The Glow
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Glow
Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Gabra Zackman
-
By:
-
Jessie Gaynor
About this listen
A desperate young publicist tries to save her career by turning the charismatic leader of a grungy retreat center into the hot new self-care brand in this “wryly funny [and] fabulous debut novel” (The New York Times Book Review).
“A satire both cutting and careful in its approach, The Glow is a triumph.”—Elle
A GLAMOUR AND LIT HUB BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Jane Dorner has two modes: PR Jane, twenty-five, chummy, and eager to sell you a feminist vibrator or a self-care/bereavement subscription box; and Actual Jane, twenty-nine, drifting through mediocre workdays and lackluster dates while paralyzed by her crushing mountain of overdue medical bills. When her job performance is called into question, Jane’s last-ditch effort to preserve her livelihood and pay off her debt is to land a white whale of a client.
Enter the impossibly gorgeous Cass—whom Jane discovers scrolling through Instagram—and her unassuming husband, Tom—proprietors of a “wellness retreat” based out of a ramshackle country house that may or may not be giving off cult vibes. Suddenly Jane realizes she might have found the one ladder she can climb—if she can convince them that transforming Cass herself into a high-end wellness brand is the key to all three of their futures. Magnetic yet mysterious, Cass is primed to be an influencer: She speaks in a mix of inspirational quotes and Zen koans, eats only zucchini (the most spiritually nourishing vegetable), and has baby-perfect skin. Despite Tom’s reticence about selling out, Jane sets out to mold Cass into the kind of guru who can offer inner peace and make your skin glow—all at a hefty price, of course. As Jane reckons with her own long-dormant ambitions, she wonders: Can a person really “do good” for others while profiting off them? And what parts of our selves do we lose when we trade power, influence, and beauty?
Sparklingly plotted, deliciously deadpan, and irresistibly entertaining, The Glow is a razor-sharp sendup of an industry built on the peculiar intersection of money and wellness, where health is a commodity and self-care a luxury.
©2023 Jessie Gaynor (P)2023 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Rouge
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 226
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 200
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 200
For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
What a fun romp!
- By Barbara S on 10-10-23
By: Mona Awad
-
Bright Young Women
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Knoll
- Narrated by: Sutton Foster, Imani Jade Powers, Corey Brill, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,875
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,739
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,738
Masterfully blending elements of psychological suspense and true crime, Jessica Knoll—bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and the writer behind the Netflix adaptation starring Mila Kunis—delivers an “unflinching and evocative” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) thriller in Bright Young Women. The book opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive, including a sorority president and key witness, Pamela Schumacher, are forever changed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Perfectly executed historical fiction
- By Louie Z on 12-03-23
By: Jessica Knoll
-
Wellness
- A Novel
- By: Nathan Hill
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,886
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,737
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,736
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty '90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
you have to believe it'll work
- By Alex halladay on 09-22-23
By: Nathan Hill
-
All-Night Pharmacy
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Madievsky
- Narrated by: Moniqua Plante
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 91
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 78
On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister Debbie to Salvation, a Los Angeles bar patronized by energy healers, aspiring actors, and all-around misfits. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions—nothing unusual for two sisters bound in an incredibly toxic relationship. Our unnamed narrator has always been under the spell of the alluring and rebellious Debbie and, despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Good enough listen but not quite there
- By Caroline on 09-02-23
By: Ruth Madievsky
-
Natural Beauty
- A Novel
- By: Ling Ling Huang
- Narrated by: Carolyn Kang
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 151
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 136
Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
unlikable characters, but crazy ass plot
- By Miranda Vonn Graves on 03-26-25
By: Ling Ling Huang
-
You Can Trust Me
- A Novel
- By: Wendy Heard
- Narrated by: Kelsey Navarro Foster, Natalie Naudus
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 86
Summer and Leo would do anything for each other. Inspired by the way each has had to carve her place in a hostile and unforgiving world, and united by the call of the open road, they travel around sunny California in Summer’s tricked-out Land Cruiser. It’s not a glamorous life, but it gives them the freedom they crave from the painful pasts they’ve left behind. But even free spirits have bills to pay. Luckily, Summer is a skilled pickpocket, a small-time thief, and a con artist—and Leo, determined to pay her own way, has learned a trick or two.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Entertaining
- By Ighor Tavares on 06-16-23
By: Wendy Heard
-
Rouge
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 226
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 200
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 200
For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
What a fun romp!
