Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a free copy eARC to review for my opinion.

I requested a copy of this book because I’ve watched the “wellness” world for decades, and seeing how it’s evolved has been fascinating, infuriating, and mindboggling. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the number of hucksters seems to have exploded, helped along by the rise of TikTok and other social media platforms where "influencers" promise results with detoxes, hacks, and "miracle" protocols. It’s a crowded, chaotic space, and Amy Larocca’s "How to Be Well" steps in like a stylish anthropologist with a front-row seat.

Larocca’s background in fashion journalism serves her well here. She offers a sleek, observant, and often wry look at the contemporary wellness industry—a world where aspiration, anxiety, and aesthetic perfection swirl into one overpriced smoothie. The book isn’t a manual for better living so much as a curated tour of what affluent people are doing (and buying) in pursuit of youth, beauty, and control over an increasingly uncertain world.

If you're already skeptical of GOOP, astrology apps, and healing crystals—if you think PT Barnum was probably understating the case—then you'll find this book confirms many of your suspicions. At the same time, Larocca doesn’t come off as smug or dismissive. She seems to understand that underneath all the branding, there’s a very human, very old desire to be healthier, happier, and just a little more radiant than the person next to you.

In the end, "How to Be Well" is a snapshot of a cultural moment: glossy, absurd, sometimes sincere, and deeply revealing. It's worth flipping through if you’re curious about how far people will go (and how much they’ll spend) to feel like they're doing something.

Loved this book about the wellness industry and all the ways they are capitalizing on womens insecurities. This is a book for anyone who feels bogged down by the need to keep up when you are barely scraping by (me as hell)

This book examines wellness at the intersection of (among other things) culture, wealth and privilege, politics, and religion.

There's a lot of discussion on how wellness trends and fads are marketed and sold to women and by wellness, I mean she writes about colonics, yoga, crystals, organic food, cleanses, meditation, and more.

I found it interesting but thought there would be more scientific debunking instead it reads as a history of the industry. Regardless, I enjoyed the book and it was a great read during lunch hours at work. Reading instead of working at my desk is wellness for me!

This was a really interesting and well written book! I loved how the author went through both the social and the medical aspects of wellness, and I really liked the way she structured the book as well. Overall, in our age of social-media wellness gurus, and the quest for health after COVID and other issues, this book was a breath of fresh air.

Book: How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time
Author: Amy Larocca
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I want to thank the publisher, Knopf, for providing me with an ARC. I enjoyed this a lot and thought it was an interesting read. However, I do feel like this book could fall victim to marketing. What is about and the summary do not match. It is an in-depth look into popular diets, not a look at how to be well.

From Peloton and Pilates to biohacking, colonics, and ashwagandha, today the wellness industry has grown into a three-point-seven-trillion-dollar giant that reaches nearly everyone. Journalist Amy Larocca digs beneath the surface of this massive movement, questioning its promises and revealing the profits driving it. She investigates how wellness became woven into daily life, particularly in women's lives, and how its influence continues to expand. This book takes readers inside the communities devoted to trends like activated-charcoal toothpaste and green-juice enemas, demystifying what these practices are and what science says about them. With a critical eye, she examines how the wellness industry reflects and reinforces gendered, class-based, and racialised ideas about care and self-improvement, while also capitalising on deep-seated fears of the unknown. Tracing the long history of beauty and fashion industries selling "snake oil" remedies, the book explores why, despite it all, people keep returning for more.

I enjoyed this deep dive into the wellness market and learning more about it. While the book does focus mainly on women, there is a section about men. We get to see all of the trends in wellness and how it is a money-making thing, which a lot of things are in the first place. The book does a deep dive into all of the promises that come with the wellness industry and how it never goes as promised. How does the author know this? Larocca uses her own experiences with the wellness industry as her starting point. Not only do we get the research and scientific, or lack of, side of things, we also get the author’s personal experience, which made me enjoy the book even more.

The fact that the author admits that she put a ton of money into the wellness industry and shares her personal story adds another layer to the book. I would not have enjoyed this book as much as I did had she not done that. It adds a more personal and human side to the message that she is trying to get across. She tries the latest fads and pays a lot of money with the hopes of being well. However, none of these trends gave her the results that she had been promised. What the lesson about this book is, it’s more about living a healthy lifestyle than chasing the latest trend, which is something that we all know deep down, but it doesn’t stop a lot of people. It’s about the money, because the wellness industry is big business. Now I am not saying that we shouldn’t take care of ourselves, but we do need to think about what we are doing to our bodies and if it is scientifically proven to not only work, but is truly healthy for us.

I did like the dive into pop culture and the role it plays in the wellness journey. Celebrities and influencers, like it or not, do have power, and people do look up to them. So many times, we see someone whom we admire doing something and think that we should try that. That is looked at closely in this book. At the end of the day, it is a bunch of very wealthy people who have no scientific training who are telling people what to do. I also enjoyed the look into TV doctors and how they have questionable practices as well.

