The Goddess Effect Audiobook By Sheila Yasmin Marikar cover art

The Goddess Effect

A Novel

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The Goddess Effect

By: Sheila Yasmin Marikar
Narrated by: Sheila Yasmin Marikar
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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.

©2022 Sheila Yasmin Marikar (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction United States Women's Fiction World Literature

Critic reviews

“Marikar successfully provides larger-than-life caricatures of wellness industry denizens and LA residents at large as well as an outrageous mystery waiting to be exposed.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“This is a funny and fresh coming-of-age tale. Recommended for readers of Elin Hilderbrand or Jennifer Weiner.” (Library Journal)

“The frothy exterior of Marikar’s debut hides a sharp bite that readers who enjoyed Leigh Stein’s Self Care will appreciate.” (Booklist)
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The woman who wrote this book wrote a delightful book. I enjoyed the story, she actually has a very nice voice and she does a good job. Unfortunately she also pauses long long terrible excruciating pauses all through the book. Too many, too often!!!!! I actually sped the voice to 1.5X to try to avoid the pauses and yet they were still so long that listening to this book was excruciating.

Listening to pauses is awful

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Yes, the narration is as bad as everyone says. The author sounds like an answering machine that’s struggling to stay awake… and losing the battle. I tried listening to this on 1.4x speed which helped with the weird long pauses and pacing, but it didn’t do anything for the monotonous lack of inflection and choppiness.

Also, the story doesn’t start until Chapter 5 and still hadn’t gone anywhere by Chapter 14, when I finally gave up. I think I kept trying to give it a chance because, while wellness industry feminist satire novels are having a moment, I thought it would be interesting to see how the protagonist’s cultural lens would come into play as part of the commentary.

If you’re reading this, I assume you have Audible. Check out the Audible Original “Self Center”; it came out the same year and is exponentially better.

Don't Say You Weren't Warned

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The story wasn’t bad, but sometimes the author should leave the reading to someone more experienced. I listened to this at 1.3x normal speed just so that it WOULD sound normal. Strange pacing, long pauses and flat intonation made this less enjoyable than it could have been.

Story is OK, reader was not

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She should not read the next book-pace and monotone voice harder to keep interested

Narrator

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Great story, very entertaining, but lost its way at times feeling a lite dragged out and slow to start.

entertaining read

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Very long weird pauses made me think my speakers battery died or I lost internet connection. Didn’t even get remotely interesting until the last 3 hours and then it was very predictable.

Took a while to get to the point

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The story is a really good one. I related having lived in LA. But I’m sorry to say that the author should not have narrated it maybe because she spoke so slowly, I could hear her breathing and so many times I thought Audible got clicked off or something because of such long pauses.

A bit slow but good story

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struggled to finish due to the narrator's monotone delivery. All the dialogue was delivered in the same way so it was hard to differ between characters. There were also long pauses when I thought my phone had shut down but it was just long pauses !!! LoL

Different Narrator Needed

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Good story that kept my interest. The protagonist was a complicated and often unlikable character, but it felt genuine. The main drawback was the narrator and the strange long pauses.

Good story, narrator needs improvement

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even at 1.5 spead the narration was so slow. I think the story would have been good but I couldn't get past the narrator.

bad narration

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