Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Team for this Advanced Digital Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

I love the "beauty horror" sub-genre. I feel like every time I read another book like this it feels more and more relevant. I'm not a woman who is particularly engaged with beauty culture. I don't wear makeup very often, and I don't have very much skin care at all. So, on the surface, I often feel like I can rise above the protagonists of these books in their need to become beautiful. There's a smug, ugly sense of superiority I get from being "not like these other girls" because I'm satisfied and happy in my body. "I would never fall for this!"

But I absolutely do fall for it. Every time I read one of these books, I find myself WANTING the elixir that makes you beautiful but steals your soul. I want to be changed and pretty, and I want the sense of belonging that comes with drinking the Kool-Aid. These protagonists are never in a vacuum when they turn to beauty and skincare. They always have others around them telling them that this will fix what is wrong, this will help you, this will finally bring you peace. I think that's so engaging. These women aren't happy when they are approached by a beauty cult. They're often sad, lonely, or grieving and these products offer them a sense of control.

Though I might not engaged with beauty care in my life, I do feel very strongly that if I was prettier, if my skin was more clear, people would like me more. I think that's a really common feeling amongst women. In a way, these books have the same message: seeking to be perfect will destroy you. I think that's a valid theme to take away from stories like YouthJuice.

I do think that YouthJuice muddles that message with the ending, but not necessarily in a bad way. The protagonist, like others of the genre, is able to break from the cycle of those who came before her, but she returns to it in a way that could be considered less harmful. YouthJuice is re-packaged with different ingredients, but she still profits from selling the cure to aging. She is still able to heal the scars on her hands. I wonder what that could be saying about the beauty industry.

It's strange. In most ways, Sophie ends her narrative at a better place than other women in this genre. Even though she commits heinous acts, she isn't punished for it by the narrative. She is rewarded. It makes Sophie less of a horror "final girl" and more of a villain. The story turns into more of a corruption arc. Sophie has not pulled back from the messaging towards women about their flaws and how to fix them. Instead, she leans into them and provides the solution. I can see the author possibly making a point about how the beauty industry churns up and spits out people, especially aging women. Soph is young and the other, older women at the company end up the worst off.

I think that YouthJuice has a lot to say, but I don't necessarily think it was the best at saying them. The writing is a little meandering at times, though I did appreciate some of the more atmospheric, dreamy descriptions. I also didn't feel as much tension as I would've liked to. There's a lot going on that should have made me nervous for Sophie: the missing interns, Dom, the YouthJuice itself, but I didn't feel too tense.

Books like this make me feel weird. I don't want to be influenced by the beauty culture around me, and there's a lot of inherent horror in the things we do to be beautiful. The idea of a facelift? Horrifying. Chemical masks that peel away your skin? What the hell. I feel the horror coming from the beauty industry, and I love when authors execute on those ideas.

I would recommend YouthJuice, and I will be keeping this author on my radar.

Youthjuice is a dark and satirical exploration of the beauty industry and its grip on modern society. The story follows Sophia Bannon, a 29-year-old copywriter, who is lured into the glamorous yet sinister world of HEBE, a luxury skincare company. As Sophia becomes addicted to a secretive product, "youthjuice," she must confront the disturbing costs of eternal beauty. The novel is a biting commentary on consumerism, beauty standards, and how far people will go to remain youthful. With its blend of body horror and satire, Youthjuice is both stomach-churning and thought-provoking, making readers rethink their beauty habits.

A bland yet forgiving tale about the perils of ageing, and the desperate attempts of a.select.few to stave it off... Or die trying...

"Youthjuice" by E.K. Sathue presents an inventive blend of science fiction and dystopian themes with a unique premise centered around rejuvenation. The novel’s imaginative concept and world-building offer an intriguing exploration of age and vitality. However, the execution may resonate differently depending on readers' tastes for speculative fiction and character depth.

Weird but great. It became evident to me pretty quickly what was happening. I didn't find the writing particularly good but the story was propulsive.

Another reviewer mentioned that this book is American Psycho meets The Devil Wears Prada and that is what sold this book for me. I love that we are seeing more books that deal with the horrors and dark side of the beauty industry.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the last few months and it didn't disappoint. Sathue wrote in a way that made me forget I was reading, and I felt sucked in to the story. Even though some of Sophia's choices were, well, questionable at best, I found myself rooting for her. I love an unhinged girly. And the ending was very satisfying in a way that you don't see a lot in horror, which I appreciated.

