“Beauty is pain.” It’s an old adage meant to assuage the blisters born from pointed-toe heels, the pinch and pull of shapewear, the sting of bleach searing your scalp raw. It also hints at the horror beneath the endless pursuit of perfection, the impossible societal standards that fuel a twisted desire to be poreless, ageless, ever-shrinking—standards that disproportionately impact women but increasingly target men and kids, too.
Look beyond the surface of beauty and wellness, particularly under late-capitalist influencer culture, and you’ll often find an exercise in body horror. At its tamest, that might mean drinking viscous, unregulated supplements that promise to enhance from within; sacrificing layers of skin to exfoliating acids; or slathering ourselves in snail mucus for a dewy glow. At the more extreme end, we might shave our natural teeth down to shards, sacrificing enamel for pearly-white veneers; inject our faces with toxins that keep skin unwrinkled and immovable; and, should we be unsatisfied, submit to a doctor’s scalpel for more permanent effect.
All this mental and physical havoc has increasingly become fodder for horror, which is especially effective at examining these ubiquitous insecurities and grotesqueries. Look no further than Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy film The Substance, which follows an aerobics star facing the twin cruelties of misogyny and ageism; her desperate use of the titular serum has brutal consequences. Such sharp, satirical takes abound in recent fiction, which reveals that beauty, at least are we’re sold it, has a dark side. At turns acerbic, incisive, funny, and unsettling, these listens will get under your skin—and stay there.
One of our selections forthe best horror audiobooks of 2023, Mona Awad’s dark, decadent Rogue follows a bereaved young woman named Mirabelle whose clearest memories of her now-departed mother center on her otherworldly beauty. After traveling back home to settle the affairs, Mirabelle soon becomes fixated on the mysterious nature of her mother’s death—a rabbit hole that ultimately leads her to La Maison de Méduse, a luxurious secret spa that her mother frequented. Awad’s unraveling of the cult-like draw of the beauty world is heightened by conversations on grief and trauma and the performance of Sophie Amos, who delicately weaves life into this hypnotizing fever dream about the insidious side of good looks.
There’s nothing wrong with appreciating a good moisturizer or acknowledging the good that a multivitamin or workout regimen can have on well-being. The danger lies in the commercialization of wellness, when health and self-care take a backseat to profits and the implications for consumers. HEBE, the luxury skincare company at the core of E.K. Sathue’s viscerally titled youthjuice, is one such entity: an aspirational brand that promises to perfect your life as much as your complexion. When Sophia takes a job at HEBE, she quickly succumbs to the allure of their products and promises. But what, exactly, makes their moisturizer so effective? And does Sophia even care, so long as her newfound beauty doesn’t falter? Narrator Suzy Jackson brings a soft, deliberate humanity to the characters Sathue has crafted, emphasizing that anyone—your neighbor, sister, coworker, or perhaps even yourself—could be hooked just as easily.
A fiercely satirical take on consumerism, beauty obsession, identity, class, race, and desire, Ling Ling Huang’s debut brims with dark humor and squirm-inducing body horror. The story opens as a piano prodigy must abandon her promising musical future to care for and financially support her ailing immigrant parents after a devastating accident changes everything. She gets a job at Holistik, a glamorous New York health spa run by a narcissistic tech capitalist, and before long, she is ensnared in the privileged world of luxury products and procedures, lulled by the hypnotic messaging of beauty as self-care. But beneath that veneer lies something menacing. Impeccably read by Asian American performer and native New Yorker Carolyn Kang, this listen will leave you seriously reconsidering your next facial.
As beauty trends have changed with time, so have different methods of sustaining physical health and wellness, from fad diets to dubious detoxes to a rainbow of pills, powders, and supplements for every imaginable ailment. And after recently living through a global health crisis, who among us who hasn’t considered the perks of a better immune system and a stronger body? Author Mira Grant’s vision of the future in the Parasitology trilogy is one completely free of disease. Illness has been eradicated thanks to the helping hand of SymboGen, a corporation that has pioneered immune support in the form of a custom-fit tapeworm. But these genetically modified parasites aren’t interested in riding shotgun, and when they reach self-awareness, humanity might be at risk.
Though the beauty industrial complex has always existed in one way or another, its impact has only grown since social media became an all-encompassing force. Influencer culture affects both those who consume it and those who produce it, skewering and straining viewers’ relationships with their physical forms while forcing content creators to pursue perfection at any cost. The protagonist of Aesthetica is all-too familiar with this dynamic after skyrocketing to the ranks of internet celebrity at only 19. Now, going on a decade later, she works a retail gig peddling beauty products and pines for a rebirth courtesy of a risky cosmetic surgery reversal that very well might kill her. Hours before she’s set to go under the knife, the trauma of her past comes surging back as she’s called to reevaluate past relationships and bring long-hidden secrets to light. A grim exploration of feminism, capitalism, and notoriety, this cutting listen explores the blurry space between filtered fiction and the purity of what’s “real.”
Like Aesthetica, Jessica Gaynor’s scathing The Glow ferociously tackles the commodification of well-being in the influencer age. The novel centers on Jane, a publicity specialist struggling with mounting medical debt who sees the opportunity of a lifetime in husband-and-wife Cass and Tom, an aesthetically ideal couple with a marketable brand. The pair runs a cultish barnhouse wellness retreat, and Jane, sensing the chance for a big payout, sets out to model the insanely gorgeous Cass into a picture-perfect influencer. Weighing questions of selling out, cashing in, and the cost of transactional connections, Jane must contend with her own self-image and long-lost ambitions. Gabra Zackman takes this novel’s searing deadpan humor to the next level with an exquisitely snarky, sardonic tone that underscores the absurdity of wealth and beauty and the farcical notion of spirituality packaged for consumers.
Who among us hasn’t fallen victim to the wellness industry’s seductive allure? After all, if something as simple as a collagen smoothie, windowsill crystal, or intensive yoga regimen could fix everything about your life, why wouldn’t you give it a shot? Amina Akhtar plays with that tantalizing promise of perpetual self-improvement in Kismet, a sharp thriller about the secrets hidden behind the veneer of personal well-being. When native New Yorker Ronnie Khan meets wellness guru Marley Dewhurst, she immediately falls under her spell. Ronnie leaves Queens for Sedona, Arizona, hoping to find peace and her higher, better self at a mysterious, mystical wellness retreat. But the business of self-care can be bloody indeed, and when the bodies begin to mount, Ronnie must uncover the truth. This eerie, twisty, and fiendishly funny listen is made all the more irresistible thanks to its glimmers of magical realism and a gifted trio of narrators in Dilshad Vadsaria, Kimberly Woods, and Rhett Samuel Price.
Don't let the insanely beautiful rose-tinged cover of If I Had Your Face fool you—this literary K-thriller is brimming with disturbing assessments of the Korean beauty industry and some bursts of body horror for good measure. The story follows four young women navigating life in contemporary Seoul. There's the otherworldly beauty Kyuri, who works in an infamous “room salon” entertaining businessmen; her roommate, Miho, an artist from a difficult past entangled with a corporate heir; Ara, a hairstylist and K-pop obsessive who must look on as her best friend elects to undergo extreme cosmetic procedures; and newlywed Wonna, who wants to become a mother but is unable to afford it. As the lives of these women converge and their friendship develops, they'll weather the demands of capitalism, overconsumption, classism, and impossible beauty standards.
