The premise of this book sounded so great to me that I couldn't wait to dive in. However, as funny as the book was I ran into so many plot holes and unanswered questions that I ended up DNF-ing. This book was just pointing out the issues with white woman wellness and not actually diving into any topic specifically. I still recommend for those that want to read it but unfortunately it wasn't for me.

I have mixed feelings about this book, probably because I found Jane so hard to like. I couldn’t figure out who she is but then I don’t think she ever discovered who she is. The smothering medical debt and her struggle to bring her finances under control were sympathetic. I mean, think how many homeless have landed there because the lack of insurance and the inability to be solvent have pulled the carpet out from underfoot.

Cass and Tom were quirky but sympathetic while Jane was not. The author makes a point of financial wellbeing and the wellness industry going hand in hand as well. You have to be financially secure to spend $200 a month on skin care products! It’s also an industry populated predominantly by white women.

I liked Jane until half way in the book when she took over FortPath as well as exploited Cass and Tom. That is where she ceased being likeable but the situation felt genuine, even if I didn’t like what what had done. This is a quick easy read and perfect for the beach. Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for this ARC.

I was originally interested in this because I thought it would have creepy wellness retreat vibes like Caite Dolan-Leach's "Dark Circles" or Stephanie Wrobel's "This Might Hurt" but instead it was just a parade of awkward and embarrassing situations. I believe that Gen Z or millennial readers may identify with this protagonist.

This book was fun! It's about a young woman, Jane, who works as a PR person for women's empowerment products. In search of the next big client she enrolls in a weekend retreat at Fortpath and her life is changed in unexpected ways. She doesn't love her job but is committed to it in an effort to pay down the almost $100K of medical debt she accrued while being on a low tier health insurance plan.

The above description makes this book sound serious and inspiring but actually it's somewhat of a comedic criticism of the wellness industry. Through some of Jane's ambling thoughts I saw some of my own insecurities- while she is a bit of a trainwreck, she is very relatable. As a PR professional she is well-suited to monetize wellness which seems ironic and hypocritical in some wellness circles. The word cult is thrown in the mix to describe Fortpath and the ideal clients are described as white women with disposable income. Eating disorders were mentioned but kind of glossed over- which in my opinion is a missed opportunity. At the wellness retreat they basically only eat zucchini which very much sounds like the so-called guru didnt actually recover from her eating disorder, she just swapped it for another form of restrictive eating but this wasn't really explored. To the contrary, it seemed to be partially if not wholly credited with the glowing skin that retreat attendees attained. I felt this was a pretty accurate depiction of the wellness industry and those who buy into it however I wondered if there was a conclusion or moral to the story that I'm missing.

The ending to me seemed abrupt and unfinished.

Overall I found this book to be entertaining, am easy read, and a lot of fun!

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Difficult to follow at times and a little slow. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Glow, Jessie Gaynor’s first novel, is on one level a satiric look at the wellness/self-improvement industry as reflected primarily in women’s beauty magazine and in celebrity culture.
On a broader level, self-enlightenment more broadly trivialized as nothing more than how others see you, dependent on the shame and hatred women feel about themselves.

Gaynor is a smart writer with a wicked sense of humor. However, the characters were truly not likable. Although materially better off, they were just as spiritually bereft as when the book began. The novel opens on Jane Dorner is working in public relations company pushing sex toys and on the verge of termination. She is also saddled with massive health insurance debt, which makes her desperate to save her job. Inspired by a Sex and the City episode, Jane comes up with the concept of a wellness getaway experience, which primarily caters to women. Scrolling through Instagram, she sees glowing pictures of Cass, the spiritual head of a seedy retreat in New Jersey. Jane is ultimately fired, but stays with the idea. Can she rebrand Cass into a spiritual leader that women will flock to? And how much will Cass do to make Jane’s dream come true? 4.0 out of 5.0 stars for a quick, darkly funny read. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with a free advanced reader’s copy of this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Look for it now in your local and online bookstores and libraries.

⭐️⭐️

Jane is 29 and works in PR. She hates her job, but she has six figures worth of medical debt from an out-of-network appendectomy, so she can’t quit. Her boyfriend recently dumped her for his ex, and now she can’t even focus on the job she hates. In an effort to keep her job, she stumbles upon Cass, the impossibly beautiful guru of a wellness retreat, on Instagram and decides to try to sign her as a client.

I didn’t care for this story. It’s supposed to be a satirical take on the PR, influencer, and wellness industries, but I didn’t find it humorous or witty. I mostly just found it sad. The characters are wholly unlikeable from beginning to end and experienced zero growth. Although, I’m sure that was the point. After recently reading and loving another satire, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, I had hoped to love this book, but it just wasn’t an enjoyable read.

Overall, this book was just kind of "mid" to me. It could've gone deeper into the somewhat cult-like aspects that were being teased, but it never really WENT there.

Our main character, Jane, is definitely just an easily moldable human being with no clear direction in life. So seeing her kind of fall into this trap of outward beauty wasn't surprising and wasn't that interesting to read about. Cass was also pretty spineless and did not deliver on being the "guru of wellness" that she was teased to be. I wanted her to be much more heinous and unlikeable.

The commentary on the beauty industry and any commentary on society in general in this book didn't really do anything for me. It wasn't as thought-provoking as I wanted it to be. It wasn't a bad book by any means, I just didn't really get much out of it.

