I have very mixed feelings about this book! I'm fascinated by all things scammy, so this is right in my wheelhouse. I thought this added some good angles to the MLM story I haven't deeply considered more, namely about the loneliness that draws people in and the paid friendships, similar to sororities, that MLMs offer. And it is nice to hear the story of an MLM from someone who really got to see it from the inside. I am also interested in the toxic nature of "wine mom" culture and how women alcoholics often aren't taken as seriously.

That said, this book is overlong and repetitive. And two, the author really hand waves over points that deserve closer attention. Her status as a political "moderate" rang incredibly false to me. It felt like she paid lip service to progressive politics by naming the white supremacy that runs deep in MLM culture, but she didn't investigate that especially well. And she said she voted for W?!

More than that, she writes as if this book is some kind of amends for the harm she perpetrated through her MLM. But she never details anything she did to make things right for the people at the bottom of her downline. Presumably she could have found all that information and literally made reparations to these people if it really mattered to her.

Her portrayal of coaching as the next chapter in her life also sent up some red flags for me. I had coaching training through a job once and the MLM vibes were intense. I'm deeply skeptical that her training was as rigorous as she leads us to believe, and I get the sense that coaching is the way she can monetize what she's doing now without having to deal with more regulated avenues like becoming a licensed therapist or social worker (not that either of those avenues are perfect solutions to the problem of substance use by any means). So the book felt a little like a plug for her coaching business. And in the end I left the book feeling that she wants to go big on her loneliness narrative and really brush over her own desire for wealth.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Hey, Hun is part memoir, part expose of the sketchy and problematic things that take place in MLMs. The author talks about her time in an MLM, where she was one of the rare people who rose to the top, and how she wound up leaving. She also pulls back the curtain on the manipulative and toxic ways MLMs convince you to join and stay, as well as the capitalism, white supremacy and other problematic elements inherent in MLMs.

I really enjoyed this book. The author is an excellent writer, who knows how to keep the reader engaged. She doesn’t fail to call out her own shortcomings, and how she was part of many of the problematic elements to MLMs. Her writing style is very engaging, it feels like you’re talking over coffee to a funny, thoughtful friend. I also liked how her memoir was woven in between explaining toxic elements of MLM’s, since it gave the story a great flow. Overall, I loved this book!

I've been reading more books about various types of cults, scams, and dangerous enterprises. This was definitely an interesting look into the world of MLM companies. What makes it even better is how personal and in depth it all was. I appreciate the insight the author gave, how she opened up about her experiences, and I'm glad she wrote this book.

I was immediately intrigued by this book due to the subject matter. I’ve heard about the “Hey, Hun” phenomenon with regards to MLMs and social media, and wanted to read an account from someone who was once a participant. Emily’s memoir absolutely met my expectations and then some. She didn’t shy away from describing her time in an MLM, rising through the ranks, then becoming disillusioned and her path to leave.

The narrative arc was well done and I did not want to put this book down once I started it. I made time to read it because the subject matter was intriguing. Emily bares her flaws in order to show how MLMs take advantage of people, and keep them on the hook to spend more money and recruit more people. She spends time exploring the reasons she was susceptible to the tactics used to get and keep her involved, and explains how and why she brushed aside concerns during her tenure before finally calling it quits.

The connections to white supremacy felt far-fetched to me at times, but perhaps there were just some gaps in the writing as to how she came to her conclusions. I absolutely agree that white supremacy is an issue in MLMs, capitalism, etc. but there were times when I was reading this that it felt added in to make a point or somewhat repetitive. There were some sections where the exploration of white supremacy was clearly demonstrated in the MLM activities she described and well worth including. The discussions of sales and sisterhood flowed a little better in the reading. I’m glad that Emily took on these hard topics though and appreciate her willingness to speak up about them.

The resource lists included at the end of the book were very helpful and I’ve added several books to my list to read on the topic of MLMs.

Emily is raw, honest and unflinching in this memoir. I would like to see more memoirs of this nature. Emily’s desire to raise awareness and help others is evident in this book and her other pursuits. This was a fast read and I recommend it for anyone interested in memoirs, MLMs and cults.

A riveting look at the world of MLMs from an elite inside perspective. This feels like it should be required reading for North Americans, where MLMs are thriving and exceedingly dangerous.

As a staunch anti MLM-er, I couldn’t put this down.

It’s a long read but absolutely fantastic and doesn’t shy away from how these organizations prey on isolated women and uphold white supremacy.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc!

