A twisted and darkly funny take on the world of the cult beauty brands, and what is hidden behind the veneer of 'perfect', set in Melbourne Australia.

The story follows Marnie Sellick, and her experience at the mysterious, cult beauty brand rytuał cosmetica, as well as her developing infatuation with Luna, the founder and CEO of rytuał . All is not as it seems at this coveted beauty brand, as Marnie soon learns when she attends her first Friday Night Drinks.

This story grabbed me from the prologue, and the sense of foreboding continued throughout. I kept questioning if this was a cult story, or an extreme MLM setup, with witty 'girlboss' energy. I will honestly never look at favourite beauty brands in the same way again.

With thanks to Penguin Random House Australia and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

This is a fantastic debut novel. I am keen to read more from Chloe Elisabeth Wilson.

Rytual is a perfect example of the type of contemporary fiction that I love to read.

It was fun and sexy and dark and twisted; a fast-paced read that kept me wanting more.

I do wish it was a little bit longer just to fill some gaps and unanswered questions (couldn’t tell you what gaps exactly but something still feels missing), especially that ending! I literally gasped haha

But in saying that, this would make a great book club read or just to talk about with friends.

Thank you Penguin Books Australia for the ARC via Net Galley. ☺️

I absolutely DEVOURED this! Chloe's writing is utterly addicting and stunningly vivid. Could not put it down!

If this ain’t a cult, I don’t know what is 👀

Ok, this lived up to the hype for me! I really couldn’t put it down.

As soon as Marnie started getting pulled into the rytual circle, I was like “this is sounding very cult like”. And I weirdly have a thing for cult stories. But Luna is captivating and wild and you don’t know what’s coming next.

It was brilliantly written that you’re hooked in, even if you have an inkling of what is happening.

Definitely going to be one of the top books of 2025.

Rytuał is a darkly humorous and gripping look into the inner workings of a beauty cult brand, following Marnie Sellick as she's headhunted to join the ranks of the successful empire. As her relationship with the company founder flourishes, the boundary begins to blur.

Chloe Elisabeth Wilson’s writing is the book’s true strength—compelling, suspenseful, and sharp, with enough creativity to make any plot absurdity easy to overlook.

This debut novel is chick-lit done right. In a world where the billion-dollar beauty industry dominates, Rytuał delves into what it means to be part of a modern-day cult that worships it. Do you really know who is in control, and how far would you go to stay in it?

A cult beauty brand that turns out to be an actual cult? Count me in. This was such an original idea; it’s well written and has great pace. Rytuał by Chloe Elisabeth Wilson follows Marnie, in her late 20s and feeling lost. She’s in a dead-end job that she doesn’t enjoy, and is constantly haunted by career decisions she made that led her there. When she gets recruited to work at bestselling beauty brand rytuał (a thinly veiled Mecca, perhaps with a sprinkle of Glossier added in), everything changes for her. Suddenly she feels empowered and is drawn into the feminist glamour of rytuał and its captivating founder, Luna.

This book was so darkly fun! It somehow merges feminist horror and contemporary fiction in a smooth way, and had me totally spellbound. As a Melbournian, I loved the Melbourne setting throughout the book. The characters were well-rounded and I liked how the author dropped hints at the sinister underbelly of rytuał, even as the leading character, Marnie, turns a blind eye.

I do feel that the first 80% of the book was stronger than the last 20% (I read this on Kindle and kept looking at how much of the book was left and wondering how the author was going to conclude the story in such a short space of time). It felt like perhaps the author tried to achieve a little too much, and was attempting to tie up loose ends quickly. I would have loved to give this one 5 stars, but had to deduct one for the ending. I was holding out hope for a little… more?

Regardless, a super enjoyable read from an author I’ll be watching in the years to come.

