“Smile and Look Pretty” - Amanda Pellegrino

💻 My first thought was that I hoped this novel would be relatable even though I’m clearly not a member of the IG generation. SLP centers on a group of young women trying to make it in their respective fields. What do they have in common? They’re all presently stuck at some form of assistant-purgatory, and hoping against hope to make their way out. The bosses seem uniformly terrible - I got a “Devil Wears Prada” meets “Bad Bosses” vibe.

💻 I almost didn’t finish this book. I’m glad I did, but more on that below. The plot development felt clumsy. How did the website to publicly shame bad bosses become a revolution just like that? How did 3/4 of the friends justify the loss of anonymity early on? The characters definitely felt slightly one-dimensional, each seeming to blend into the other.

💻 If you can get beyond the sudden viral sensation of the website and most of the girls’ lack of concern about ramifications, the plot picks up speed with the investigative journalism angle. Pellegrino weaves gaslighting, victim-blaming, and self-doubt into a narrative that eventually becomes compelling.

💻 Real world tie-in: the closely guarded secret of DeuxMoi’s identity was revealed not that long ago, proving that digital footprints are very much real and internet anonymity is not ironclad; a lesson we all (but especially the IG generation) could do well to learn!