One of the 10 Best Pop Fiction Titles of 2020—Library Journal
One of the Fifteen Best Books Our Book Critic Read this Year—VOX
“Highbrow brilliant”—New York Magazine
"Just try not to snort your Moon Juice out your nose while laughing your ass off."—Refinery29
The female cofounders of a wellness start-up struggle to find balance between being good people and doing good business, while trying to stay BFFs.
Maren Gelb is on a company-imposed digital detox. She tweeted something terrible about the President's daughter, and as the COO of Richual, “the most inclusive online community platform for women to cultivate the practice of self-care and change the world by changing ourselves,” it's a PR nightmare. Not only is CEO Devin Avery counting on Maren to be fully present for their next round of funding, but indispensable employee Khadijah Walker has been keeping a secret that will reveal just how feminist Richual’s values actually are, and former Bachelorette contestant and Richual board member Evan Wiley is about to be embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal that could destroy the company forever.
“Self Care proves Leigh Stein’s status as a great ‘demolition expert’ (Kenneth Tynan’s term for Bernard Shaw) of the influencer era.”—The New Republic
"[An] extremely enjoyable, pitch-perfect satire of this brand of feminism that reached its apogee before the election. [It's] a blistering satire of internet social dynamics, of the way social justice critique can be a tool of interpersonal warfare. It's so well-timed and so well done. While I was reading it, there were long stretches of time where I forgot about the hell world we were living in."—Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times Argument podcast
“A brutal dissection of ‘Insta-worthy’ culture, the unconscionable capitalistic impulses behind wellness ventures, and the farce of forced community building.”—Vulture
"Brutal and brutally funny...Stein presents a punchy, bracing criticism of modern feminism's transformation into a commercialized hellscape of goat yoga, healing crystals, and 'girl bosses.'"—Esquire
“This is the self-aware callout culture novel that we need, but don't deserve.” —Salon
order yourself a treat. you deserve it.
bonus content
Sandra Lee Bartky’s “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization Of Patriarchal Power,” is the academic essay that inspired Khadijah’s Panopticon project. Bartky discusses the male gaze and the discipline imposed on the female body.
Bustle and the Industrialization of Confession is about the real survey that inspired Maren’s influencer survey.
Spa Fruit Infused Detox Water recipes—for the true Self Care experience, pair with a snail mucin sheet mask
interviews with leigh
Women in the Workplace: The Unfinished Fight for Equality (CBS, produced by Soledad O’Brien Productions; Leigh starts talking about the girlboss around minute 12)
The Unpseakable podcast interview with Meghan Daum about girlbosses
“Leigh Stein’s latest novel is as decadent and brutal as a vampire facial. It’s an exposé of feel-good feminism, an indictment of contemporary capitalism, and an absolute treat to read. This book will make you laugh, gasp, and vow to get off social media for good – and it’ll understand when you can’t help but log right back on.”
“Self Care is a skewering mockumentary about influencer culture, internet feminism, and the infinite ways that big tech capitalizes on our worst fears and insecurities. Utterly teeming with humor, this is exactly the sort of book that Dorothy Parker would have written if she’d been reincarnated as an Instagram celebrity.”
“It’s not just that I found Self Care wildly entertaining, I found it deeply illuminating. So this is how the clickbait gets cooked up! I learned, I laughed, I loved every page. What I especially admired was Leigh Stein’s rare ability to be hilariously wicked while remaining deeply empathetic. I say skip your next juice cleanse and read this brilliant and delightful novel.”
“Wickedly talented Leigh Stein—for my money, one of our sharpest millennial writers—knows the internet, and she’s used that intimate knowledge to write a pitch-perfect novel for our times. Self Care is a hilarious and sneakily moving send-up of what it means to try and live when every move you make is observed and dissected online, by a writer who sees the truth and says it with so much humor and heart you’ll laugh (and maybe cry) out loud.”
“A titillating satire about our quest for validation and the lengths that some will go to for #selfactualization, Self Care is an intelligent, delightful read that will make your mind (and epidermis!) glow.”
“I couldn’t stop laughing. I loved it.”
“Though the turmoil at the center of “Self Care” is entertaining…it’s not the thing that kept me reading. Instead, it was Stein’s deft navigation of the shades of superficial feminism, the lexicon of start-up culture and the tone of a generation reckoning with how to be honest with itself.”
“Biting…a novel of manners for our 280-character era.”
“Stein’s sharp writing separates her from the pack in this exquisite, Machiavellian morality tale about the ethics of looking out for oneself.”