4 ⭐️

Thank you to Penguin Random House Australia for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is what I feel like goes on behind the scenes at Arbonne…

In all seriousness though, this book felt like such an important read during this time where young men are being fed misogynistic content online and being sucked into the anti-women manosphere. My interpretation of the dark comedy aspect was coming to the realisation that this book might genuinely be a 15-year-old boy's response to “what is feminism?”. However, I don't think this was obvious enough to make the impact you would hope.

For me the ending could have been fleshed out more and I was waiting for a rousing culmination or statement that made reality look less bleak…I guess I’ll keep waiting. All in all, this was a thrilling debut and one that makes me genuinely excited for what Wilson will write next.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing an advanced copy for review.

rytuał by Chloe Elizabeth Wilson

Taking the beauty cult to a whole new extreme, Wilson explores the deep desire for revenge through a particularly feminist lens.

I absolutely adored the first 80 per-cent of this novel, and it was honestly on track to be a five star read – but I’ll touch more on that later.

Marnie, our main character, is a lost 20 – almost 30 – something, who is the perfect fit for a place like rytuał, with her desperate need to belong and conform, Marnie is ripe for induction. At times her narration can be almost overbearing, yet it is always with purpose and just builds the world and her desire to both be Luna (rytuał’s founder and CEO), and to be with her, as well as emulating Luna’s oppressive appeal. And as a special bonus treat, as a Melbourne based girlie, I loved getting to see my home represented in literature.

Like I said, I adored the first 80 per-cent and was absolutely hooked (I read most of it in one sitting). However, once the 80 per-cent threshold is reached, the story kind of goes a little off the rails. Now, I know this is a book about a cult so I was expecting an off the rails ending, however I think because it goes so off the rails, so quickly, it’s quite jarring to the reader and also limits the believability of the narrative. Similarly, some of the final “plot twists” were things I had expected, however I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, they had been fairly well foreshadowed and hinted at throughout.

I desperately wanted to give this book five stars, but unfortunately due to the ending, I fear I must give it four stars. I would still definitely recommend it to anyone interested though.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with an ARC in return for a review.

‘I had given up so much to know her, and still I had a growing feeling that I didn’t know her at all’

I really enjoyed this book it was easy and not too long of a read at around 250 pages. I think the way the book delves into the cult like nature of this particular business is really clever, hints of it coming from the start with signs of love bombing, that slowly gets more intense and dark until Marnie the main character is left wondering how she got there.

I really liked the writing style of this book, it flowed really nicely and made it easy to read without feeling boring or too flowery. Marnies voice was clear and consistent, I got a really good sense of her character from the first few pages and her fall down the rabbit hole of Rytual felt believable to her character while still staying to true to it.

I don’t think I liked any of the main characters, I would never want to meet any of these women in real life, but I also think that may have been the point. I sympathised with Marnie at times, and she was a great main character for this story. Kahli I didn’t like to start but she grew on me throughout the story as the only person with common sense. Luna was so deeply interesting I just wish we learned more about what was going on in her head. Rose was just a puppy dog, following Luna around and doing what she was told but never really getting to see her actual personality behind it. Overall if I saw these women in real life I would probably run, but I would read more about them in a heartbeat.

The ending left me a little bit disappointed and is what dropped it down from a 4 to a 3 star for me. There was just a few things I wish had been expanded on a little bit more, learn more about Luna and Marnie, and see an aftermath of the final few chapters. I do wonder if decisions about some of these plot points were made to keep it in Gen Fiction rather than mystery/thriller/horror which it kept trying to toe the line of but not quite crossing even when I desperately wanted it to.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Australia for a digital advanced reader copy via NetGalley of Rytual by Chloe Elisabeth Wilson

an entertaining read, but why could i not put aside the fact that literally no one was doing work at this place and yet there was still an expectation that they were making glossier level margins. luna did you actually sit down and look at a p&l here at any time??? or are you just racking up insane levels of debt to keep this running...

