By Sheila Yasmin Marikar
Published October 2022
269 Pages
Anita may be 31 years old, but she’s far from having her life figured out. Or even together. So on a vague promise of a job at an LA digital platform, she quits her news job and moves to California with nothing but free rent for three months and credit debt. Then she gets ghosted by the HR rep. Desperate to find a way to feel better and to have something worth bragging about in two months before her best friend’s wedding, she checks out a fitness guru named Venus who runs The Goddess Effect. Soon, Anita is all-in for the bootcamp/spirituality lifestyle she finds there. For once, she’s accepted by the lululemon-wearing acolytes and who knows, there’s hints of a job.
Soon, though, Anita wakes up and realizes that Venus and The Goddess Effect might not be what they seem. There are too many back-room secrets and too many cryptic IG posts lambasting Venus for Anita to ignore. Putting on her journalist hat, Anita gets to work at an exclusive retreat to find out what’s really going on with the goddesses.
This was my September Amazon Prime pick and that tells you something about the state of my TBR list. I won’t even mention the poor KU books languishing in there; although, I’m sure some of you can understand. Anyway, I picked this one because it promised to be funny and sometimes I just want a good laugh. And it was funny. I loved the characters. From clueless Anita trying to balance what it means to be successful as a millennial and also as an ethnic Indian. To Stacy, who glommed onto anything even hinting at a minority in an effort to banish her privilege, while driving a Porsche Panamera. And even Venus, almost a caricature of the spirituality/wellness gurus you can’t miss if you scroll through Instagram, was really well done.
That said, I think I’m the wrong demographic to really get all of the humor in this novel and honestly, it just solidified the fact that I’m getting old. Because I did not get the culture, at all. More than once I read my husband a passage and asked, “Is this satire or are people really like this?” I still have no idea but if so, I’m glad I’m not in my 30s. Or live in LA. Because I could not have handled most of the people living at the Gig, even if they did make for good comic relief.
If you’re under 35, you’ll probably love this. While I certainly enjoyed it and it was a quick read, I rolled my eyes more than I laughed.
3.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐+
Until next time, thank you for visiting.
Ann Dudzinski 