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A review by izzyvb023
youthjuice by E.K. Sathue
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
‘Youthjuice’ is very accurately being described as the little sister to Ling Ling Huang’s ‘Natural Beauty.’ It was overall pretty good and entertaining. Fans of ‘Natural Beauty’ or Mona Awad’s ‘Rouge’ would probably enjoy it. However, it was lacking a bit for me in terms of plot/characters.
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
I think the flashbacks to the moments with Mona would have been more compelling if the big twist was that the secret ingredient to youthjuice was the blood of addicts/homeless people. To me, Tree and Sophia both would be much more compelling and terrifying characters if the addiction storyline was fleshed out in that way- I could totally see Tree justifying it by saying that nobody would miss these people. It would tie in the Dom story with the Mona story and help make better sense of the moment Sophia sees Tree in the park. Furthermore, it would then be especially heinous for Tree to be seemingly secretly getting the interns addicted to drugs. Instead, the story with the interns is a little clunky. The big reveal was predictable and not really satisfying. I also wish we got to understand more of Sophia’s mental state. There are several parts of the book where she is delirious and then doesn’t remember what happened to her. She doesn’t drink, but describes several instances of feeling drunk. There wasn’t really a resolution on this-was it the blood? Was it drugs? Was it just her deteriorating health? Why did she write those things in her journal and forget them entirely?
Overall it was a fun Halloweeny horror read and I liked the unreliable narrative. But if readers haven’t read ‘Rouge’ or ’Natural Beauty’ yet, I recommend reading those first.
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
I think the flashbacks to the moments with Mona would have been more compelling if the big twist was that the secret ingredient to youthjuice was the blood of addicts/homeless people. To me, Tree and Sophia both would be much more compelling and terrifying characters if the addiction storyline was fleshed out in that way- I could totally see Tree justifying it by saying that nobody would miss these people. It would tie in the Dom story with the Mona story and help make better sense of the moment Sophia sees Tree in the park. Furthermore, it would then be especially heinous for Tree to be seemingly secretly getting the interns addicted to drugs. Instead, the story with the interns is a little clunky. The big reveal was predictable and not really satisfying. I also wish we got to understand more of Sophia’s mental state. There are several parts of the book where she is delirious and then doesn’t remember what happened to her. She doesn’t drink, but describes several instances of feeling drunk. There wasn’t really a resolution on this-was it the blood? Was it drugs? Was it just her deteriorating health? Why did she write those things in her journal and forget them entirely?
Overall it was a fun Halloweeny horror read and I liked the unreliable narrative. But if readers haven’t read ‘Rouge’ or ’Natural Beauty’ yet, I recommend reading those first.