tldr; a solid read, i enjoyed it a lot!

i started this thinking it would be similar to american psycho (for some reason, i think the concept of CEO-focused “thriller” put me in that headspace) but really, it’s about a woman who just let herself get manipulated by everyone who thought they were better than her because they were of a different status, and she let it happen because she thought it was what she earned/deserved. i thought this was a really interesting concept and i loved the way that it was told in a significantly more intimate way than a lot of other books that center around the themes that this did. i started out the book really disliking maxine because of the way that she spoke about her life and the people around her, but she’s really a study of nurture over nature. you can see just how much potential for emotion that she had basically ripped away from her because everyone in her life told her to shove it down.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this!!

I think when writing a pseudo-memoir, you have the opportunity to make it as sensational as your imagination allows. There was nothing sensational in here. I kept waiting for the juicy scandals, the jaw-dropping reveals, but they just never came. It was all very tame, and frankly a little boring.

I read this confessional style novel as a page turner; the story begins as the visionary head of a cosmetics company whose corporate ethos was telling women they were beautiful already - very much a female gaze corporate entity - is about to be fired by her board for something explosive, though we do not know what until much later in the book.

There is so much here: an exploration of power and ambition; an indictment of sexism, patriarchy, homophobia, and racism; an examination of women's lives controlled by men vs women, and while there are differences between the two, this novel examines and muddies that gap. The protagonist, Max, is complicated and multifaceted, and while certainly not perfect, she is utterly compelling. I don't know if it is due to my love of Jean Smart's portrayal of Deborah in Hacks or not, but I definitely see similarities to Max and Deborah.

This is a thought provoking novel that I greatly enjoyed. Thank you Penguin Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC!