I'm sad about how low I'm rating this one because the end is full of great messages and I 100% did not expect certain aspects of it but getting there was a bit of a chore.
Anita is lost. She lost her father unexpectedly, her mom has become obsessed with religion, her ex-boyfriend is getting married to a beautiful heiress, and her job is a totally unfulfilling dead-end. Nothing in her life is going her way so she decides to change everything and moves to LA with nothing but a fun chat with an HR head at a popular e-news site to give her hope of finding a job. She's super lucky in that she finds a rent-free room at a trendy and experimental community house, but that's pretty much all she has going for her when she arrives.
As she's doing everything except look for a job or really try to connect with her contact, she comes across an exercise studio named Goddess Effect and quickly finds herself tangled up in what is obviously a scam cult to everyone but her. It's a weird game of hiding away from everything while also thinking way too hard about everything.
There's a lot of exploration of perception and societal pressure that is as interesting as the way it's all resolved, just getting to it and how it develops held no interest for me.


Happy thanks to NetGalley and Little A for the early read!

I received a e-book ARC from NetGalley.

This was a great summer read option. It was nice to see a diverse cast of characters, but there was a lot of name-dropping to set the scene. It’s in the same vein as Lauren Weisberger or Kevin Kwan. A light parody on the Health and Wellness industry.

Is it possible to get sucked in by the very pressures you're running from?

Anita is tired, so tired, of the pressures of life in New York. Of the Expectations of everyone in her life. "I just got sick of New York," she explains to everyone, while apologizing as if that's something to feel bad about. But it's difficult to like Anita. The opening pages of the book are filled with her whining about her technological irritations and her social media presence.

But Cali Anita begins to change. And her awareness focuses outside of her personal grievances to see that something is wrong. Not just with herself, but with the society into which she's ingratiated herself.

This is a fast-paced, moving novel about finding and losing yourself, and finding the strength and vision to help others.

"Who was I doing this for? I wondered. Whose validation did I crave? Was I that desperate to be liked?"

It's a hard look at who we are, and who we might become, if we care more about our image than we do about others. It's a quick read, but a thriller that packs a glittery punch.