4.5 stars
Happy publication day to Youthjuice!

This contemporary horror novel has quickly become one of my favourites this year; definitely a perfect read for lovers of Rouge by Mona Award and Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang!

The story takes readers behind the glossy façade of Hebe, a beauty and wellness company as told through the eyes of new employee, Sophia, who soon begins to uncover horrifying secrets hidden behind the company's curated image. Sophia is one of the most unlikeable characters I've read, simply lacking any moral compass. As she gets entangled in Hebe's disturbing practices, her decisions become increasingly erratic, and we watch her descend into madness.

The character-driven approach adds depth to the novel creating an unsettling experience. Sathue's descriptive writing enhances the immersive quality of the novel. However, the non-linear progression frustrated me at times, slowing down the pace. Despite this, the tension-filled atmosphere builds to a shocking epilogue, cementing this book as a must-read.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the eARC!

I get the appeal of this plot and I feel like it's a good plot but I think something like this is better in short series format, it rang true to bbc dramas almost or British Netflix thrillers. I didn't love it tbh, nor would I love it if it WERE in show format, so I think it's really just not for me.

2.5* rounded up.

Fans of weird girl fiction and "Boy Parts" will probably like this. It has an almost stream of consciousness dialogue but is slightly less irritating than that narrative style tends to be. We follow Sophia, as she joins HEBE, a beauty company with an ethos of returning your birthright of perfection via a handy pot of anti-aging cream, and a place where everyone must be thin, beautiful, and perfect. The characters all strive for this, although their reasoning for this is flimsy, if found at all. The characterisation is equally flimsy, superficial, and 2D (alongside the food choices, perhaps this echos the Simpsons episode with 2D vegans). All the characters could blend in to one, serving only as stand ins to move the thin plot along. I couldn't connect with nor care about a single one, and their relationships felt similarly. Why was Tree so enigmatic and enticing? Who the fuck knows.

The book opens with a declaration of "We bathed in their blood to stay young. Slick, fatty liquid kept us alight in our wild beauty. Their blood was the fountain of youth, burbling through our very own veins. Platelets are the secret to radiance. The key to a brighter complexion. Blood, with the fortifying run of an egg yolk’s slow drip, is the opposite of tech. It’s messy, never sterile.", so even the predictable reveal of bathing in blood and using blood in the skincare fell flat as it was barely a reveal at all. Even so, this isn't something we haven’t seen before. The book doesn’t really go anywhere, say anything, or develop anything at all. There is hardly any horror (killing people to bathe in their blood is IT and it's all 'off screen'). This could've been good, great even. It was a quick and easy read but I'm left wondering what was the point? It wanted to be weird and unhinged but the result was just flat and dull. We're meant to wonder how far Sophia will go for beauty but she honestly doesn’t really do anything, and was mostly a bystander in her own story. I'm sure some will love this, but it didn't deliver what I expected/wanted. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Dialogue Books for a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Youthjuice is a body horror tale that perfectly encapsulates the modern age of beauty standards and the throne of image. The chase to stay young and “new” is all around us. Walk down the street in a bustling city centre and you’re walking past a mountain of anti-aging cream in the first five minutes of being there. It has been critiqued before, so the message at the heart of youthjuice is nothing new, however the story that surrounds the issue is where this book thrives.

It thrives in it’s ability to flip the idea of a chase for youthfulness into a battle of action, excitement, and thrill. To take what is a simmering of worry in the general world psyche and turn it into a gripping story is a match for the very best sci-fi writers of days gone by. With this, Youthjuice excels.

Sophia as a character feels a little forgettable. She moves with the story and carries things as they should, however I found her personality and the things that were an attempt to separate her from the rest of the cast were drowned in the overall tale. Nothing stood out, and the climax of the story fits this too.

To the climax, then, I must say it’s the most disappointing section of the book for me. The setup, and the midpoint felt really inspired, as though E.K. Sathue had a fire within that spurred her on. Whereas the end feels like it’s been pulled from various movies and tv shows. It feels phoned in and quick to the point, with very little meaning to hold onto once it has been read. The climax before that ending is known for quite a while, so a reveal feels flat. You could stomach this a little more if the first two sections of the book were similarly unenjoyable, but they set up and build for something that never really hits.