Jane convinces a gorgeous wellness influencer to transform her platform into a high-end wellness brand to save her career. The influencer Cass and her unassuming husband Tom run a wellness retreat that could be classified as a cult by some. Still, Jane sees them as the key to paying her medical bills, finding a boyfriend, and keeping her job. Despite Tom's reluctance to capitalize off Cass's magnetic energy and weird habits, like speaking in inspirational quotes and eating habits, Jane shapes Cass into a leading wellness influencer for the elite. What ensues, though, is less than glamorous as Jane comes to terms with her ambitions and the complexities of power and beauty in the age of social media.

By far, the strongest part of The Glow was Gaynor's wit and the outlandish details of Jane's "partnership" with Cass and Tom. I can't even count the number of times I laughed out loud––Gaynor captures the utter hilarity and ridiculousness of the PR industry and the existential crisis of 20-something-year-olds.

Although hilarious and clever, Gaynor's commentary fails to go beyond surface-level critiques of our influencer-saturated world, social media, and the rise of health and wellness. Yet, her commentary on the PR world hits the mark, and my God, I was laughing out loud at Jane's inner thoughts and the ridiculous behavior of PR professionals (as a fellow PR professional).

Ultimately, The climax didn't do much for me, and I felt the author forgot about it. If 40 more pages had been added detailing a dramatic, shit-hits-the-fan climax, the novel would have been wrapped up in a nice bow.

Wildly entertaining and witty, The Glow sharply criticizes the beauty and influencer industry but loses its luster by the end.

This ARC was provided by Random House and Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Definite themes to unpack in this story. It was a unique topic that explored social media and wellness culture in an interesting dynamic.

I found the story to be pretty interesting and I loved the subtle cult vibes. However, I found the last 20% or so to be very anticlimactic. 3.5 stars.

This book was ok! Another satire on wellness culture and upstate retreats for rich people. Well-trodden territory, I'm afraid, but this book was well written and had a small cast of characters that were strange and interesting, so it kept my attention for the full book. My complaint is that I'm not sure what the thesis of the book was, or what to think about the story after it ended. This would be a fantastic, quiet indie film as it is character driven and Gaynor has a specific voice (that weirdly does not match the cover, I though it would be a breezier read). An interesting addition to the wellness satire novel space, but not one you need to run out and read immediately.

4.25: for all fans of milkfed, anything by Jillian butler, Ingrids Goes West….. you’re going to eat this one UP! What a fun ride.

*2.5 stars*

This didn’t work for me. It was fine I guess, it just felt like the author wanted to say something about the beauty industry and capitalism but then got caught up in like praising weird fads? The characters all felt very one dimensional and a lot of plot lines were just left undeveloped. The ending felt very rushed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.

This started off funny (diving into the world of PR and how fake it is, the real-life woes of medical debt, etc) and quickly veered into VERY weird, likely influenced by the literal cult that takes up 3/4 of the book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

I couldn’t tell if this book was intentionally valid or not. Maybe that says more about me as a reader than the book itself. Jane was unbearably annoying but the story worked well. The ending was a bit too abrupt for me, felt cut off.

I suppose this was fine. Cults don’t do much for me as an area of interest, and though the book is funny at times, like most modern satire is ultimately backslides into the very thing it is attempting to spoof.

As cults go this one is decidedly less creepy than most of the ones you read about, though I don’t think any more appealing.

The objective here was clearly to satirize the extremes of the wellness industry, and Gaynor does that successfully in the earlier parts of the novel.

Cass and her cronies don’t really inspire much outrage: as what they’re doing is pretty benign compared to most true cults. This is much closer to the girl boss / wellness scammy stuff we see all the time, and because it’s pretty easy not to fall for, it’s tough to feel all that sorry for the people who buy into it.

Gaynor gives us some good laughs and the pacing is pretty good until the end, but the book isn’t quite what it aspires to be.

This was a difficult one for me. I found myself feeling uncomfortable for the main character, which made the reading experience more on the negative side. I didn't like any of the characters either. Thank you, NetGalley.

Apparently books about wellness retreats are not for me even though I would love nothing more than to escape to a spa for a week! I was not a fan of Nine Perfect Strangers and this felt like another version of it. Plainly put, I didn't get the point.

The Glow follows Jane, a 29 year old publicist who is desperate to save her PR job. In a last ditch effort to save her job, Jane decides to try and find a new wellness client to capitalize on the growing experience economy. This leads her to the Fort Path wellness retreat hosted by Instagram influencer and wellness guru Cass. The Fort Path and Cass give off cult vibes but with thousands of dollars of medical debt hanging over her head, Jane decides to dive head first into the world of wellness.

The book was well written and Gaynor was able to capture the insecurity and uncertainty of a millennial woman who has no idea who she is or what she wants to do. Readers are able to feel Jane's skepticism about Fort Path and Cass. The book really highlights the growing trend of people commodifying wellness.

While I enjoyed the book, it ended up feeling like the story built up to nothing. At just under 300 pages the book could have benefited from being longer and expanding on the rebranding and marketing of Fort Path and Cass. While it wasn't surprising that Jane ended up selling out, it did feel anticlimactic. The ending just felt a bit abrupt and I was left wanting more. Overall, this was an enjoyable read that provided just a glimpse inside the weird world of wellness, influencers, and marketing.