Self Care by Leigh Stein

Self Care by Leigh Stein (releasing 6.30.20)

**I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

“In the attention economy, thoughtful solutions had so little value.”

Self Care is a whip-smart, satirical look behind the curtain of the social media influencer machine. This book had me cracking up at the absurd but realistic descriptions of the expectations, aspirations, passive-aggressive, and just plain aggressive behavior of some of the characters. The storyline moves along at lightning speed, dissects the irony of competitive self care, takes dark turns, and exposes a variety of players, stakes, and agendas behind a single self care start up. I definitely recommend this one and if the ending were more detailed and polished, I would have given it a full five stars.

Publisher’s Summary:

The female cofounders of a wellness start-up struggle to find balance between being good people and doing good business, while trying to stay BFFs.

Maren Gelb is on a company-imposed digital detox. She tweeted something terrible about the President’s daughter, and as the COO of Richual, “the most inclusive online community platform for women to cultivate the practice of self-care and change the world by changing ourselves,” it’s a PR nightmare. Not only is CEO Devin Avery counting on Maren to be fully present for their next round of funding, but indispensable employee Khadijah Walker has been keeping a secret that will reveal just how feminist Richual’s values actually are, and former Bachelorette contestant and Richual board member Evan Wiley is about to be embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal that destroy the company forever.

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and seen countless influencers who seem like experts at caring for themselves—from their yoga crop tops to their well-lit clean meals to their serumed skin and erudite-but-color-coded reading stack? Self Care delves into the lives and psyches of people working in the wellness industry and exposes the world behind the filter.