I found Sathue’s ways of showing Sophia’s anxiety and a lack of self esteem to be eye-catching and noticeably enjoyable. Nail biting is brought up often, usually in times of tension and struggle, as it’s Sophia’s way of suppressing a growing nervousness. Annoyingly often you will find that writers will build to a tension without ever having their lead character respond or act in a way that would feel true to what is happening. They descend into shells of a real person, with no true feelings or responses to the goings on around them. Sathue ensures that we are reminded of who Sophia really is, and gradually we come to expect certain responses from her based on the character that’s been built.

Youthjuice is exciting to read. It will grip you the majority of the time. A light, easy-to-read romp that never loses it’s pace nor does it become bogged down in anything that’s not needed. There is a stumbling block at the final act that will be hit and miss for the reader, but overall the idea of the book is one that any narrative can float on to a satisfying finish.

Overall I enjoyed this book, I loved the contrast of the obsession with wellness and clean eating against the gore and grotesque desperation to stay youthful. From the first chapter something is noticeably off with Sophia and this builds dramatically through the book, from her relationships with Dom and Richard to her acceptance of Tree's methods. I loved the flashbacks to Mona and how they contextualised her relationship with Dom, who appears to be everything Sophia is against. I would have loved to see Sophia commit to the darker side of her personality fully- I feel like the ending fell a bit flat for me, everything very conveniently went away.
The writing was medium-fast paced and I LOVED the imagery, the body horror aspect, the pretty-priviledge way Sophia explains away the problems at HEBE. I will definitely be interested in other books from the author, especially if they are as gross and well-written as this one.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 2*
Writing skill : 3*
Plot: 3*
Pace: 2*
Characters: 2*
Formatting: 1*

I was really disappointed that this wasn't the book for me. It really didn't help that the formatting of the book, the mid-chapter breaks, were all over the place which meant the timelines jumped around and I was left confused half the time. I hope this is rectified in the final edition.
The plot was good however and so was the writing style. The flashbacks to 2008 were the best bits of this book, i was invested in what happened, but not so much in the present day story. The characters were also just a bit flat, I really didn't care what happened to any of them. Also there were so many name drops; designer brands, celebrities, stores, it was all a bit too much.
Overall a weird fever-dream type book that just didn't hit the mark, unfortunately.

I don’t think this book was for me. The premise was interesting but couldn’t connect to any of the characters, found it confusing and didn’t like the long detailed descriptions of makeup and skincare.

It has commentary on the influencer/skincare online world which was interesting but it takes a sort of horror spin on it.

Thank you to Dialogue Books and NetGalley for providing me an eARC to review!

The cover pretty much gives away what's going on in this one, and with the amount of other 'beauty is a cult' type books that have been coming out lately, I found this one disappointing.

I wanted more of a sense of building dread that something is deeply wrong, but here you know from the get-go things aren't quite right so nothing else really comes as a surprise. At points it's really overwritten which makes it difficult to get into, especially when combined with the lack of depth of the characters, and at a few points in the book there are these 'protagonist is a psychopath' moments which are never really explained so they come off as goofy. Like oh here's a Halloween mask on the ground let me watch my friend overdose through it haha I'm so damaged and quirky...what???

There were also interspersed chapters about the protagonist's childhood friendship which didn't add much either - I can understand what they were meant to do (reflect the current day relationship with Dom) but the storylines were so similar and lacked depth/tension that instead of building up the present storyline it just made it feel a bit repetitive. I would have rathered the author put all of their writingjuice (ha) into one or the other.

I think there was just an overall lack of direction that meant themes were never really fleshed out, so the whole book felt flat. Like I'm not really sure what the point of this book is - there wasn't enough tension for it to be a good thriller/horror/mystery (like you had the boss literally reading The Blood Countess like please assume your readers can work this out for themselves), and it didn't do enough new with the 'beauty is a cult' angle to be anything exciting (like we get it they're all into veganism and astrology but there's a ~dark~ side).

TLDR I think there are so many similar and better books out there at this current moment (Natural Beauty, Rouge), that this one felt like a poorly executed starter-pack for the genre.