This one is a GREAT one to discuss with your friends, especially if you have ever been a part of or pressured by MLM businesses! It is eye opening and very interesting. I loved the writing style!

I am utterly fascinated by the cult-like world of MLMs. I’ve never been involved personally, but I have seen many friends fall prey to these machines. This book was a compelling first-person look at the dark underbelly of MLMs, and it was equal parts salacious and educational. If you’re looking for a great companion read, I recommend Cultish, which has a chapter dedicated to the fanatic language of MLMs, right down to “Hey Hun.”

This was such a fascinating read. I loved it! This book is the perfect mix of personal experience and academic research and theory. We follow our author from her entry into the MLM, her success as part of it and all the perks than came with it through to her disillusionment with and exit from it. It was so interesting to understand what it is like to be riding the high of being at the top whilst within the MLM and how you are told to and are able to brush aside doubts and haters. Every time I read another part of this I wanted to talk about it with my partner as I found it so interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it!

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC of "Hey, Hun" by Emily Paulson. I had heard about this book a number of months before it hit netgalley and was very eager to get my hands on a copy. I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to read it ahead of its publication date on ebook. Ms Paulson takes you right into the heart of what it is like to be recruited, involved and break free from the cult that is MLM. I have had a light experience and exposure to MLM. I had purchased the products and was a salesperson for a well known MLM but due to my previous knowledge of how MLMs work, I did not get sucked into it the way Ms. Paulson did. In fact, to some extent I helped provide less funds to the MLM by placing orders for friends so that they did not have to join. Back to the book, Ms. Paulson's writing style makes you cringe and feel as though you are actually there and experiencing what happened to her. She delves into concepts that I had never considered but likely noticed about the MLM experience - its all white supremacy and male domination. She also exposes the highly exploitative nature of MLMs when it comes to stay at home moms or women in general. I highly recommend her book whether or not you have a connection to an MLM.

#netgalley #heyhun

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. My wife was pretty involved with an MLM when we started dating, and I got a bit sucked in too, so I was definitely interested in the topic. I am very glad we didn't go as far down the rabbit hole as the author, and I appreciated the candor with which she shared about her experience. This took me longer to read than it should have, it felt repetitive at times and pretty heavy handed with the messaging that MLMs are basically cults. But overall an easy & compelling read.

This book follows the author's journey to the top of an MLM company and her eventual exit from the industry. The author details the ways she became emeshed in the cultlike atmosphere of the company, based on the "B.I.T.E" model (behavior, information, thought, and emotional control). MLMs prey on vulnerable women. This happened to the author.. and eventually the prey became the predator. This book is well-written and combines an entertaining account of the daily life on an MLM representative with a good amount of education on the history of the industry as a whole. I highly recommend this book, especially to those women who are involved in an MLM and have a gut feeling that their experience isn't lining up with the promises that they were told when they were first recruited.

At one point in this story Paulson’s Facebook friend tells her “for fuck’s sake, enough with the MLM bullshit!” I felt that the entire time reading, while Paulson was talking about her disenfranchisement with the company, the financial ruin she led many women to, the rise of QAnon in her social group she was still actively profiting off of it all for an entire year. It’s very hard to feel bad for Paulson throughout this book, but I did.

What I loved most about this book is how effortlessly Paulson embedded fantastic research. While simultaneously telling her story of eye masks, girls trips to Vegas, and greed she broke down the influence of MLMs in campaign finance, federal agencies, and even the KKK. This book isn’t just about one leader in an MLM or even one MLM, Paulson is truly just a number in this insidious industry.

Thank-you NetGalley & Row House Publishing for the eARC in exchange for my honest review of the book.

As a recovering 'hun,' I was so excited to get my hands on this book! Emily explores so many facets of MLM while offering humor and compassion.

It reminded me a lot of a podcast I listened too but a little more in-depth. If you are interested in woman, feminism, consumerism and cults this is the book for you.

I will say it drives me nuts that it's "hun" and not "hon". I almost didn't read it.

Fascinating, intriguing, funny, and real. I loved this, but it felt super long winded - it would have been a 5 star for me if it was more concise.

Emily Paulson is a stay at home mother of 5 experiencing what befalls many parents who have left the traditional workforce. She feels lonely, tired, overstimulated, and is yearning for something new in her life. Enter Rejuvinat, a direct sales gig her friend introduces her to during a ̶s̶a̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶p̶i̶t̶c̶h̶ dinner out. Hey, Hun is told by Emily about her experience climbing the ranks in this company and the moral compromises she had to make along the way.

