Everything about this was just good for me. I liked the story, the writing was good, the characters were fully realized, etc. I just don't think it was anything new, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you don't read a lot, but I feel like I've read this kind of book before.

📚: The Glow by Jessie Gaynor
⭐️: 3.5/5 (rounding down on #goodreads)

Meet Jane. In her PR persona, she’s 25, witty, and can make any line of copy pop for her clients. In real life, she’s 29, with a (very big) pile of medical debt, who may or may not have a lifelong identity crisis where the walls start feeling like they’re caving in. Her solve? To monetize an Instagram influencer, Cass’s, wellness retreat.

This book was maybe not exactly what I was expecting going in, The Glow goes from sarcastically hilarious from the jump, and then veers into a darker story about codependency, and finally spirals into delusion.

A solid read, although with a slow pace that at times felt tedious. (And a few plot spots that just felt intentionally too cringy.)

Big thank you to @randomhouse via @netgalley for the digital ARC. The Glow is out on June 20th!

I didn’t get this book. I couldn’t really get a read on who Jane really was. I know who she thought she wanted to be. She’s a Chameleon who Changes colors to adapt to her environment.
I didn’t care for Jane in any of her personas.
This book wasn’t for me.

Jane is an unhappy, single almost thirty something who is not doing well in her job in public relations. She truly doesn’t believe what her clients are selling and further jeopardizes her job during her stay at FortPath. FortPath is the spiritual retreat run by the ethereal Cass and her husband Tom. In a last ditch effort to find purpose in her life and hopefully pay her exceedingly high medical bills, she pitches herself to Tom and Cass, claiming that she can help develop their brand attract more clients to FortPath.

This book truly had some laugh out loud moments, including when a meditation session culminates in group masturbation. If you follow wellness bloggers or Instagram influencers, this book might remind you of your favorite health and wellness “It girl”, or a diet staple you just can’t wrap your head around (think kelp and zucchini- all the time).

Jane half-heartedly buys into Cass’ ethos; she has to in order to get Cass and Tom to retain her PR services, save her career and her life. And there does seem to be some method in Cass’ madness. Jane’s body is responding well to the zucchini, kelp and animal broths, her hair is shinier from washing it less. And she’s starting to experience “the glow”- enviable skin and a magnetism that changes the way people look at her. When the same health insurance company that she is indebted to makes an offer to acquire FortPath (now Opeia), she has the opportunity to make a choice that will offer wellness to the financially privileged.

This is a great read and Gaynor really nails the flaw of so many wellness modalities- they can be overwhelmingly middle-class (and above), thin and white. The novel hit my center with this commentary, as I have often been the only Brown person in a wellness space, feeling as though the practice I’m taking part in should be offered to the masses, just as Cass does. The best novels take us through a range of emotions and “The Glow” had me laughing, annoyed and pitying everyone just a little.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for permitting me to read this work prior to its release!

I found the premise of this book interesting, but I thought the ending fell short. As someone who's worked in media, I thought the POV of the publicist was funny.

This was a different book and I found it interesting. The views of industry behind-the-scenes was fascinating and I found myself wanting to read more and more. I liked the way the book was written as well. Highly recommend.

I really enjoyed the Glow. I appreciated the tough look at the wellness industry and how insidious it can be. Also the social media marketing and how we are being misled so often by what we see online. Enjoyable.

The Glow by Jessie Gaynor was such a timely book. Doesn’t it seem like all of social media is filled with Instagram influencers pushing the latest fad?

In this book, desperate PR girl Jane tries to work with one such influencer, a gorgeous woman who runs wellness retreats. With her life in shambles and enormous debt, Jane needs a miracle. When she finds an earthy, beautiful woman named Cass on social media, she knows she must work with her.

Jane wants to turn Cass into The Next Big Thing and save her job while doing so. Jane convinces her boss to send her to the retreat so she can recruit Cass, creating an almost Goop-like Gwyneth Paltrow-type.