Despite being well done, this book does not offer any actual and doable advice on how to be well, which does make me think that, sadly, this book is going to be a victim of marketing. I think the marketing needs to change, and it will draw in the intended audience. This is sad because this book is very well done.

Overall, I did enjoy this title a lot. If you want to know more about the wellness industry, then I encourage you to give this one a try.

This book comes out on May 13, 2025.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/2W4ZlNs9x20

This book is a multipurpose: you can read it as a satire, exposé, or a guide to the wellness industry. There are several positive attributes of this book I would like to note: it is well organized and informative; it is funny; the voice Amy is using is spot on, you would want to quote from her book; and finally, it is not too long which is a blessing compared to some other nonfiction tomes nowadays. The natural audience for this book would be apparently younger women, but it can be recommended for mature people, too. The allure of 'being well' is strong for all ages.

I belive I am a well person, and yet, I am constantly drawn to information about wellness. It's hard to reconcile why that is.

Larocca unpacks the ever-growing behemoth of the wellness industry, through so many angles I feel I now understand the answer to why wellness is so attractive a subject. The author is a historian, user, and skeptic of all aspects of the wellness industry in a way that is not judgmental, but informative and approachable.

First we see that there has been a lack of holistic, fundamental medical practices in the U.S. that has led many to seek their wellness regimes and information. This led to a capitalist approach to wellness that wants to give everyone the magic fix or the secret to wellness... at a price. She debunks many myths, and also says what works for wellness, which is not exciting or glamorous. Sleep, clean water, whole foods, movement, and community. The absolute non-revolutionary nature of wellness that works is counteracted by the wellness industry, which needs consumers to consume.

A wonderful read for anyone looking to dive into the why of wellness as the industry it is today.

I think a lot of the negative reviews of this book are based on the title "How to Be Well." This book is not a how to, and is instead an examination of the different areas of wellness and how they are exploitative. This book is 300 pages, so it's not short necessarily, but it does feel like the author glosses over a lot of areas where she could have dived deeper. I almost wish she had chosen a few areas of wellness rather than the area as a whole. Regardless, if you've been questioning the wellness industry, this will be an interesting read for you. If you're involved in wellness at all, you may find this interesting (if you're open to criticizing it, of course) as the author says that she has been in some of these spaces herself. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In How to Be Well, Amy Larocca looked at the ways we can discover our self-care when we are constantly bombarded with ads on social media and TV about how we can better ourselves. She was a fashion journalist and she studied fashion and watched countless fashion shows. She has first hand experience with navigating all the different suggestions on wellness we see in the world. There is many ideas on how to achieve beauty and look younger. We can color our hair, take collagen, take medication such as Ozempic, do meditation, exercise, and a number of other things we try to purse to make us better.



She explored the topics of the Oura ring and how this jewelry gathers data from our sleep patterns and fitness levels. It lets you know when it is time to go to bed to get our rest. She shared how she tried showers, gratitude journals, dimming lights, blue filtering glasses to try and boost her sleep score. Her heart rate variability goes up and down. Celebs have tried it from Gwyneth Paltrow to Kim Kardashian. Kim had a score of 95. She shared how she even tried Lumen and CGM. They track when we should consume food and exertion. She couldn’t locate any meaningful patterns.


This book is very well researched and explores tons of information on beauty and wellness. I liked how she looked at a number of different tips and techniques on everything we do to look and feel younger. It’s very eye opening what women are especially pressure to do. There is one chapter on men and how they are are expected to handle erectile dysfunction, baldness, and being fit. It was interesting to learn how we can be content and how we can catch after wellness.

It's no secret that society wants us to "Be Well". Almost every time somebody looks at a screen, magazine or billboard there is some new cure, diet or wellness secret being advertised and promoted. With social media and influencer popularity continuing there is ample opportunity for companies and practitioners to push their snake oil into the hands of consumers. With all the knowledge we've ever wanted at our finger tips it can be surprising how many people fall for unresearched, unbacked products with fun, attention grabbing packaging. Wellness investors have an endless supply of fleece vests and crazy biohacks that are going to make you the next hot thing! However, when looking around profiles there really doesn't seem to be anyone that truly sticks out...

"How to Be Well" by Amy Larocca is an in-depth analysis of our wellness culture and how we continue to fall for the same false promises that are just branded and packaged differently. Larocca, who was involved in the wellness craze herself examines how and why she fell for the latest trends and how she watched the people around her get involved in similar schemes. Nobody is perfect and we've all fallen for something but when will we stop falling and realize that there is no miracle product and we have to be content with what we can control.

This didn’t do it for me. The title makes it seem like you might walk away with something helpful in but the subhead isn’t accurate. There’s no map to navigate anything offered in the pages to come. Instead what you’ll find is a critique of the wellness industry…. or more specifically things that the author feels fall under the umbrella of the wellness industry. 