- By Barbara S on 10-10-23
By: Mona Awad
-
Bright Young Women
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Knoll
- Narrated by: Sutton Foster, Imani Jade Powers, Corey Brill, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,875
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,739
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,738
Masterfully blending elements of psychological suspense and true crime, Jessica Knoll—bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and the writer behind the Netflix adaptation starring Mila Kunis—delivers an “unflinching and evocative” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) thriller in Bright Young Women. The book opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive, including a sorority president and key witness, Pamela Schumacher, are forever changed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Perfectly executed historical fiction
- By Louie Z on 12-03-23
By: Jessica Knoll
-
Wellness
- A Novel
- By: Nathan Hill
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,886
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,737
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,736
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty '90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
you have to believe it'll work
- By Alex halladay on 09-22-23
By: Nathan Hill
-
All-Night Pharmacy
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Madievsky
- Narrated by: Moniqua Plante
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 91
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 78
On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister Debbie to Salvation, a Los Angeles bar patronized by energy healers, aspiring actors, and all-around misfits. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions—nothing unusual for two sisters bound in an incredibly toxic relationship. Our unnamed narrator has always been under the spell of the alluring and rebellious Debbie and, despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Good enough listen but not quite there
- By Caroline on 09-02-23
By: Ruth Madievsky
-
Natural Beauty
- A Novel
- By: Ling Ling Huang
- Narrated by: Carolyn Kang
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 151
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 136
Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
unlikable characters, but crazy ass plot
- By Miranda Vonn Graves on 03-26-25
By: Ling Ling Huang
-
You Can Trust Me
- A Novel
- By: Wendy Heard
- Narrated by: Kelsey Navarro Foster, Natalie Naudus
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 86
Summer and Leo would do anything for each other. Inspired by the way each has had to carve her place in a hostile and unforgiving world, and united by the call of the open road, they travel around sunny California in Summer’s tricked-out Land Cruiser. It’s not a glamorous life, but it gives them the freedom they crave from the painful pasts they’ve left behind. But even free spirits have bills to pay. Luckily, Summer is a skilled pickpocket, a small-time thief, and a con artist—and Leo, determined to pay her own way, has learned a trick or two.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Entertaining
- By Ighor Tavares on 06-16-23
By: Wendy Heard
-
The Rachel Incident
- A Novel
- By: Caroline O'Donoghue
- Narrated by: Tara Flynn
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 657
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 605
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 605
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best narration
- By LG on 01-12-24
-
Yellowface
- A Novel
- By: R. F. Kuang
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 5,106
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,644
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 4,642
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I've never hated a character harder
- By ashelyn downs on 07-26-23
By: R. F. Kuang
-
Bad Summer People
- A Novel
- By: Emma Rosenblum
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 363
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 326
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 326
Jen Weinstein and Lauren Parker rule the town of Salcombe, Fire Island every summer. They hold sway on the beach and the tennis court, and are adept at manipulating people to get what they want. Their husbands, Sam and Jason, have summered together on the island since childhood, despite lifelong grudges and numerous secrets. Their one single friend, Rachel Woolf, is looking to meet her match, whether he’s the tennis pro. But even with plenty to gossip about, this season starts out as quietly as any other. Until a body is discovered, face down, off the side of the boardwalk.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Not a thriller, not a mystery
- By Anonymous User on 05-25-23
By: Emma Rosenblum
-
Day
- A Novel
- By: Michael Cunningham
- Narrated by: Julianne Moore
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 110
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 98
April 5, 2019: In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, husband and wife, are slowly drifting apart—and both, it seems, are a little bit in love with Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, is living vicariously through a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house—and whose departure threatens to break the family apart.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The writing is lovely.
- By D. W. Trimm on 12-01-23
-
Everything Nothing Someone
- A Memoir
- By: Alice Carrière
- Narrated by: Alice Carrière
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 113
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
Alice Carrière tells the story of her unconventional upbringing in Greenwich Village as the daughter of a remote mother, the renowned artist Jennifer Bartlett, and a charismatic father, European actor Mathieu Carrière. From an early age, Alice is forced to navigate her mother’s recovered memories of ritualized sexual abuse, which she turns into art, and her father’s confusing attentions—her childhood is spent in an adult’s world, with little-to-no boundaries or supervision.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
This book is awful.