this novel follows marnie, a standard melbourne 20-something with no direction, who gets recruited into this mlm-esque beauty brand cult by rose, a girl she meets while she teaches a spin class. the issue i had with the girlboss culture glossier unicorn rise to power facade that sat at the forefront of this novel was that it hid away potentially the most impactful storyline in luna, the owner of rytual. she is constantly citing how rytual is "disrupting the way the beauty industry does business", with marnie falling headfirst into trusting her and all of her plans. the moment that trust starts to waver, luna is constantly there with another story to place herself as the victim and to regain that trust instantly and all over again.

the story positions this as luna having been victimised so much in her early life that her thinking patterns have twisted in the extreme, with her now seeing herself as entitled to revenge as an overarching concept upon any man that crosses her path, guilty or not. however, the first person pov in marnie means that there is never a moment which it is considered that any of the stories that luna has said were even true. there are hints of this, seen predominantly when marnie's friend kahli taps out and tells marnie that she should do the same before her whole being is absorbed by this cult, and when luna's name is revealed to be "just another laura". but the novel fails at any point to question luna's motivations, leaving her at the end of the book remaining on the pedestal that marnie put her on in the first place.

now, this book did not owe me that exploration. it is predominantly about marnie falling into this cult, and the pacy last quarter of the novel and the ending of it really support that. however, the makeup beauty feminism act in rytual's core business made me disappointed that none of the feminism in this book was looked at with any sort of internal criticality, especially when considering the juxtaposition between what rytual in theory stood for and what luna was actually out there doing. the only real time that i felt marnie showed any doubt in joining this cult was when she looked at the salary, but after that it was game on.

A darkly funny deconstruction of the beauty industry and a gripping examination of identity, beauty and desire. Literally asks the questions: what is your favourite cult beauty brand was actually a cult? Slowly leading readers down the path of the uncanny and ultimately weird will leave them hooked until the very end. Weird literature at it’s finest.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐲𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐥𝐨𝐞 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐡 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧

Thanks to the publisher for supplying me an ARC of this books to review.

I had to sit on this one for a little bit before reviewing. Though this book kept me intrigued enough to keep reading, I feel like maybe I’m missing something. It really feels like one of those books that should be analysed in an English class for all of its underlying meanings and its potential stance regarding the state of the world.

It follows an MC (honestly I already forgot her name) who really lacks any direction in herself, her own opinions and from what I gather - is really longing for someone to tell her how she should be feeling. At the start of the book she finds herself working for a company she isn’t passionate about (though honestly I’m not sure if she’s ever passionate about anything) and still reeling after a past relationship that ended sourly.

When the book really picks up is when she gets recruited for a popular makeup and skincare brand in Melbourne which at first seems super trendy and female-dominated. That is, until it virtually becomes a cult.

I found the book to be a really interesting take on what many men think feminism is and the point in which maybe traumatic experiences can alter your perception of reality and morality. I’m sure there are other subthemes that went above my head…

Not all that much happened until like the 80% mark and I really think there was a lot of unnecessary filler but overall it was okay. I think if you like to think deeply and analyse your books, you would probably enjoy this… me? I really only read to enjoy and relax so I don’t really think I got too much out of this one :/

I really enjoyed the writing style and thought the tone landed brilliantly on every page!

The ending felt a little rushed, and I would have loved to see the darkness and horror aspects taken further... which might actually say more about me than the book.

I would definitely recommend to anyone who is fascinated with the beauty industry.

Melbourne cosmetics company cult book.

I loved the heightened reality, borderline surreal, aspects of the story. The ending is satisfying in regards to character, but slightly unsatisfying in regards to plot.

I was familiar with Chloe’s work for Shameless Media, and this book did not disappoint! The strange nature of the workplace environment at rytual keeps you gripped.

Rytual captivates you, drawing you into its intoxicating, indulgent, yet lustful depiction of the femme fatale side of the Australian beauty industry. It is mesmerisingly creepy and just immaculate. As a result, I can no longer see Mecca Cosmetica or any Beauty brand the same way.
5