Delightfully unhinged! Starts off slow and gathers pace as you read to reach a disturbing climax. Reminded me a little of Rouge by Mona Awad.

DNF'd after the first few chapters because the metaphorical prose was becoming just a bit too much. I get its a satire, and most books in that genre are written like that, but it just kind of makes it a slog too read through.

Interesting and very contemporary concept. The world is obsessed with beauty products and the secrets of eternal youth so the premise is spot on and of the moment. The quest for the essence of youth takes no prisoners and some people will go to any lengths or prices. So far so good.
This is where it falls down a bit for me and the shallowness of the beauty industry starts to shine through a bit for me. The other factor was that I didn’t really gel with the characters or have much engagement and investment in them. That all said I loved the ingenious idea behind the book and it has great curb appeal, I feel, to a wide range of readers and ages.

<i> Faces come alive in the candlelight. Restylane-puffed lips and feline eyes stretched out of propration, set into contoured cheeks, noses restricted so they point upwards at the ends. No one here is the way God made them, and, really, why should they be? Reinvention is the point of living. </i>

Sophia Bannon joins goop-esque skincare and wellness brand HEBE aged 29 with a compulsive skin-picking habit. she feels out of place in this world, wearing her rich friend’s expensive skirt, but she is desperately hungry to fit in. the company has countless clean girl, rich brat interns and a Miranda Priestley CEO. Sophia edges closer to uncovering the dark truth of HEBE, she descends into chaos.

i will always greatly enjoy books about weird girls doing weird things. this novel is exactly that. grotty and pathetic, Sophia is an unlikeable protagonist surrounded by even more loathable people. it transforms from Vogue beauty editorial to hot girl horror, and i would love to see a trippy horror film adaptation by the same people as Pearl and X. youthjuice feels like a perfect mix of My Year of Rest and Relaxation meets Boy Parts. unlike those two novels, though, Sathue paints her characters in a softer, more forgiving light.

<i> A tiny kernel juts from the skin, growing as I maneuver my tongue into the space where it lifts from my finger, a plane taking flight. Fluid takes longer to surface. Perhaps it’s a confusion of the cells, which sense danger, and relax when they see that I’m an agent of my own destruction. The blood hits my tongue in a hot wave. </i>

two things to note: while TikTok is never mentioned by name, the countless beauty and fashion micro-trends it had produced over the last two years appear, which may fade into irrelevancy in another two years, leaving this novel at risk of feeling dated. also, i’m sure remember a supervillain with a skincare brand from the 2004 Catwoman film..

regardless, youthjuice was a highly enjoyable read and fully took me along for the ride. there were some genuinely stomach-turning scenes, so it took a hard stomach. if you like weird girl fiction, i definitely recommend reading youthjuice. it releases in the UK in June with Dialogue Books.

with thanks to Dialogue Books and Net Galley for the ARC (:

content note: if you’re squeamish about picking, biting, ripping skin especially around your nails, just avoid this book — many, many detailed descriptions about this. extensive drug misuse. she recounts a romantic relationship she had with an adult when she was sixteen. disordered eating is hinted at.

The characters are complex and setting is a little creepy and odd. There is a luxury skin care company based in New York. Sophia works there and Beauty industry has its own pros and cons. There are secrets behind remaining youthful. In the midst of workplace setting, Sophia shares about her childhood memories and Mona. What happens with Mona was awful. I didn’t completely connect with the characters. The writing is good. The ending was unexpected.


Thanks to the Publisher

Important to know about me: I love American Psycho, I love The Devil Wears Prada and I am endlessly fascinated by (though not sucked into) wellness and beauty cults, very specifically goop. So on the surface, this is the perfect book for me.

And in a lot of ways, it was. I’m a litfic guy through and through and I love a cast of unlikeable characters. (Not you Jamie, I am never talking about you.) Sadly, though, I found that it fell a little flat for me. I’m not sure if it was the weight of the comparisons, but it lacked the punch I wanted from it.

Which isn’t to say I disliked it at all. I’m giving it 3.75 stars overall, and although the first third dragged for me at times, I powered through the rest very quickly once it hooked me.

