“youthjuice” examines the lengths we’ll go to defy aging

We’ve hit October, aka the season of pumpkin, cozy sweaters (except for Asha who is currently sitting in a heat wave), and all things spooky. Which is the perfect time for us to introduce our readers to E.K. Sathue’s horror debut!

“youthjuice” introduces us to Sophia Bannon, the newest employee of the luxury beauty company HEBE. Sophia has a seemingly charmed life - she pays minimal rent to live with her wealthy best friend in a fancy apartment, borrows said friend’s designer clothes whenever she needs to, and is just starting her dream job despite her mediocre work history. But we quickly see that she’s deeply insecure and fearful both of turning 30 (just around the corner), and of people finding out about her brutal, nail-biting habit.

So when HEBE’s CEO, the ethereal Tree Whitestone, asks her to test a new moisturizer called youthjuice, she agrees, albeit with some skepticism. Soon, though, the results speak for themselves and Sophia can’t get enough of youthjuice.

And then she discovers its secret ingredient. Soon, the cracks in HEBE’s business model start to show, and Sophia has to decide whether her new, beautiful, hands are worth it.

We received copies of “youthjuice” at the launch of Soho Press' new imprint Hell's Hundred (of which the book is a leading title) earlier this year. You can purchase your own copy at our Bookshop storefront here.

Asha: This book reminded me of that billionaire who’s trying to stay young forever!

Lakshmi: There's SO much in our pop culture moment that this book hits on (which is one of the reasons a couple of other reviewers have noted it is an uncomfortable read in sections). I kept thinking about the tweens who apparently swarm Sephora locations shopping for "anti-aging serums". 

Why does an ELEVEN YEAR OLD need a serum? Why are they already thinking that looking older than a teenager is the worst thing that can ever happen to you

Asha: Or 20-something’s getting injections! Which, ironically, including in the case of the billionaire, only make them look older

Lakshmi: Closer to home (since neither of us are parents or guardians of tweens) it made me think of the often cringy conversations on social media between millennials (roughly those of us born between 1981-96, so your friendly correspondents are definitely in here!) and gen z, where millennials (again these are 40 year old women who are our generational companions, insist they don't look their age. Why is 40 bad--- and let's face it, none of us will look 23 again. I didn't look 23 when I was 25! (I looked 15 and weird gawky 15, not Marissa Cooper from the OC 15). Hahahaha

Asha: Well that also gets into the conversation of what it actually means to look a certain age

Lakshmi:  Also, why does it matter? Who are we fooling -- or are we TRYING TO FOOL OURSELVES…dun dun DUNNNN

Asha: It doesn’t really, except in terms of how we’re treated by society. I will say that me looking 25 at 35 meant that I got stuck in lower-level jobs because people just assumed I didn’t have the experience that I did have

Lakshmi: So the book captures that anxiety so well.

Asha: I also think one of the factors that keeps people looking “youthful” is having a certain amount of fat (especially facial fat), which is why it’s funny that the characters in this book are obsessed with eating “clean” foods and as little as possible. Sophia eats sad salads, and envies her friend Dom who eats whatever she wants.

Lakshmi: It's also funny being in NYC because and people who know me in real life have heard me make this joke, but the funniest thing about corporate people who get work done (meaning beauty treatments) in NYC is that they just managing to look both vaguely 36 AND THEIR ACTUAL AGE simultaneously

Asha: Yes! It’s so true! That billionaire I mentioned is 46 and looks 56!

Lakshmi: And actually Tree our CEO here embodies that well too like her skin is smooth but she looks like she's been on the Earth a while! And obviously she ACTS like she's been on the earth awhile

Asha:  Which also makes a difference.

One of the reasons we look like we’re aging different than boomers is that we associate the clothing and hairstyles of the 50s and 60s with being “old” (Also a big decrease in smoking and drinking probably)

Lakshmi: For example the interns at HEBE are a big part of this book-- they make the company's culture

Asha: The part about the interns was so interesting!

Lakshmi: But those "girls" aren't pretending to be young-- they are young! they are new to the work world and new to New York and they have that starry eyed glow that comes with being NEW - but live in NYC for a year and it's gone hahaha

Asha: I think it working on two levels:

1) the interns are actually young, and

2) they’re interns which means they’re probably underpaid or unpaid. 

So there’s a comment the beauty industry right there

Lakshmi: An aside about smoking-- I do kind of believe that millennials look young(er) because

1) we don't smoke cigarettes as much and 

2) which I think is very relevant-- we missed vaping – vaping is awful.

So I do buy that-- but I don't pretend we look 27! But I would say that 27 year olds now look older perhaps if they vape?IDK

Asha: Compared to some people I think we look 27 😆, but that’s a tangent for another day

Lakshmi: Yes

But omg Sophia was such a difficult character to spend time with!

Asha: She really is…

Lakshmi: Yes she is insecure and has self destructive compulsive behaviors that literally damage her skin, but omg SO SPINELESS

Asha: And she might be a sociopath?