Eerie, bizarre, gross and wild! Once I started I couldn’t stop! I loved it. I was addicted like a great moisturizer. Thanks NetGallery!

This book screamed 'Rouge' by Mona Awad. Paired with the fact it was marketed as American Prada meets The Devil Wears Prada? Sign me up. The cover is gorgeous. 5 stars to the designer because it's creepy and beautiful at the same time. However this didn't live up to the hype in my opinion. There were many aspects of this book that ideas from others books I've read. The whole 'beauty cult' plot has the same twist every time. Would've loved something a little more different!

This was… weird. And gross. And deeply unsettling… I recommend!!
Following the narrator as she starts a new job at a prominent makeup/skincare company (think Goop but on steroids) and the unsettling company culture.
Throughout the novel we are seeing flashbacks of her teenage years with her best friend Mona while trying to parse out the mystery of her absence. During the present scenes, she is becoming more and more suspicious of a new product at HEBE that she is beta testing.
As we continue in the novel, our main characters already shattered sense of reality and composure devolves completely as she slowly descends into madness. Is it youthjuice doing this to her?
Overall, I enjoyed the nature of this horror, it definitely has some extreme body horror as well as psychological mindfucky what-the-hell-did-i-just-read? kind of vibe.
I rate this a 3.5/5 stars

Loved the modern use of the youth stealing “vampire” trope. This could have blended in but the main character kept it interesting. Will recommend. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy.

The premise of this book was genius. The commentary on older, moneyed humans using and exploiting those without means to stay young and relevant--Chef's Kiss! The execution . . . . a little less so. First, the protagonist is insufferable. I guess that is necessary so that it's believable that she would go along with everything. Also, there are so many plot holes. When she killed Dom, a famous blogger, no one notices that Dom is just gone?? Even though she's a rich socialite? And Tree doesn't help her dispose of Dom's body? Lots of little issues.

I'm surprised this book hasn't gotten more hype! The premise is really interesting and I wanted to read it so badly as soon as I heard about it! Unfortunately, I got almost a quarter of the way into it and then there was some pretty graphic descriptions of self mutilation. I wish I could handle that because I want to know the rest of the story, however I just can't do body horror. I can't recommend since I didn't finish, but I encourage anyone who isn't triggered by self harm to give it a shot!

I enjoy a good satirical take on the modern beauty/wellness industry, and one of the best parts of that is because you can dig into the WHY of it all - because god knows in real life you only ever get a bunch of bullshit PR nonsense from founders eliding the fact that people really get into this business because they're vain and money-hungry. It's the drink the Koolaid cult of personality lunacy that springs up around it all that's so interesting; people rarely want to acknowledge it but this industry just cannot survive without the in-group aspirational millennial pink marketing push that convinces capitalism-drunk twentysomething striver 9-to-5ers that their lives dominated by their meaningless big city email jobs, overpriced cocktail bar meet-ups, and paint by numbers boyfriends will somehow be improved by having this new tube of lip balm.

Fertile (organic, composted) ground, right? But among other frustrations, this book just never answered the Why? of it all on any level. Why did main character Sophia go from being an unambitious barista for several years to deciding she needed to lie her way into working at a beauty company? What exactly was so exciting about HEBE, given that by the time the book starts the company is already really successful before youthjuice is even on the market? Why was anybody ever obsessed with Tree, the company's founder, in the first place? (This question could have been answered by just fully having her be an Emily Weiss stand-in rather than making the bizarre decision to make the roommate character have the famous beauty blog backstory instead of Tree. Just - why that?)

And also: a number of interns go missing and it doesn't seem to be THAT big of a deal. My guy...really? Beauty & fashion interns in NYC, a class of people overwhelming likely to be young, white, pretty, already and forever rich women, and you're telling me the NYPD isn't tripping all over themselves to actually do something useful for once and try to like, solve a crime? Their wealthy parents aren't ripping the city apart to track down their People Magazine cover-ready girl scions of future Hamptons white parties?

I also think, speaking generally about a problem I've noticed with some of my more recent reads, that showing the "dark side" of a subject is kind of pointless when you never show what's so great about it in the first place. Show me the fun and games before it all falls apart, otherwise how is it believable that people would choose to make the moral and ethical trade-offs they do in order to stay in it? There was so much room to dig into the glamour that's half the reason you let the toxic positivity groupthink get its claws in, but this all just stayed so shallow - but shallowness can be compelling in itself, if you split it open and get at the heart of it. Instead, everyone here just seemed to approximately thirty years old and risking it all to stay looking 23, as if they're not all having Botox technicians make house calls to the office at lunch time (it's fine, they're going to "forget to eat lunch") anyway.

