Audiobook Review: ‘The Glow,’ by Jessie Gaynor

THE GLOW, by Jessie Gaynor. Read by Gabra Zackman.

In a last-ditch effort to impress her boss and not get fired from her public relations job — and to keep chipping away at an overwhelming medical debt — Jane attends a woo-woo wellness retreat in order to bag its enigmatic leader, Cass, as a new client. She’s warned that this retreat may be a cult, but maybe this cult could bring in a lot of money.

Wryly funny and read with a delicious sharpness by Gabra Zackman, Jessie Gaynor’s fabulous debut novel, “The Glow,” is a deft sendup of wellness culture that delves a few levels deeper. Punching up at the Goop set is easy; what’s harder is empathizing with them.

All professional pretenses quickly fall away the moment Cass appears. She’s a mystery that everyone around her wants to solve, which gives her the power in every room (or outdoor meditation circle) she enters. Jane, Cass and her husband, Tom — whose trust fund keeps the operation running — join together to form an uneven team, with allegiances shifting in ways that are sexy, heartbreaking and revealing.

Gaynor understands what makes wellness appealing, and why even the most staunch nonbelievers could find themselves feeling completely satiated by a diet made up mostly of zucchini, kelp and money.

THE GLOW | By Jessie Gaynor | Read by Gabra Zackman | Random House Audio | 8 hours, 7 minutes

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