youthjuice
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American Psycho meets The Devil Wears Prada: outrageous body horror for the goop generation
A 29-year-old copywriter realizes that beauty is possible--at a terrible cost--in this surreal, satirical send-up of NYC It-girl culture.
From Sophia Bannion's first day on the Storytelling team at HEBE (hee-bee), a luxury skincare/wellness company based in New York's trendy SoHo neighborhood and named after the Greek goddess of youth, it's clear something is deeply amiss. But Sophia, pushing thirty, has plenty of skeletons in her closet next to the designer knockoffs and doesn't care. Though she leads an outwardly charmed life, she aches for a deeper meaning to her flat existence--and a cure for her brutal nail-biting habit. She finds it all and more at HEBE, and with Tree Whitestone, HEBE's charismatic founder and CEO.
Soon, Sophia is addicted to her HEBE lifestyle--especially youthjuice, the fatty, soothing moisturizer Tree has asked Sophia to test. But when cracks in HEBE's infrastructure start to worsen--and Sophia learns the gruesome secret ingredient at the heart of youthjuice--she has to decide how far she's willing to go to stay beautiful forever.
Glittering with ominous flashes of Sophia's coming-of-rage story, former beauty editor E.K. Sathue's horror debut is as incisive as it is stomach-churning in its portrayal of all-consuming female friendship and the beauty industry's short attention span. youthjuice does to skincare influencers what Bret Easton Ellis did to yuppies. You'll never moisturize the same way again.
About this Author
E.K. Sathue is a pseudonym for the author Erin Mayer. A native New Yorker, she wrote her first haunted house story in Mr. Palladino's third-grade class and never looked back. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Bustle, Travel + Leisure, Better Homes & Gardens, Literary Hub, CrimeReads, Business Insider, and Man Repeller. She lives in Maine with her partner, Benjamin Perry, and their beloved haunted doll, Persephone.
Reviews
Praise for youthjuice
A Barnes & Noble Best Horror Book of 2024
A CrimeReads Best Horror Book of 2024
"Entertaining and gloomy. The writing is sharp and full of scathing lines that poke fun at the wellness industry."
--Gabino Iglesias, The New York Times Book Review
"It takes a deft hand to write a story that is hilarious and terrifying in equal measure, and it's to E.K. Sathue's great credit that she threads that needle. [youthjuice is] a blistering, surreal satire of toxic wellness culture, perfect for fans of dark-edged feminist writers like Mona Awad and Leigh Stein."
--Portland Press Herald
"This is the best It Girl satire that you simply have to read if you're into content creation, the latest skincare craze and the beauty world. Oh, and prepare to squirm."
--New York Post
"Lena Dunham's Girls meets Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop meets Mona Awad's Bunny meets . . . Elizabeth Báthory. youthjuice is a darkly comedic cautionary tale, oozing with voice."
--Zoje Stage, USA Today bestselling author of Baby Teeth
"Staggeringly brilliant and bitingly honest, youthjuice is as beautiful as it is brutal, dancing between razor-sharp commentary on beauty culture and the visceral pain of existing as a girl in this world. The sublime prose will have you gasping in awe while the terrifying twists will keep you squirming and feverishly turning the pages. E.K. Sathue skillfully peels back the pretty pink veneer of youth, friendship, and beauty to insecurity, betrayal, and violence. This novel is a blood-smeared mirror. What truth will it reflect back to you?"
--Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Black Sheep
"youthjuice is a shocking dive into the depths of what we will do to stay young and beautiful. It's brutal, funny, poignant, and one of the most entertaining books I've read in ages. E.K. Sathue's prose is devastatingly elegant. A must-read, but you may question your beauty habits after!"
--Amina Akhtar, author of Almost Surely Dead and Kismet
"Youth and beauty have never seemed at once so desirable and repulsive. This book sickened me in the very best way. I don't know if I want to go run to get Botox or swear off beauty products forever, but either way youthjuice got under my (ever-aging!) skin and might stay there for a very long time."
--CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly
"Sumptuous and f*cked up, youthjuice explores our obsession with anti-aging through luxuriously icky body horror."
--Milo Michaels, University Book Store
"A dark, sardonic look at the beauty industry."
--Electric Lit
"Campy yet cunning . . . This book is great for anyone who likes a little gore with their glam."
--Read it or Weep
"Ferocious . . . Soaked in blood and rage, E.K. Sathue's debut novel exposes a culture of toxic femininity against a backdrop of grisly body horror."
--FanFiAddict
"Former beauty editor E.K. Sathue has given us a gift: youthjuice . . . It's a twisted funhouse mirror, not a well-lit vanity."
--The Fandomentals
"youthjuice is a delicious descent into insanity."
--Horror Bound
"Oozing, fetid, body horror-packed blast from the first page to the very last . . . Will make you think twice next time a viral beauty trend comes across your feed."
--Winter Is Coming
"Fast-paced and scathing satire of the beauty industry . . . Fans of intensely unsettling stories about unlikable but captivating women, such as Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and CJ Leede's Maeve Fly, will flock to this debut."
--Booklist
"If The Picture of Dorian Gray were set at a contemporary Goop-esque 'wellness and lifestyle' brand, it might read something like Sathue's satirical, gory, and delectable debut . . . It's a certifiable page-turner."
--Publishers Weekly
"With mesmerizing prose and startlingly precise imagery, youthjuice is far beyond just another beauty industry horror novel. . . Sathue will have readers snort-laughing and cringing simultaneously."
--Shelf Awareness
"A glittering, grotesque horror that dissects the shallow frenzy of NYC's It-girl culture, revealing the grotesque extremes of beauty obsession. Sathue's debut exposes the sinister side of influencer culture, leaving you wary of your next skincare routine and questioning the true cost of eternal youth."
--BookTrib
"A stomach-turning work of corporate horror with a sharp focus on satirizing the beauty industry and its influencers."
--Kirkus Reviews
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