Snake Oil by Kelsey Rae Dimberg is such a wild ride—I couldn’t put it down! I was excited to read this book because I’m fascinated by the cult-like following of the “snake oil” part of the wellness industry. It dives into that aspect and has everything else: twists, mystery, and just enough drama to keep you on the edge of your seat without feeling over the top.
The story dives into the really messed-up world of manipulation and lies within the health and wellness industry, but it’s written in a way that makes you almost enjoy how messy it all is. Dimberg’s writing is vivid, and the characters feel so real—even when they’re doing shady stuff, you kind of get where they’re coming from.
I loved how the plot kept me guessing. Just when you think you’ve got everything figured out, bam, there’s another curveball. It’s dark, but not in a depressing way—more like “I need to know what happens next” dark.
My only tiny critique is that it takes a little while to really pick up speed, but once it does, it’s totally worth it. If you love thrillers with a bit of irony and satire. that make you question everyone’s motives, this book is so for you. Highly recommend!
Thank you to Mariner Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am always here for a takedown of toxic wellness culture, but Snake Oil was something more than that in some ways, while being a good old-fashioned corporate thriller/mystery in others. The book is narrated from the alternating perspectives of three very different women who all work for the fast-growing wellness company Radical (think of it as a mash-up of Goop & Glossier). Rhoda is the aspirational CEO, whose intimate social media presence helps sell the brand to customers & employees alike. Dani is a shining star on the customer service team, who started working for Radical in the early days when she was at a very low point in her life, & she buys all the hype & idolizes Rhoda. Cecelia also works in customer service & is friends with Dani, but she is what Rhoda terms "a quasher"--she's a lot more negative about the company & thinks the customers are being sold proverbial snake oil.

When Dani is offered a new role in the company, allowing her to work more closely with Rhoda & beta test an exciting new product, Cecelia's negativity reaches an all-time high. While snooping through customer service archives, Cecelia discovers that the new product Dani is testing might not be so new, or safe. & Rhoda is beginning to feel the pressure between maintaining her sunny & transparent Radical public persona & buckling under the stress of investor demands, wedding plans, & an anonymous Twitter account that seems to be devoted to criticizing the company from the inside.

The book was more of a traditional thriller than I expected--which is great news for people who like thrillers! I especially appreciated having three female characters antagonizing each other & interacting in various ways, & I love that it was all based around work instead of men. That was all a really nice change of pace from the usual recipe. But the specificity of the action taking place at a wellness company felt more like a convenience than a real satire or meaningful skewering of that culture. It felt more like "name a thriving business where a lot of women might work," & that was disappointing to me. & there is a male protagonist/anatagonist in the mix giving major Sunny-from-Theranos vibes, which also felt formulaic & ripped-from-the-headlines.

Possibly my hopes were too high for this one. If I'd gone in with a normal baseline of expectation, I probably would have been satisfied, but I really wanted something GREAT & this was just fine.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

I enjoyed reading Snake Oil and found myself becoming invested in it and eager to find out the ending. Many parts actually felt realistic in this day and age of wellness companies, our obsession with influences and youth, etc.

Snake Oil takes place mainly at Radical, a wellness/beauty company owned by Rhoda who is also the face of the company. She's basically a badass business woman who had made the company her entire life. The employees at Radical (known as Radigals) are all pretty much obsessed with the company and are drinking the brand Kool-Aid. Except for one customer service employee, Cecilia, who has started a Twitter account to expose the company and its founder. But her friend and coworker, Dani, is obsessed with the company and wants to climb up the ladder. She's also recently found out she's pregnant.

When a tragedy happens, things get totally shaken up and Radical and Rhoda begin getting questioned. Can they survive?

Like I said, I really enjoyed the ride of this book. But I have to say I didn't LOVE the ending. Overall, I do think this is a fun read and I can't wait to see what the author does next!

The story of ; is wellness fake? Rhoda certainly hopes not. The extreme creator of radical, daughter of an entrepreneur fraudster, with big dreams and promises to fill. However, you know with a title like snake oil you’re probably looking at a fraud. I get influence of Elizabeth smart.

With multiple points of view, I enjoyed Cecilia- the bottom of the totem pole employee who probably sees and understands the most. I loved Cecilia’s pov; “that if she had tried harder, she might have cured herself. That illness doesn’t work that way”, which really sums up the dismissive way the wellness industry can be.

This loses quite a bit of steam in the back half of the story but that happens when the most interesting POV is dulled. This reminds me of Darby Kane’s writing, which isn’t necessarily my favorite. The real opportunity here was Dani and Rhoda, as two different POVs, they were too similar.

I would have appreciated either one more good idea for the story, just keep the plot moving. Or some editing down. Not everything needs to be over 300 pages.

OMG What was this? I love it all so much! It is so weird and also relatable,. I can't decide who I liked and who I didn't like. I need days to think this over. I love that in a book! So So good!