- By af_90 on 12-17-23
By: Alice Carrière
-
Detransition, Baby
- A Novel
- By: Torrey Peters
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,369
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,162
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,168
Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Emotional Torture
- By Teh Micha on 04-27-21
By: Torrey Peters
-
How Can I Help You
- By: Laura Sims
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Maggi-Meg Reed
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 98
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 82
No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
what a great listen!
- By Blue sky on 08-03-23
By: Laura Sims
-
Girls and Their Horses
- By: Eliza Jane Brazier
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 81
When the nouveau riche Parker family moves to an exclusive community in the heart of Southern California, they believe it’s their chance at a fresh start. Heather Parker is determined to give her daughters the life she never had—starting with horses. She signs them up for riding lessons at Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian, where horses are a lifestyle. Heather becomes a “Barn Mom,” part of a group of wealthy women who hang at the stables, drink wine, and prepare their daughters for competition.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Narrating is so good!!
- By Aly on 08-10-23
-
Absolution
- A Novel
- By: Alice McDermott
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky, Rachel Kenney
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 375
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 335
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 335
American women—American wives—have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in Absolution they take center stage. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. In Saigon in 1963, the two women form a wary alliance as they balance the era’s mandate to be “helpmeets” to their ambitious husbands with their own, inchoate impulse to “do good” for the people of Vietnam.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The narration was brilliant…totally engrossing and beautifully spoken
- By Karen Lausa on 12-13-23
By: Alice McDermott
-
The Art of Scandal
- By: Regina Black
- Narrated by: Mela Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 164
On the night of her husband Matt’s fortieth birthday, Rachel Abbott receives a sexy, explicit text from her husband that she quickly realizes was meant for another woman. Divorce is inevitable, and Rachel is determined not to leave her thirteen-year marriage empty handed. Meanwhile, Matt, a rising star mayor with his eye on the White House, can’t afford a messy split in the middle of his reelection campaign. They strike a deal: Rachel gets one million dollars and lavish house in the wealthy DC suburb of Oasis Springs, as long as she keeps playing the ideal Black trophy wife until the election.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not what I expected.
- By Romance Schmomance on 02-03-24
By: Regina Black
-
Stone Cold Fox
- By: Rachel Koller Croft
- Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 181
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 160
Like any enterprising woman, Bea knows what she’s worth and is determined to get all she deserves—it just so happens that what she deserves is to marry rich. Filthy rich. After years of forced instruction by her mother in the art of swindling men, a now-solo Bea wants nothing more than to close and lock the door on their sordid partnership so she can disappear safely into old-money domesticity, sealing the final phase of her escape. When Bea chooses her ultimate target in the fully loaded, thoroughly dull and blue-blooded Collin Case, she’s ready to deploy all of her tricks one last time.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Dark sinister mother & daughter
- By Jill R. Misrack on 03-03-23
-
The Sullivanians
- Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune
- By: Alexander Stille
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 34
In the middle of the Ozzie and Harriet 1950s, the birth control pill became available and a maverick psychoanalytic institute, the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis, opened its doors in New York City. Its founders wanted to start a revolution, one grounded in ideals of creative expression, sexual liberation, and freedom from societal norms, and the revolution needed to begin at home.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
As a former member…
- By Lisa Cohen on 07-10-23
By: Alexander Stille
Critic reviews
“Wryly funny . . . 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. . . . 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 New York Times Book Review
“Money, influence, and perfect skin do not always make for good chemistry.”—Elle
“Gaynor is a great writer who’s turned her critical eye to the self-care industry in her debut novel, The Glow. . . . Get ready to laugh (at ourselves and modern society too, of course)!”—Lit Hub, “Most Anticipated Books of 2023”
Loved this book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fantastic summer listen!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Smart, witty Goop-esque beach read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved this satire!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What exactly were we supposed to feel or learn from this? It could have been soooo good.
Such a great premise, but missed the mark.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you enjoy books about vapid characters…
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.