I think maybe I wish this book had been more of something, though I can’t pinpoint exactly what. Grosser, more gory maybe. I wish Sophia had either been a villain who would commit to it, or been a voice of reason. As it was, her occasional bursts of morality (which always quickly fell to one side) just ended up annoying me. Be a bad guy! Be the horror you wish to see in the world, Soph! The same can be said for the 2008 plot. I’ll try to stay spoiler free, but I really wish the ending of that was that she’d done something much worse than she did. That history had really repeated itself, which in my opinion, it hadn’t.

This all sounds very negative but again, I actually did like this book once it grabbed me. I liked its despicable cast of characters (Soph aside) and their self-centred delusion, I liked the way it somehow combined what was very obvious with a slow reveal. I loved the clear picture it gave me of HEBE, the way these women and this company was so familiar and clear. The Ashleys are generic characters, as they should be, but they each felt very real to me. I’ve known these girls my whole life, I’ve loved and admired them, I’ve felt jealous of them and I’ve also hated them and rolled my eyes at them.

Ultimately, I wish this had leaned more into the blood and gore of it all. I wish Soph had been a real Villain. But I felt entranced by the world of HEBE, by these women and their awful quest for immortality and beauty, and so I would say the good outweighs the bad for me.

Sophia is a 29-year-old who lands a job at HEBE, a beauty and wellness company in Soho. It becomes immediately obvious that there is something weird in how they create their products; Sophia, having little to lose, just goes along for the ride.

Short, fun and weird in the best way. While it did take me a while to get into the story, once I did I was thoroughly hooked; there was something so... uncomfortably entertaining about it that made it impossible for me to put it down.

Even though I found it a bit predictable at time, it still is a well-done satirical horror. I almost wish it descended more into madness, sometimes it felt like there was so much more that could have been done and the author was holding back. But it still was a fun time for sure.

Many thanks to Dialogue Books & Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Starts out as quite sad, shows how obsessed these people can be with looks, and not aging, then takes an incredibly sinister turn, and is all the better for it.
It's creepy but actually a fun read.
Leaves you wondering, how far would someone go to stay looking young!

It was also quite jumpy, one minute something is happening and then it’s hours later but this isn’t explained you’re just left to guess. Secondly, the characters were underdeveloped, again a lot could have been done with them but none of them really went anywhere.

The content itself was pretty disappointing. It does what it says on the tin, but it really doesn’t bring anything new or especially engaging to the table. It’s a very surface-level “indictment” of beauty and wellness culture and the obsession with anti-aging

Honestly I think if you like beauty gurus on Tiktok than this book might be for you. the characters have no personality and the book is just superficial. I struggled to care about anything happening in this book.

Overall, hyping it by comparing The Devil Wears Prada and American Horror Story has made the book fall flat in my eyes.

youthjuice is one of many intriguing books inspired by the wellness culture of Goop. If you're a fan of Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang or Goddess by Deborah Hemming, then be sure to check out youthjuice!

Thanks to NetGalley for the Arc!

A creepily macabre teenage trauma and hilarious ride. Read this at your leisure the writing stays with you. Fun from the outset but gradually turning dark and twisted. Original.

Sophia has just started a job at Hebe, a wellness and beauty company capitalising on all the latest trends. But how far are people willing to go in pursuit of the perfect skin?

I think I may have spoilt the effect of Youthjuice by having finished the brilliant Rouge by Mona Awad recently. They are very similar in terms of concept, but I think Rouge succeeds where Youthjuice sadly falls down. Part of the issue is down to the writing style, although it’s very descriptive in places, there’s a lot of tangents and flashbacks which muddy the story and make it difficult to know what’s happening in places. I also really think the cover of the book ruins the main twist which takes away the impact that could have been gained.

Sophia is a complex character and gets seriously unhinged as the book goes on. I really enjoyed this, but some of the decisions she makes are questionable and I didn’t really understand her motives at times. I found the flashback scenes quite dull and slow-moving and they didn’t really add anything to the plot. There’s also quite a lot of plot-holes, unrealistic scenarios and unanswered questions which spoilt the experience for me, but I don’t want to list them here for fear of spoilers for other readers.

Overall, I think this book doesn’t quite hit the mark as well as other similar novels that are out there, sadly. Thank you to NetGalley, Dialogue and Renegade Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.