Book Club September 2023- The Goddess Effect
By: Sheila Yasmin Marikar
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Little A
Pages: 288
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): All she wants is to be her best self. Is she ready? Absolutely. Does she know what to expect? Absolutely not.
Anita is over her life in New York: her dead-end job, tiny studio apartment, self-obsessed friends, and overbearing mom. So she moves west to Los Angeles in search of a new career, enlightenment, and that nebulous target…wellness.
She discovers an elite workout class called the Goddess Effect, run by a lifestyle guru named Venus who’s the very definition of #goals. One look at her Lululemon-clad acolytes sweating out their demons while dripping with confidence and Anita’s all in. When one of the class regulars takes Anita under her wing, Anita’s sure she’s found her people.
But Anita’s not so smitten that she doesn’t wonder about a few things: an inexplicable invitation to a Goddess Effect retreat, a strange tradition of secret sharing, and whispers about “enhancements” that only Venus can provide. Anita is awakening to a terrifying epiphany: the Goddess Effect isn’t quite what it seems, and it may turn her world—and that of everyone around her—upside down.
What I thought
This was not one of my favorite book club picks. The main character was so unlikeable and it felt like a story I had read a thousand times before. It was short and a quick read, and I did end up enjoying the final 25%, but overall it kind of annoyed me.
Anita is a first generation India-American who decides to move from New York to LA about 6 months after her dad has died to start over. She doesn’t really have any friends, the few that she does are not very kind to her and vice versa. She doesn’t have a good relationship with her mom, and she has quit her job on a whim. She decided to move to LA to find herself and go after her “dream job” by moving into a commune. While in LA she discovers the boutique fitness studio, The Goddess Effect. She becomes invested but soon starts to feel like it might not be all it seems.
This is your standard “female run company is actually up to no good” story. Anita is sort of in media, but she doesn’t have a job so she works out twice a day at this new studio. She doesn’t really even start to investigate it or feel like something is off until 75% of the way through the book when a media company tells her to. And even then, it’s not until some random dude comes and tells her shit is weird. Up until that point, she’s still considering going to work for The Goddess Effect!
Anita annoyed me so much. She was obsessed with VSCO filters, posting her life on social media with the perfect caption and hashtag, and clavicles. So much commenting on people’s clavicles. She’s shallow and lazy and she drove me nuts. I did appreciate towards the end that she at least acknowledged these negative qualities within herself.
The final 25% of the book saved it for me. Up until then, I was leaning towards rating it 2-2.5 stars. But when it finally got to exposing The Goddess Effect and Anita doing some actual investigative journalism, I enjoyed it a lot. I felt like it was not longer Anita just walking around and complaining about her life without doing anything. I wish the epilogue had been a little bit better, but it did wrap it up slightly.
What Book Club Thought
Oh boy. This was a fun one to discuss. One of our book club members didn’t end up getting around to it so we all got to explain the insanity of what went on and it was a lot of fun. It also helped us to remember all of the crazy details that happened. It was funny because we would be like “oh yea! That happened too but wasn’t as crazy as XYZ so I forgot about that!”
We didn’t talk much about the social implications and maybe the take on society. And one of our book club member’s boyfriends asked if it was maybe a take on the NXIVM cult scandal. We discussed that for a little bit and it could have been a nod to that and a way for the author to express some thoughts.
If you do choose to read this book, I highly recommend doing so with someone. You are going to have a lot to discuss or else you will just end up hitting your head against your wall at the stupidity of the characters.