MLMs are one of my special interests. While I've never fallen prey to one, I am a former member of a church, a stay at home mom, and a white woman in a conservative community. They would love nothing more than to eat me for lunch is what I'm saying. I've been at war with direct sales and all that these companies represent for years now, so this book was a perfect fit for me.

I really loved Emily Paulson's writing voice, and that she was vulnerable about her experience without feeling a need to sugarcoat it. She brought anecdotes and she brought data on the predatory practices of not only the company she was involved with (hint: Rejuvinat is not a real company but a simple google will tell you which company is being written about in this book), but of other direct sales "businesses" and the industry as a whole. Paulson is not scared to have the hard conversations surrounding income disparity, colorful wording, and white supremacy infecting communities all across America. Hey, Hun will be a heavy hitter and perhaps divisive, but it leaves no room for misinterpretation.

I recommend this for readers of books like Cultish or for those who enjoyed watching LulaRich or Betting on Zero. I also recommend this for any reader who is currently involved with these companies or curious about the behind the scenes. It was absolutely a hit for me and I can't wait to see how it is received upon release.

Thanks so much to Row House Publishing as well as NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and Other Lies Behind Multi-Level Marketing

Author:Emily Lynn Paulson

Publisher: Row House

Release Date: May 30, 2023

*I received my digital copy from Netgalley. I was not compensated in any way.

Emily Lynn Paulson was an upper middle- class stay at home mom when she was recruited into an MLM cosmetics company and rose to the top. She was making tens of thousands per month, traveling extensively, and showered with designer handbags and other perks. It took years for her to realize the truth about the company she worked for. She got involved with the company to make friends, earn a little "me time" and travel. What she got was exhaustion, a drinking problem, and hardly any time for her children or husband. In this, her second book, Emily Paulson comes clean about MLMs, who they prey on, and how they operate.

I chose this book because I have fallen for the MLM recruitment lines more than once. (Much more than once.) It took me learning the hard way that MLMs are a quick path to financial ruin. Why did I get involved? I needed extra money. MLMs look so exciting to women like me What kind of woman is that? Paulson describes in detail who gets targeted, and why.

I literally could not put this book down. I saw so much of myself and my friends who have fallen time and again for the idea of making money from home in our spare time. How do MLMs draw women in and how do they brainwash them into staying? Paulsen explains this as well as how MLMs use control tactics to brainwash their consultants (or whatever term they use for the people who sign up and pay money for a "starter kit"). Paulson explains how MLMs work and why they remain legal.

Thanks to this book, I now understand why MLMs set people like me up for failure. It all makes sense now. Paulson's writing style makes for easy reading and understandability. This is a fascinating book. I highly recommend it.

Read this book if...

... you have ever been involved in an MLM

... someone you care about is involved in an MLM

... you are being pressured into joining an MLM

...you are curious about "pyramid schemes" and MLMs

This book is going to make waves and for good reason. Paulson’s writing is compulsively readable and drew me in right away. Parts of her story seemed almost too absurd to be true yet I’m sure they are. I really enjoyed the reading experience. Two things that stood out: 1) I wanted a deeper exploration of how MLMs perpetuate white supremacy. I think Paulson knows but it’s not made clear to the reader beyond just “people of color don’t join MLMs”. A little deeper analysis is warranted. 2) the ending felt rushed, though maybe I was rushing it. Again, I craved deeper analysis of the MLM-to-QAnon pipeline.

This was a brilliant exploration into a toxic subject matter that hasn’t hit the mainstream publishing industry as of yet.

Lynn Paulson merges personal experience with wider journalistic endeavours by interviewing other ex members of the groups that have harmed so many. She delves deep into the political and racist production of the MLMS groups which many previous articles and content on the topic has shied away from.

The tone is particularly chatty which won’t be for everyone but I imagine it will be well suited to audio production particularly.

Can I interest you in buying this super expensive product? Oh, but actually you can get a super great discount if you start selling it yourself.

No, I'm not actually trying to entice you into an MLM scheme. But Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing by Emily Lynn Paulson goes into how you can get roped into one in much more subtle ways. She discusses how MLM's prey on the vulnerable and how they thrive through her own rise and fall in one.

Emily's story is riveting in the way that you can't look away from a car crash. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but so much of the indoctrination and manipulation just seems unbelievable. It also helps that her writing is conversational and witty. There are some abrupt jumps in topic and some repetitiveness, but the rest of the book is so easy to consume that I didn't mind.

Hey, Hun comes out May 30, 2023. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.