolution. Her parents worked as piano teachers, and when the narrator shows skill at the instrument, they devote their limited time and energy to helping her develop it. That skill eventually lands her a place at the prestigious Conservatory in New York City, where she is shunned by her peers due to her talent and bullied for her lack of wealth. When returning to New Jersey following one of her recitals, her parents are in a devastating car accident that requires they be placed in a care facility, and the narrator stops playing piano to take on minimum wage jobs to pay for their care. But when Saje, the face of the wellness company Holistik, comes into the restaurant where the narrator is working and offers her a job, her life begins to change. Given the most cutting-edge supplements and treatments, the narrator begins to see her own body morph into a Westernized ideal of beauty. But as she becomes more enmeshed in Holistik—becoming friends with the owner's niece, taking on additional tasks that show her parts of the company others don't see—she begins to question the moral core of what they do. This dystopian horror story poses questions about race, wellness culture, privilege, and beauty, but it struggles to do so in a way that provides deep consideration. A lack of setup makes the story hard to follow; the author rushes key aspects, from details such as what gift the narrator is given by a friend to larger considerations such as why a stranger offered the narrator a job on the spot that she accepted without question. Although it will keep the reader guessing, this novel ultimately moves too quickly to provide a satisfactory payoff on the many mysteries it lays out.
The sinister side of the wellness industry is rich ground for a horror novel, but this debut falls short.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9780593472927
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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