Aesthetica
-
-
3.7 • 35 Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
In a debut novel as radiant as it is caustic, a former influencer confronts her past—and takes inventory of the damages that underpin the surface-glamour of social media.
At 19, she was an Instagram celebrity. Now, at 35, she works behind the cosmetic counter at the “black and white store,” peddling anti-aging products to women seeking physical and spiritual transformation. She too is seeking rebirth. She’s about to undergo the high-risk, elective surgery Aesthetica™, a procedure that will reverse all her past plastic surgery procedures, returning her, she hopes, to a truer self. Provided she survives the knife.
But on the eve of the surgery, her traumatic past resurfaces when she is asked to participate in the public takedown of her former manager/boyfriend, who has rebranded himself as a paragon of “woke” masculinity in the post-#MeToo world. With the hours ticking down to her surgery, she must confront the ugly truth about her experiences on and off the Instagram grid.
Propulsive, dark, and moving, Aesthetica is a Veronica for the age of “Instagram face,” delivering a fresh, nuanced examination of feminism, #MeToo, and mother-daughter relationships, all while confronting our collective addiction to followers, filters, and faux realities.
Customer Reviews
Starts with promise, but ends on a sour note
The book starts off with an interesting and compelling story of a young woman, attempting to become an influencer on social media. Then it flips to the present day narrator. The present day narrator hints at issues and problems that have occurred, but the book never fully explains. I kept waiting to get back to the younger version, which was the more interesting part. Anyway flipping between past and present happens throughout the book. The problem is that the present narrator is a confusing and very little information how she got there and is undergoing a surgery that appears to be made up and based on sci-fi or twilight zone. It goes from a realistic view of something to something fantastical. The book ends in a very unsatisfying way. It just simply ends. The reader is left, thinking “what?” I did not like this book. After reading the entire book, I was left feeling very unsatisfied and confused. I do not recommend this book.