The Other Profile
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2.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A brilliant and darkly funny story of a friendship and its unraveling, and a powerful examination on the disruptive impact of social media on our lives
Once an ambitious and promising student at an elite university in Paris, Maia is now 26, living in Milan, and stuck in a dead-end job at a cafe and a dysfunctional relationship with an older man. Until one day her life seems to change: thanks to a friend’s recommendation, and despite not knowing anything about social media, she is hired to work for Gloria, an 18-year-old influencer with millions of followers.
Slowly, Maia understands that her disdain for the world of influencers is precisely why she was chosen for the job: as an outsider, Maia can keep Gloria grounded, tethered to reality—remind her that the image she projects online is only an illusion.
As the two women weave a complex and intense relationship, however, it is Maia’s life that starts to unravel. Exposed to the tricks and hypocrisy of social media, Maia is increasingly unable to avoid confronting the lies she’s been telling herself. The closer she gets to Gloria, the more porous the boundary between their feelings and identities becomes, in a dangerous game of mirrors that threatens Maia’s very sense of self.
Sharp, wry, and absorbing, The Other Profile is a revealing exploration of the light and dark of human relationships in the digital age.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This wry, snarky novel lampoons social media and the unflattering ways that nearly all of us interact with it. Aimless twentysomething Maia Gatti is in Milan mourning her sister Eva’s tragic death when she stumbles into an unusual new job: cultivating the public image of a teen influencer named Gloria Linares. As Gloria’s follower count grows, the two women begrudgingly bond over their past traumas…a connection that Gloria exploits to the max. We gobbled up author Irene Graziosi’s caustic Gen Z wit—her heroine’s sardonic first-person narration is frequently hilarious as she critiques Gloria’s vapid personality, shallow comments section, and stale, pseudo-intellectual boyfriend. The Other Profile is full of delicious drama as well as piercing insights.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist and YouTuber Graziosi's witty and unsettling debut shines an uncompromising light on European influencers. Maia, 26, the novel's caustic narrator, has come undone after the death of her younger sister after a series of mental and physical health problems. Leaving her university classes in Paris, she has moved to Milan with her older boyfriend, a professor who is rapidly losing interest in her. There, a friend asks if she might be interested in working as an image consultant for Gloria, a prominent social media personality who's still in high school. Maia and Gloria become friends of a sort, with the benignly vacuous Gloria pumping Maia for her opinions, and Maia growing accustomed to a life of luxury until a drug-fueled weekend reveals the cracks in their relationship. The lightly sketched plot wobbles at its few moments of consequence, mostly involving Maia's feelings about her sister's death. For the most part, though, Maia's narration remains tartly amusing, full of acid one-liners about the people in this strange new world (Gloria smiles "in every photo as if she has facial paralysis"; another influencer bemoans her white privilege while "brushing away a golden lock from her lips which have been enlarged by injections"). Graziosi's trip down the social media rabbit hole is as glossy and entertaining as it is perceptive.
Customer Reviews
Meh
Just couldn’t get into this one. Maybe it’s better in its original language?