Synopsis:

Jane Dorner has two modes: PR Jane, twenty-five, chummy, and eager to sell you a feminist vibrator or a self-care/bereavement subscription box; and Actual Jane, twenty-nine, drifting through mediocre workdays and lackluster dates while paralyzed by her crushing mountain of overdue medical bills. When her job performance is called into question, Jane’s last-ditch effort to preserve her livelihood and pay off her debt is to land a white whale of a client.

Enter the impossibly gorgeous Cass—whom Jane discovers scrolling through Instagram—and her unassuming husband, Tom—proprietors of a “wellness retreat” based out of a ramshackle country house that may or may not be giving off cult vibes. Suddenly Jane realizes she might have found the one ladder she can climb—if she can convince them that transforming Cass herself into a high-end wellness brand is the key to all three of their futures. Magnetic yet mysterious, Cass is primed to be an influencer: She speaks in a mix of inspirational quotes and Zen koans, eats only zucchini (the most spiritually nourishing vegetable), and has baby-perfect skin. Despite Tom’s reticence about selling out, Jane sets out to mold Cass into the kind of guru who can offer inner peace and make your skin glow—all at a hefty price, of course. As Jane reckons with her own long-dormant ambitions, she wonders: Can a person really “do good” for others while profiting off them? And what parts of ourselves do we lose when we trade power, influence, and beauty?

This was a fun book with clever dialogue and descriptions, enjoyable and relatable. I look forward to anything else this author writes next.

As someone who straddles the marketing industry, I found The Glow to be absolutely spot on. Not only does it put a tarnished spot light on the wellness industry, but it aims its beam on the social media marketing industry as well. Jessie Gaynor was not afraid to make Jane squirm-worthy and I admire that. This is a perfect summer read - take it to the beach and don't forget your green smoothie.

Jane is in a rut. She's working in a PR job that is sucking the life out of her, but she has no motivation to do anything else. Millennial ennui has her in its claws, she has an insane amount of medical debt, and she doesn't know how to get out of the funk she's in. One day, when scrolling Instagram, she comes across a compelling character who runs a wellness retreat. Cass seems to have it all—beautiful skin, a picturesque farm, and a sense of who she is in the world. Intrigued by Cass and her wellness retreat, Jane convinces her job to pay for a weekend at FortPath. What happens that weekend changes the course of her life as she is drawn into Cass's orbit. Jane undergoes the metamorphosis that she's always craved...but is it enough?

I loved this book. The characters are well-rounded and complex. The writing was witty and sharp, with barbed critiques of the wellness industry. Gaynor's insights into the millennial mindset were incredibly accurate; I was laughing throughout. The entire book was a delight to read, and I'll be recommending it to all my friends.

Okay I’m drawn to any and all books with culty undertones, and health and wellness industry critique - and this has both! I really enjoyed this book it was very interesting and I couldn’t stop reading it because the plot had me on the edge of my seat. A little cheesy and over the top at time but overall I would recommend it to others who like these themes.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be very timely, nuanced, and fun! Definitely recommend! The dive into beauty/fashion/lifestyle and its commentary on influencers was biting and incredibly funny. I was sucked in from the first page!

GOSH. I loved this one soo much. It gave off all of the chaotic, unlikeable MC vibes that I most appreciated during Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman. I am so thankful to Random House Publishing Group, NetGalley, Jessie Gaynor, and especially PRH Audio for the audiobook access. This twisted, relapse into the unnaturally unhinged, likely cult-like environment is set to publish on June 20, 2023, and I can’t wait for publication day to arrive.

Jane is working a dead-end PR job for a series of products she’s sick and tired of creating campaigns for, and when her job comes down the line of reprimanding, she grasps at straws to pitch a new lead for a potential client, but it comes out of her ass. What is the lead other than a potential cult, it’s a posed wellness-retreat with chaotic practices and measures. After taking a trip to the isolated camp, and subsequently losing her job, she decides to uproot her soul-sucking way of life to join the wellness guru herself, Cass, and do better by the group, while also seeking out ways to eradicate her healthcare debt, settling an acquisition merger for this unique community.

