Radiant Shimmering Light

By: Sarah Selecky

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan

A nuanced satire - both hilarious and disconcerting - that probes the blurred lines between empowerment, spirituality, and consumerism in our online lives

Lilian Quick is 40, single, and childless, working as a pet-portrait artist. She paints the colored light only she can see, but animal aura portraits are a niche market at best. She's working hard to build her brand on social media and struggling to pay the rent.

Her estranged cousin has become Internet-famous as "Eleven" Novak, the face of a massive feminine lifestyle empowerment brand, and when Eleven comes to town on tour, the two women reconnect. Despite 20 years of unexplained silence, Eleven offers Lilian a place at the Temple, her Manhattan office. Lilian accepts, moves to New York, and quickly enrolls in the Ascendency, Eleven's signature program: an expensive three-month training seminar on leadership, spiritual awakening, and marketing. Eleven is going to help her cousin become her best self: confident, affluent, and self-actualized.

In just three months, Lilian's life changes drastically: She learns how to break her negative thought patterns, achieves financial solvency, grows an active and engaged online following, and builds authentic friendships. She finally feels seen for who she really is. Success!

But can Lilian trust everything Eleven says?

This compelling, heartfelt satire asks us: How do we recognize authenticity when storytelling and magic have been co-opted by marketing?

©2018 Sarah Selecky (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Got all lost in shimmering light.::.

This story completely dissolves into descriptions of auras and colors. There was no real resolve of any of the story lines. Very unsatisfying. (And annoying the way she goes on and on about all the colors she sees. It’s like she no longer lives in reality, just floating away in a sea of new age phrases and color swirls)

I kept waiting for the punchline ...

I hesitate to write negative reviews but this was one of the most infuriating books I've ever listened to. I stuck with it only because I kept thinking maybe I was missing the point, or maybe it was supposed to be funny, or maybe it would surprise me and come to an insightful conclusion about the insipid, narcissistc world of lifestyle bloggers and social media branded spirituality and vegan food and meditation workshops and yoga retreats. Instead, it's 12 hours of my life I can never get back and so much eye rolling that I probably strained a muscle. It was like getting stuck on an airplane with a crazy, neurotic, intolerable, entitled person who won't stop talking about themselves. The narration was so bad it reminded me of Siri but to no fault of the narrator--I'm sure it was for lack of any material that gave her permission to emote. To make matters worse, after all the time I wasted waiting for a scintilla of satisfaction or some big reveal, the story (or lack thereof) ended without any conclusion at all -- as senseless as the plot itself. Don't waste your time or your money. I'll lose sleep over wondering how this novel ever got published in the first place.

Not worth the time.

I would have I should have stopped listening to this right at the beginning and exchanged it but I slog through the entire thing so I won’t ask for my money back since I did listen to it. It was just drivel that’s all I can say. New Age drivel at that.

Radiant New Age Blabbering

The narrator did a great job on a story with no substance., The author did use beautiful language to describe color auras and I appreciate the beauty in that part of the work. I listened to the entire book hoping the the protagonist would wake up from her digital age Ponzi scheme madness but (spoiler alert) she only becomes more entrenched. Waste of time unless you believe in the dream of digital curated retail as a legitimate way to make a living. The part about living with and creating art was the only redeeming quality of the book.

OMG, this is Ridiculous

I am a big g fan of Lisa Flanagan, and she is the only reason I listened as long as I did. It was nice to have a book about someone who is 40. But the continuous gibberish that comes from this woman sounds more like a 20 something ditzy flake.

I am so unhappy with this waste of a credit.

Ugh, 12 hours of this. ...pulling my hair out