Book Review: "Youthjuice" by E.K Sathue

As you probably know from my review of Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang, wellness horror is on the rise. Youthjuice is another one of these that is definitely on-trend when it comes to themes, story and characters. However, are we at the tipping point for where wellness horror is becoming fatigued? I could not help myself whilst reading this book, I constantly kept comparing it to Natural Beauty. I definitely thought about whether it was becoming a tired subgenre or whether I had become too used to it. Needless to say, this book had both its ups and its downs. Let's take a look at why...

HEBE is a New York wellness brand and Sophia is their new storyteller. At almost thirty years' old, she walks into the interview (which, by the way doesn't seem to mirror any sort of real life interview for some reason so thus, becomes completely unrelatable) and meets (I shit you not) a woman called Tree. I'm going to say this as we continue with the review: I am not going to comment further on the stupidity of the names in this book because it will just make me either angry or burst out laughing. There are, of course, tons of rituals and routines Sophia needs to learn if she is going to be a part of the team. This starts off in relatively the same way that Natural Beauty begins, but is nowhere near as interesting or as intensely critical. One thing about this book is that it feels too on-the-nose. Everything is so obvious that the reader isn't actually left thinking about anything.

Tree eventually invites Sophia to test a product - a moisturiser called 'Youthjuice'. Well, it's because every back-room copywriter tests top-secret products for the wellness brand they are writing for (sarcasm intended). I'm not sure the author has ever met a copywriter, but here we are. Almost like magic, Sophia has stopped her habit of biting her nails and her skin begins to glow with rejuvination. Unfortunately this also comes with a whole new identity and more status, which because of the temporary effects of the cream, she becomes psychologically addicted to. She begins to pathologise every aspect of her appearance. I mean, this is kind of obvious, right? I don't want to say it but though it is interesting, it is also a bit tired. 'Woman becomes obsessed with her appearance because of new beauty treatment' is more of an 'Instagram writer' theme than something literary.

I think one of the key differences between this book and Natural Beauty (which made Ling Ling Huang's book better) is the fact that Huang's novel didn't take itself overly seriously and often enjoyed poking fun at the ridiculousness of the situation. I feel like Youthjuice is trying to be too much and thus, it doesn't really grab the reader in the same way.

Sophia starts to abandon her old friends like a woman named Dominique who is basically the human embodiment of a migraine - so I honestly didn't care when she got herself abandoned. She also starts to realise that HEBE is less of just a brand and more of a cult. Her teenage memories begin to resurface as traumas and the whole thing is about to hit the fan. She starts to recall how female friendships often turned sour in her life, how she now has to start giving in more to the brand as well since she requires it more and more for her new-found persona. The toxicity of her life takes over and she is no longer the Sophia we saw at the beginning of the novel. She does have an interesting character arc, but again I think it is something that Huang did better in her novel.

I think I've found something out. The reason why this novel feels worse than Huang's may be because in Huang's novel, the main character was someone who had a customer-facing role. Therefore, it would make sense that they would use the products themselves and showcase them and their effects. Whereas, a copywriter being brought into this cult of beauty seems bizarre and rather silly. She doesn't have a customer-facing role so, why does she require to test the products? It just seems odd and out-there that she is so chummy with the other employees if she's only a copywriter.

The novel has some scenes which are considered body horror but again, the writing didn't really bring it together too well. There was a lot of phrase repetition and the atmosphere was often lacking. All in all, this book was entertaining on the surface, the problems start to arise when you scratch at it for a few minutes.