this was an unsettling body horror that attempts to comment on patriarchal influence on capitalism and ironies of the self care industry. i feel like this book had a strong mix of things i like and don’t like:

firstly check the content warnings. there’s a lot going on, and it gets way worse before it gets better.

this is personal but i actually enjoy borderline purple prose. if that’s not your thing then this may not be for you. this book manages to ramble on about minute details (which i liked tbh) while also being heavy handed with its messages. especially at the end, subtlety goes out the door. 

the pacing was also off imo. it starts good then gets a little slow in the middle and rushes through so much content in the last 20%. i didn’t mind the ending, but i wished it was more stretched out then just trying to quickly wrap it up with explicit takeaways from the author.

i loved the concept of this book, but it definitely feels more like a conversation starter on these interesting topics rather than a full commentary, deep-dive.