Not me requesting a book because its cover design is a bubblegum dream and the font is one of your favourites. (It is, in fact, me. A dumbo. Love that for me.) BUT, YES, I did it, and Self Care was so worth it.


Self Care
by Leigh Stein

The female cofounders of a wellness start-up struggle to find balance between being good people and doing good business, while trying to stay BFFs.

Maren Gelb is on a company-imposed digital detox. She tweeted something terrible about the President's daughter, and as the COO of Richual, “the most inclusive online community platform for women to cultivate the practice of self-care and change the world by changing ourselves,” it's a PR nightmare. Not only is CEO Devin Avery counting on Maren to be fully present for their next round of funding, but indispensable employee Khadijah Walker has been keeping a secret that will reveal just how feminist Richual’s values actually are, and former Bachelorette contestant and Richual board member Evan Wiley is about to be embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal that could destroy the company forever. 

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and seen countless influencers who seem like experts at caring for themselves—from their yoga crop tops to their well-lit clean meals to their serumed skin and erudite-but-color-coded reading stack? Self Care delves into the lives and psyches of people working in the wellness industry and exposes the world behind the filter.
 
As always, a copy of this book was provided by the author or publisher in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.  

Real talk: I was nervous about Self Care. Incredibly so. The synopsis made me think that the novel itself could go either really (like, really) badly or really well. I'm always skeptical about novels that promise one thing, but end up teetering on a different feeling altogether. Self Care was not one of those novels. It was exactly what I wanted, and didn't know that I wanted, it to be, and then some.

The first thing you should know about Self Care is that its cover seems oddly fitting for its content. I can't explain it, but it definitely put me in the right state of mind for Self Care. That could just be a me thing, though. It's all bubblegum dreamy and the inside is humorous, self aware and wholly engaging.

Self Care had this uncanny sense of awareness to it that made my mind buzz with interest. Even in the moments I didn't necessarily understand the characters, or the moments where I nodded in complete understanding, I couldn't put down this sharply poised and wickedly humorous novel.

Leigh Stein has a way about her words that makes it so compelling, you scarcely want to put the novel down. And why should you? Self Care is sharp, hilarious, honest and energetic in a way that makes reading it all the more enjoyable. The way it approaches topics, from modern feminism to Influencer culture straight down the line to how that effects the way we view ourselves and false promises of 'self care'.

I genuinely adored this book.