The Glow

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good book!
Absolutely loved the characters, the plot - impossible to put it down.
Certainly recommended!

"The Glow" by Jessie Gaynor was such an engaging read!

Focusing not necessarily on the world of social media influencers but their makers, Gaynor casts Jane, a PR specialist, as a protagonist. Even though Jane can package people and ideas and push them as premium products, she doesn't have her own life under control. Avoidant and with history of abandonment issues, as well as inability to deal with own life-admin, Jane wants to belong and she directs her desire towards people behind small healing retreat, Cass and Tom.

As readers, we follow Jane immersing herself in toxic dynamics between a charismatic leader and people who surround her, often acting from a place of trauma and wanting to be seen. It's an art to create such a current story with believable characters, yet portrayed in a quite exaggerated way. The storyline was not predictable at all, which definitely added to the pleasure of reading "The Glow". On top of that, Gaynor doesn't spare anyone: the rich, the precarious, the enlightenment seekers and those who are supposed to facilitate healing are treated with the same criticism.

Unpredictable, Unexpected..
Jane, PR, is breezy and bright and a big seller. Jane, herself, is actually none of those things but she is determined although becoming increasingly anxious by virtue of a deluge of unpaid bills. Jane, herself, is on the verge of a dilemma. When she discovers Cass, via instagram, she thinks that she may well have found the next big thing. This wellness guru may well be Jane’s ticket to the top. But.. will she? Sharp and biting, unexpected and unpredictable, this satirical look at the wellness industry is rather a delight.

LOVE LOVE LOVED this! Such a great glimpse into the snarky and darker side of PR & influencing. As someone who works within the field it was incredibly well written and so interesting. Cass is such a beautifully written hurricane of a character.

Loved this! Super refreshing and hilariously relatable to anyone working in PR or 'wellness' trends - as well as probably also to all millennials!
I read this in one sitting and enjoyed beginning to end - so good!

i honestly enjoyed this book so much! the cover drew me in a lot - it was so pretty and i always pick books on covers (don’t we all do that though?). i wasn’t expecting to like this book as much as i did and think that this book will definitely be picked up and LOVED by bookstagram and booktok when it releases! i really hated jane as a character though but i think that may have been intentional by the author? i could be wrong though.

this book was such a fun and incredible read! and it was UNPREDICTABLE- i find it hard to find books that are like this as i tend to figure out what’s going on or how the story is going to end before the midpoint of the book. i love the blur between reality and social media in this book. i do think that people tend to forget that there are lives to be had outside of social media.

i’m not too sure if this was a debut book or not, as i haven’t read any other works by gaynor, but if this is then this is a FANTASTIC debut. i am definitely going to keep renewing this book in my netgalley shelf until i can get my hands on the physical book!!

thank you to netgalley and random house for early access to this book!

I loved this book!!!!!!
I wasn't sure what to expect but truly it just jumped right into a chamber of my little millennial heart and set up camp there.
Jane was a brilliant character in that she was absolutely duplicitous and at times completely jarring, yet for some reason I still ended up rooting for her. That is a skill that many authors have been let down by, particularly in this branch of storytelling.
The relationships between Jane, Cass and Tom (and Daniel) were absolutely bizarre but I was so bought into the concept of their characters that I just truly believed it made sense.
This was a brilliant satirical view of the wellness industry and the plague that is social media on our lives. When everyone is a product who stands to profit? Absolutely brilliant. Will be recommending this one!