As wince-inducing as some of the choices made in The Devil Wears Prada were, it was at least clear that Lauren Weisberger had been In This Bitch; I don't think I'll ever forget the vivid terror of the opening scene of that novel and how real it felt. And while I'm sure the author here did her research and read the Glossier exposés or whatever, I kinda feel like she's never even been, like, emotionally invested in a beauty brand. Because even that's missing from the main character's POV - just who on Earth goes through the agonizing hassle of getting a job in this industry and isn't even a little bit stoked about getting free beauty products? Are you kidding me?

I just wish there'd been more in this book that you could really dig your teeth into. Maybe they should have all just eaten the interns alive like a pride of frenzied lions.

My thanks to Soho Press | Hell's Hundred and NetGalley for the ARC.

If you love beauty and you love horror, this was and is the book for you. It's giving me the devil wears prada vibes.

Nothing is as it seems in E.K. Sathue’s novel, youthjuice. Sophia lands a job at a high end makeup company, HEBE as one of their "storytellers". They are testing a new anti-aging cream they call “youthjuice” on the inner circle of the company, and the cream has dramatic effects. The origins of the cream and the lifestyle captures Sophia becomes a catalyst for her alienating her friends and boyfriend while digging deeper and deeper into the work of HEBE. 

The overall concepts of the novel are interesting. I do like stories about people put into situations and environments that they are ill equipped to handle so they either change the culture or adapt. Sophia is not ready for HEBE when she first arrived and does not know what they are doing to reinvent makeup. She just looks up to Tree Whitestone, the CEO, and will do what it takes to find her footing while trying to balance her old life with her new. These ideas are there, but they are not solid. The storytelling is soft and does not do the job in the way that it wants to. The characters are underdeveloped, and I don't feel like this will be a novel that I remember a few days from now. Sophia’s journey through destroying every relationship she has is fairly mundane, the only one that really sticks out is the falling out between her and her roommate Dom, whom we only know as someone she is close to and shares clothes with. The one relationship that Sathue spends a great deal of the novel exploring is flashbacks from when Sophia was in high school and had a friend named Mona. The finale of that friendship is so generic and boring that any reader will guess the end within the first few pages. Sophia is supposed to be written as someone who is cold and disinterested in other people, but the truth is she comes off as self-centered, bitchy, and a person nobody would want to be around in the first place. For her to get deep into the inner circle of HEBE is unexplained and unexplainable. Maybe it is because she is just as much of a fraud as everyone else in the novel.

There is a great amount of potential in youthjuice. I like the ideas of the story, but I do not like the execution. The novel feels like it could use some more focus and editing. At 288 pages, it seems like it is still at least fifty pages too long. 

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved the premise of this book, and stepping into this world of beauty and wellness. But for some reason I could not fully suspend my disbelief and truly get into the story. Maybe because I felt some parts were a little overwritten? But other parts were beautiful and insightful.

I had high hopes for youthjuice- I mean that cover alone made me eager to read it! I'm old and not a skincare girlie so maybe I'm not the best audience for this one, and it was good and weird but missing something.

The body horror and gory descriptions were incredibly well done… twice I actually had to stop reading because I was genuinely disturbed. That usually doesn't happen to me, even in the grossest of books. Hebe was fascinating as a cult like business and seeing Sophia change as she kept working there was fun. There was not one likeable character, and I am impressed when an author creates characters who are just loathsome because that takes work.

I can't pinpoint exactly what wasn't working for me but this was hard to get through and I hate read more than read to enjoy the story. Maybe the comparisons impacted my expectations, because I couldn't see them reflected and was instead underwhelmed. Maybe it was the rich people problems that annoyed me.

I think this is the right book for many people, I am just not one of them.

I love that this author wrote a horror book about the skincare industry. I love both of those things so this book was perfect for me. I also really enjoyed that this book reminded me of American Psycho.

youthjuice is a very unnerving look at the darker side of the beauty and wellness industry. Sophia has just started working at HEBE, a luxury skincare brand that is obsessed with youth and beauty. The founder, Tree, is impressed by some of Sophia's ideas for advertising and soon Sophia becomes part of Tree's inner circle. The closer their bond become, the more Sophia learns the unnerving truth about HEBE and their new product youthjuice. This is a satirical, surreal take on the beauty industry that was quite entertaining, however I think it could have benefited from more character development. It was still enjoyable, although there are some elements of body horror, so if you're squeamish you might want to skip this one.