Aesthetica

By: Allie Rowbottom

Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens

At nineteen, she was an Instagram celebrity. Now, at thirty-five, she works behind the cosmetic counter at the "black and white store," peddling anti-aging products to women seeking physical and spiritual transformation. She too is seeking rebirth. She's about to undergo the high-risk, elective surgery Aesthetica, a procedure that will reverse all her past plastic surgery procedures, returning her, she hopes, to a truer self. Provided she survives the knife.

But on the eve of the surgery, her traumatic past resurfaces when she is asked to participate in the public takedown of her former manager/boyfriend, who has rebranded himself as a paragon of "woke" masculinity in the post-#MeToo world. With the hours ticking down to her surgery, she must confront the ugly truth about her experiences on and off the Instagram grid.

Propulsive, dark, and moving, Aesthetica is a Veronica for the age of "Instagram face," delivering a fresh, nuanced examination of feminism, #MeToo, and mother-daughter relationships, all while confronting our collective addiction to followers, filters, and faux realities.

©2022 Allie Rowbottom (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Should have had deeper meaning but didn’t

Really not worth the time. Not at all a statement about the skewing of body image on social media. Def skip this one. No message, no meaning. Just sensationalism.

Weird but felt unfinished

There are many interesting and horrifying parts of this book, certainly brings the ugliness of social media and image to the forefront, but as a cohesive story, I felt the ending didn’t bring it all together. Something felt missing.

Truly Awful

I would not recommend. This was a waste of time. Not worth it at all.

Disappointing!

A book that contains many emojis that must be verbally described is not a good candidate for an oral book. At the end of the story, all I could do was ask myself “what was that all about?!?” A cautionary tale, perhaps? But one I certainly didn’t need…