Jane definitely conveys unlikeable MC characteristics and has her intentions for life honed in on her own life, but will Cass relinquish her business baby, or go along with this corporate flow?

The Glow is an interesting read, if not what I expected. Jane, a midlevel publicist stuck in the doldrums of her career, crushing medical debt, and millennial ennui. She encounters Cass and FortPath on Instagram, hoping that this "maybe a cult; maybe the next wellness craze" spiritual retreat will be the client to save her, professionally and monetarily, that is. The first half of the book is the funniest, as Jane continues to court FortPath, despite her growing skepticism of the operation. However, I was surprised by the pacing of the rest of the book. Jane taking on FortPath's publicity, and the subsequent transformation, are crammed into the back half of a rather short book. And these two distinct halves are bridged by a lengthy aside examining the backstory of a secondary character. While the book had isolated lines that made me laugh out loud, and had a sardonic critique of wellness culture/social media perfectionism/millennial angst, I'm not sure that the book was a successful sum of its parts.

Jane is a 29 year old publicist living in New York City, struggling to pay off a mountain of medical debt while trying to answer the age old question "who REALLY am I?" In a last ditch effort to save her job, she attends a weekend wellness treat run by the enigmatic Cass and her barely-there husband Tom. Jane realizes all of her PR dreams will come true if she can just convince Cass to allow herself to be turned into a wellness brand. I thought The Glow was great; it was well written, struck a nice balance between poignant and tongue in cheek, and had some great commentary on the commodification of wellness.

Portrait of a young woman burnt out and depressed, and looking for the answer to her professional prayers. What she finds is maybe a cult or maybe the next great wellness retreat. A master class in public relations, millennial ennui, and today's wellness culture.

DNF, I found the tone of this really cringe inducing and it put me off from reading it. I just know I would be annoyed by the writing the entire time.

The Glow is a dark send up of wellness and health industries and also gurus. Solid one liners abound, which really had my snarky self high fiving Jessica Gaynor's writing in my head, and an edgier than expected tone, which worked for me. What was also unexpected was some raw honesty in the writing, the kind of comments you think are part of the wellness world/other people's minds but never hear them/never own up to them... those comments are here. Overall this works for me as a commentary, timely note on the wellness world and how it can be so unwell and so.. unglowing.

Thank you Random House for the review copy.

The millennial culture of obsession with Instagram wellness influencers was spot on. While I disliked Jane - I could also relate to her on a certain level. I liked the cult-like atmosphere from the wellness retreat and Cass but really had more questions than answers by the end of the book.

I appreciate the discussion of wellness and insurance and health but wished it went a little deeper than surface level. I feel like some things were glossed over while others were detailed too much. I still want to know more about Cass as well.

Overall this book was timely and relevant but I was left a little underwhelmed. I was wanting more to happen or there to be more meaning.

In the words of Homer Simpson, this book is "funny 'cuz it's true!" I can picture Jessie Gaynor doing research for this book by skimming through her Instagram feed and jotting down the most weird, offbeat, seductive, and unintentionally hilarious language wielded by influencers to entice potential clients. And she totally nails it! Our protagonist regurgitates the lingo and maybe buys into it just a little bit, but knows she's participating in the silliness because she has bills to pay. Maybe late stage capitalism turns us all into low-key scam artists.

"The Glow" is primarily a comedy but I appreciate that Gaynor touches on the real harm that wellness influencers can do. They often prey upon the weak, the gullible, and people too poor to afford effective or life-saving treatment by injecting them with hope and snake oil.

This book is the best of both worlds: A sharp comedy perfect for reading on the beach this summer AND a critique of capitalism and an American healthcare system undermined by profiteers. Jessie Gaynor is a true talent and I will definitely keep an eye out for her future work.