The author seems to lightly bash the trends she references but often acknowledges the merit they might have for other people. It resulted in the construct feeling all over the place: questioning pseudoscience (fair!), looking into colonics (and maybe having one? It was unclear from one paragraph to the next? and then confirmed in the conclusion?) doing a semi-deep dive on body positivity and also touching on chronic illness. It was just inconsistent.

I feel like I’ve read the article version of this and the extended book version of it didn’t really bring anything to the table, it just kind of made me want to get a green juice...

I really enjoyed this critical take on some of the capitalist-driven wellness trends that were subjected to on a daily basis. I do wish that there had been some more alternatives offered, but I understand that this wasn’t the author’s point in writing this book.

Inaccurately named, as the author spends 100% of the book satirically reviewing popular wellness fads, with no attention given to the true determinants of wellbeing. This book irritated me. Maybe because despite the way she mocks ashwaganda smoothies and luxury doctor’s offices, she also admits to trying most of the ridiculous schemes herself. As a criticism of the industry, it was hard for me to take seriously since the writer admittedly uses her affluence and privilege to take advantage of the offerings she in turn calls unnecessary. Yes, she points out how classist and racist our pursuits of “wellness” often are, but in the same breath she admits spending $2K on a full-body scan just for peace of mind. It’s just icky because in the title she claims to have a solution, when in reality she’s just reviewing the snake oil for those of us who can’t afford it. 🤷🏼‍♀️ If anything, this is an interesting look at the range of products and services that exist in the billion-dollar wellness world. But I didn't get the actionable insights that I was looking for, which was disappointing.

How To Be Well by Amy Park cake an engaging,entertaining exploration of wellness trends from the glamorous my sensible, to the wealthy wackacadoodle, to the billionaire bizarre. All have one thing in common it seems; major wealth is probably needs to participate. In an age when most Americans can't afford basic healthcare, no less. I guess what it boils down to is if you're sick or die young, it's probably because of your income. However,I would guess that crystals or colonics, micro dosing or steaming your lady parts will make you well.. However,exercise,nutrition, water and sleep are good for you. That is the common sense conclusion. I enjoyed this book so much and want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. My opinions are my own.

We are all bombarded by wellness information — most of it absolute rubbish for someone’s profits. Author Amy Larocca takes a deep dive into the industry, everything from meditation (like helpful to the practitioner) to biohacking (sometimes useful) and clean beauty (possibly harmful).

This is an entertaining and well-researched look at how the wellness industry became such a behemoth — and is well worth a read before we all get sucked down the next rabbit hole.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for ARC.

I wasn't as big a fan of this book as I thought I would be. As someone who is a sucker for the latest wellness trend, but also knows it is mostly phony, I thought the scams would be covered in a different way. I appreciated the critiques like the parasocial relationship between a rider and their Peloton instructor and the absurdity of vagina steaming via Goop, but I was a bit disappointed in the lack of alternatives. There are some positives to things like exercise, meditation, etc. when they are done in a not bro-ey way. I didn't like the fact that it seemed a bit condescending to anyone who has tried the trends, and that she waited until the very last chapter to say that she has tried them and that there are basic ways to be well and positively influence the next generation. It seemed like a drawn out essay that could've been shorter on the pseudoscience and consumerist aspects of the wellness industry with a rushed conclusion.

Wellness products and services bombard my social media daily. Sometimes I don't even know that it's marketing. Reading Larocca's book about How to Be Well was an interesting dive into the industry and the many ways we are tempted to make purchases in the name of wellness and being well and better. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. A very interesting and thought-provoking book.

I received a free DRC of this book through Netgalley. The writing was well done and covered each topic without being too long-winded. It basically debunked (and saved me money) for all of the things we see advertised as things that will make us well or more well. I'm not sure if it covered what we actually need to be well in much detail, but at least our bank accounts will be well from not spending in quack cures.

This book is a sharp, entertaining dive into the ever-growing wellness industry. Larocca explores the concept of self-care and its role as the foundation of the billion-dollar wellness industry - encompassing clean beauty, the "glow" lifestyle, biohacking, and more. By weaving in history, politics, and cultural analysis, she offers a wide-ranging, eye-opening, and timely critique as "wellness" continues to dominate our lives.

While the book pulled me in with its wit and thoughtful exploration, it fizzled toward the end. I was hoping for more practical advice on navigating this overwhelming world without losing my mind or my wallet. It’s still a solid read if you’re curious about how wellness became such a massive cultural force, but don’t expect it to leave you with a clear roadmap.

This book was not exactly what I expected, but that doesn't mean it disappointed. The author spends a majority of the book moving between trends, products, services, icons, and historical events as she dives into the ideal of being well, an ever elusive state of being. In a consumer focused country with increasing pressure on (mostly) women to fit a specific mold, the idea of wellness has moved far and away from its original definition and goal. It is now something available for those with the pockets deep enough to buy it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.