Lakshmi: Own your choices, fictional girl!

Those bits reminded me of COME CLOSER, so we do have a bit of an unreliable narrator here.

Asha: I don’t think she’s necessarily unreliable, I think she’s honestly telling us what’s happening, but she has skeletons in her closet. And her choices are definitely not our choices.

She is an extremely flawed protagonist

Lakshmi: And an extremely traumatized protagonist. I think that makes it creepier in a way, she's in on it, but she keeps going because her quest for beauty is more important than anything else.

Asha: Definitely

Lakshmi: One of the most interesting parts of the book is that she has suffered traumatic loss-- but that makes her cling to youth rather than recognize how lucky she is to grow older (vs the people she cared about who did not have the chance to get older), so there were a lot of levels here!

Asha: I think that happens a lot honestly – you idolize the time before the trauma

Lakshmi: This is very different source material-- but like in Bridgerton! (Anthony's novel)

Asha: How so?

Lakshmi: He was convinced he would die at the same age as his father and so he clung to not emotionally progressing? (but it's been a while since I read it so maybe I am adding in plot points haha)

Asha: (I thought it was more that he saw how much pain his mother was in after his father’s death and decided he wouldn’t put anyone through that)

Lakshmi: Aww the NYT reviewer didn't like this part: 

Unfortunately, the continual descriptions of food, drinks, meetings and vaping turmeric root, and the long side chapters about Sophia’s youth, distract from the main narrative and dilute the punch of the cautionary tale at the novel’s core.

I actually thought the turmeric root vape was so funny because it did show how "trendy" things take things out of cultural context. Like turmeric is healthy--but it's not TRANSFORMATIVE and definitely not useful in a vape. But the buy-in of the concept by everyone at HEBE shows how distorted this universe is.

Asha: I agree, I think those descriptions added to the whole world-building.

But there was a lot of vomiting for my taste!

Lakshmi: Yes there is a lot of literal body horror

Asha: I definitely read the body horror parts quickly

Lakshmi: I skimmed certain parts about what Sophia's injured hands look like.

Asha: Exactly, I can imagine the body horror pretty well, I don’t need to read all of it

Lakshmi: The big reveal of what is in the cream is well done, but a lot, and also it is SO nihilistic. Which I know it is supposed to be but the willingness of both Sophia and Tree to destroy everything around them for their own goals got overwhelming

(I know this is the point but it was hard to balance!)

Asha: I think there’s a nihilism inherent in pursuing a goal like anti-aging so single-mindedly

Lakshmi: And you again see that all of the time in real life – like women who undereat while pregnant because they are afraid of weight gain; or if you ever go down the "how to fix ozempic face" rabbit hole…it's like -- oh these people are doing weight loss drugs to get rid of fat but THEN are getting fillers because they are like "oh we didn't mean FACE FAT" etc

Asha: This is basically Hollywood in a nutshell

Lakshmi: I do think this is a good book for book clubs --- but only if all of the people know each other well, because I do think it brings up a lot of interesting thoughts about what it means to be a person -- especially a person in a female/female-presenting body today and the expectations that come with that.

Asha: Agreed

Lakshmi: So the "reveal" is kind of predictable-- but that didn't matter to me. I thought it was more about the execution and the WHY behind the decisions made that really power this narrative.

What did you think?

Asha: I agree, the cream’s main ingredient isn’t really as important as the lengths they’ll go to to get that ingredient.

Lakshmi: Are you glad you read it?

Asha: I am

Lakshmi: Same!

Each month, we’re sharing our current list of pop culture favs with readers! These are a few of our (current) favorite things!

What we are watching: 

Asha: I’m still on an AppleTV+ kick! The latest season of Slow Horses started last month so I’m deep into inept British spies and Gary Oldman.

Lakshmi: I just watched the 2006 BBC adaptation of Jean Rhys “Wide Sargasso Sea” and it was both marvelously creepy and quite disturbing!

What we are reading: 

Asha: So many of the shows I like are based on books! Slow Horses is based on Mick Herron’s spy series (the first book shares its title with the show), which means I’ve started that series as well. I’ve just finished the fourth book, Spook Street, and I have the fifth, London Rules, on hold. 

Lakshmi: I’ve been looking forward to Devika Rege’s book Quarterlife ever since I met the author at a book event earlier this year. It is an incredible look at what it means to come of age in Modi’s India and it is just so moving and readable. 

What we are listening to: 

Asha: One of my 6yo piano students introduced me to Jon Batiste’s Butterfly, so now I’m on the search for more piano-based jazz. Send us your recs! 

Lakshmi: I’ve been listening to a lot of songs by English Italian singer Jack Savoretti lately. It all started when I saw perform his song “Bada Bing Bada Boom” with Miles Kane on the ”Graham Norton Show” earlier this month. He’s latest album “Miss Italia” is particularly relevant to our interests — it’s the first time Savoretti has written and performed an entire album in Italian and I keep thinking how powerful it must have been to sing a long in his father’s native language on one of the most popular shows in the UK.