This was a slow build read that had an ending that really packed a punch. I think that I would have liked to see a little more drama throughout the book especially since I felt like there were many rabbit holes that the plot could have gone down to make it a little more twisty. However, I think because it stuck more to the straight and narrow, we got more of a believable read that made the villain of this story truly snake-like as the title suggests. It also allowed readers to see how easily a person can morph into a villain by convincing themselves that the lies they tell to make themselves feel better are actually the truth. Overall, an easy ready with undertones of malice that will keep you questioning it long after you finish.

Interesting book, a bit draggy for me. I'm not sure how I felt about the three different point of views, whether or not it added anything to the plot point of the story or if it would've helped to have been one. I don't just felt a little flat of what I was expecting.

I love novels with this premise, and I read quite a few of them. The wellness industry is a popular trope at the moment. That said, I thought this was very well done, and very cleverly written. It didn’t jump the shark or pull the rug out from under the reader, but it certainly kept me turning the pages!

🐍SNAKE OIL by @kraedimberg 🐍 is another cautionary tale about the deadly consequences of our obsession with the health and wellness industrial complex. Thank you to the author, @netgalley, and the publisher, @marinerbooks for the e-ARC.

Dani has worked at Radical Wellness in San Francisco for 3 years and is absolutely enchanted by Rhoda, the wellness start-up's founder and girl-boss extraordinaire. Eager to impress, Dani will do almost anything to get face-time with the power-house and, while pregnant, agrees to be part of a trial for a new skincare test product.

Cecilia works in the Radical call center and secretly runs an exposé blog about the company and it's practices. Cecilia has a chronic illness, something that Radical purports to be able to heal but she knows this is all just lip service to sell more product. Dani and Cecilia are friends, but Dani is a believer and as Cecilia starts to unravel the secrets of Radical, she mysteriously goes missing...

🛢️🛢️🛢️

While I found this entertaining and enjoyed the juxtaposed characters of Dani, Rhoda and Cecilia, it is clear I have read too many of this subgenre recently as they are kinda melding together. Beauty Horror is one of my favorite subgenres currently since it is really having a moment! If you liked stories like YOUTHJUICE, ROUGE, NATURAL BEAUTY, etc, this might be your jam too. Overall I did find the characters compelling, the story scandalous and the startup culture commentary was scathing. Plus, look at this cover!! These are some of my favorite colors together.💚

Hat tip to the author for including a chronically ill human that is not portrayed in a negative light and to expose the very real harm of false claims that are perpetuated by the billion-dollar beauty and wellness industry.

3.5 rounded up/5

This story follows multiple people at this one wellness company (think Goop) and their different perspectives on what's going on at the company. Because, oh boy, there is drama.

Someone at the company is posting angry tweets about the company, the CEO is a weirdo and people are trying to work their way up through the company because that's the only way to make any money or to have any influence. Girl-bossing all the way. (This really is full of characters who would use that term seriously and that's icky.) At some points the characters did fell a bit flat, but overall, this was such an interesting way to tell this story. And I really liked that we got to see the tweets alongside whatever was happening in the company and the company's internal reaction to those tweets.

This book is full of social commentary and an almost satirical approach to describing this company and what's going on within its culture.

This really reminded me of the book Youthjuice, but this was way more engaging and entertaining to me. But if you like that genre or type of book, I would highly recommend you give this one a read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

Wow, after finishing Snake Oil I am a bit at a loss for words. Snake Oil by Kelsey Rae Dimberg is dystopian look at wellness and hustle culture. It does remind me of the few others in the same genre since this trope is gaining popularity. That being said, I ate it up. I love the toxic beauty and wellness 'thriller' type of novel. The story follows the lives of 3 women at Radical - Rhoda the CEO/owner, Dani an employee who lives and breathes everything Radical, and Cecilia an employee who isn't sold on the products and turns into a whistleblower. Following all of their points of view was super interesting. I also really enjoyed the corporate board, venture capitalist pitches, board of trustees angle of the story as well. There are so many layers to the company and it seems like each one is slowly crumbling. When a death of one of the main characters shocks everyone there is even more distrust and worry about the brands takeoff. I really enjoyed this book, but also felt like it was stradling genres? I wouldn't call it a mystery or thriller but it's not just general fiction. Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for this eARC!

Rounding up from 3.5 stars. Admittedly, I did have fun reading this mystery/suspense novel surrounding the wellness company, Radical and its founder, Rhoda. It feels very much like a fictionalized version of Goop and Gwyneth Paltrow and explores the point at which wellness strays into a cult-like experience with a divine queen at its center through untimely death, obsession with success, and a would-be whistleblower. These concepts are all extremely fun to me, and I loved how unique this angle felt in a genre where career ambitions and corporate strife can feel commonplace. I was truly hooked when I started this novel and always wanted to dig a little deeper into the goings-on at Radical.

