Jill Minor<p>YOUTHJUICE rating: 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐.</p><p>HEBE was supposed to give me the heebie-jeebies, but the novel stole its own thunder almost immediately. A slow horror buildup would have been ideal in the gothic horror novel youthjuice by E.K. Sathue (Penguin Random House, June 4, 2024). </p><p>Sophia is the new Creative Director for HEBE, a cosmetics company with products that work a bit <em>too</em> well at erasing wrinkles and scars, and a cultish, ageless CEO named Tree who says things like “Call me your True North.” Narcissist much? A motif of Hebe is that looking young and gorgeous and being a good and moral person are one and the same. </p><p><strong>Thanks to Edelweiss Plus Above the Treeline and Penguin Random House for sending this book to me for review consideration. All opinions are my own.</strong></p><p>Besides spoiling its own shocker, the novel suffers from overwriting with tortured metaphors, and a clumsy dual timeline. Would editors <em>please</em> stop insisting upon dual timelines when they are not working and just add to the readers’ confusion? </p><p>The novel nevertheless has a certain propulsion as Sophia is lured into the inner circle of the company and changes herself utterly to fit in, Devil-Wears-Prada style.1<span class="">“The Devil Wears Prada” is both a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/188221/the-devil-wears-prada-by-lauren-weisberger/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2003 novel</a> by <a href="https://www.laurenweisberger.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lauren Weisberger</a> and a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2006 movie</a> starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway that I’ve probably seen five times.</span> Sophia’s characterization could have been stronger, but I did keep reading.</p><p>I was satisfied by the ending, with comeuppance for the baddies and a thought-provoking message. Fashion horror and cosmetic horror have enormous potential as a subgenre, to say nothing of <em>cosmetic surgery</em> horror combined with an age-positive and body-positive message. youthjuice felt relevant personally: while I want to be<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxclK0e7xq0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Jamie Lee Curtis</a> and be cool about aging, I found a crepe-y little fold above my right eye last week and flipped out. Despite my best intentions, <em>I don’t wanna go there</em>.</p><p><strong>Reading in context: </strong></p><p><a href="https://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/Stardust/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">STARDUST by Neil Gaiman</a> (1999) is the obvious read-alike, with malicious witches who are determined to stay young. </p><p><a href="https://marypipher.com/women-rowing-north/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WOMEN ROWING NORTH: NAVIGATING LIFE’S CURRENTS AND FLOURISHING AS WE AGE by Mary Pipher</a> (Bloomsbury, 2019) is a five-star read.</p><p> Pretty much anything by <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/16582/anne-lamott/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anne Lamott</a> on aging and what she calls the “third third of life” is stellar; you can <a href="https://www.plantinseeds.org/article/anne-lamott-on-ageing-acceptance-wisdom" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">start with this essay</a>.</p><p><strong>What I’m reading right now:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720830/the-djinn-waits-a-hundred-years-by-shubnum-khan/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS</a> by Shubhnum Khan (Penguin Random House, January 9, 2024).</p><p> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://jillsreads.com/tag/youthjuice/" target="_blank">#youthjuice</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://jillsreads.com/tag/eksathue/" target="_blank">#EKSathue</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://jillsreads.com/tag/horror/" target="_blank">#horror</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://jillsreads.com/tag/gothic/" target="_blank">#gothic</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" 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