The only problem is that it doesn't feel like these ideas really go anywhere. I wanted drama in the conclusion of this tale, but much of the plot fell flat and amounted to nothing in the end. Lots of enjoyable build-up with little in the way of payoff.

I loved this book! The whole premise of a wellness brand being a modern-day snake oil was really appealing to me. Although the book is fiction, it felt like a realistic look at what it might look like behind the curtain of a wellness startup. The mystery added in helped to keep things interesting and to help move the plot forward.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Kelsey Rae Dimberg’s “Snake Oil” is a razor-sharp literary thriller that delves into the cutthroat world of wellness startups, where ambition and authenticity collide with deadly consequences. This novel offers a darkly comic and suspenseful exploration of the lengths people will go to achieve success and the cost of maintaining a facade.

The story centers around Radical, a fast-growing wellness startup founded by the charismatic Rhoda West. Rhoda is Silicon Valley’s darling, embodying the #girlboss ethos with her visionary leadership and magnetic personality. However, beneath the glossy exterior of Radical lies a web of deceit and power struggles. As Rhoda’s empire expands, the cracks begin to show, leading to a series of events that threaten to unravel everything she has built. Dimberg’s portrayal of the high-stakes startup culture is vivid and chilling.

Rhoda West is a compelling protagonist whose drive and determination are matched only by her willingness to manipulate those around her. Her character is a fascinating study in ambition and the moral compromises it entails. The novel also follows two other women, each vying for power within Radical. Their interactions and conflicts add depth to the narrative.

“Snake Oil” explores themes of authenticity, ambition, and the dark side of the wellness industry. Dimberg delves into the psychological toll of maintaining a public persona and the ethical dilemmas faced by those in positions of power.

Dimberg’s writing is sharp and incisive, with a keen eye for detail that brings the world of Radical to life. The pacing is brisk, with enough twists and turns to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

“Snake Oil” is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that offers a scathing critique of the wellness industry and the pursuit of success at any cost. Kelsey Rae Dimberg has crafted a story that is both entertaining and unsettling, with characters that linger in the mind long after the final page. This novel is a must-read for fans of literary thrillers and anyone interested in the darker aspects of startup culture.

I love books that poke at the wellness industry lining, and this did just that. It combines social media, marketing ploys, wellness culture, and the pressure for females to be their perfect selves 100% of the time to deliver a fast-paced psychological thriller.

Snake Oil is a slow burn. I found myself immediately pulled into the world of Radical and happily read on and on about the conflicting relationsihps between the characters, but as a thriller it didn't work for me. Even when the stakes were high, I didn't feel any real sense of urgency or concern about the fates of the characters.

The wellness industry has a ton of secrets but they’re scarier than we thought! All former people who referred to themselves as “girl boss”, this one is for you! There is so much drama and mystery wrapped up into this cult like culture, get ready for twists and turns.

Being a former “girl boss” myself, I couldn’t wait to dive into this! I did feel like the middle of the book dragged and I had a hard time keeping up with who was who. But the payoff was worth it! I really enjoyed this story and how it showed behind the scenes truths that the public will not always know about. I really felt for some of the characters and enjoyed this book a lot!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Kelsey Rae Dimberg, and Mariner Books for providing this free ARC. This is my honest review! This published on September 17th.

I have posted my review on Goodreads, my Facebook book club, and will make a TikTok.

✨️Review snake oil 1/5 🌙's✨️

Overview: Radical is a company that sells miracles to women everywhere. While claiming to be for the women with the women Rhonda the CEO uses all of her female employees as pawns in her larger scheme for a mega machine.

I really wanted to like this book. I wanted to enjoy it. But I just didn't. Thr characters needed a little more love. And maybe not knowing how an MLM works The catty cult boss made me want to roll my eyes a little. I think this story is meant for someone just not me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I was intrigued by Snake Oil’s premise and so glad I picked it up. The book follows a startup that is centered on wellness, Radical, and doing seemingly well. But when it’s much lauded founder, Rhoda, gets caught up trying to find a mole in her midst, things get really complicated really fast. Radical seemed such a realistic type of company in this day and age, focused on marrying wellness and tech with products that don’t seem too far off to what we see today. But the best parts of this book come when we focus on two worker bees in Rhoda’s little kingdom - Cecilia, who hates Radical, and Dani, who is overly bought into it. The three women spin suspense in this story, and I truly didn’t know who was driving the big key event until the very end.

I loved the look into what could be a real company, with the accompanying intrigue, and the suspense of this story!

absolutely love the suspenseful satirical take on the wellness industry and the social commentary. the wellness space isn’t discussed enough and this does so in a smart and funny way.
also, who of us hasn’t wanted to make an anonymous twitter account to vent?
the pregnancy plot line did feel forced even if it came together in the end.