Publishers Weekly
11/20/2023
Journalist and YouTuber Graziosi’s witty and unsettling debut shines an uncompromising light on European influencers. Maia, 26, the novel’s caustic narrator, has come undone after the death of her younger sister after a series of mental and physical health problems. Leaving her university classes in Paris, she has moved to Milan with her older boyfriend, a professor who is rapidly losing interest in her. There, a friend asks if she might be interested in working as an image consultant for Gloria, a prominent social media personality who’s still in high school. Maia and Gloria become friends of a sort, with the benignly vacuous Gloria pumping Maia for her opinions, and Maia growing accustomed to a life of luxury until a drug-fueled weekend reveals the cracks in their relationship. The lightly sketched plot wobbles at its few moments of consequence, mostly involving Maia’s feelings about her sister’s death. For the most part, though, Maia’s narration remains tartly amusing, full of acid one-liners about the people in this strange new world (Gloria smiles “in every photo as if she has facial paralysis”; another influencer bemoans her white privilege while “brushing away a golden lock from her lips which have been enlarged by injections”). Graziosi’s trip down the social media rabbit hole is as glossy and entertaining as it is perceptive. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
A cross between Ingmar Bergman's Persona and Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, this book shows what happens when an influencer is influenced—by someone with nothing left to lose.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Graziosi’s witty and unsettling debut shines an uncompromising light on European influencers...tartly amusing, full of acid one-liners...as glossy and entertaining as it is perceptive.”—Publishers Weekly
“Ms. Graziosi is a shrewd and funny chronicler of social-media and influencer culture.”—Wall Street Journal
“Her novel...is at its most nimble when Maia observes influencer culture. A mandate issued by Gloria’s manager about her client still haunts me: 'You have to give her a personality'.”—New York Times Book Review
“From Maia’s initial disdain for Gloria, the novel tracks their relationship against the exploitative wilderness of the algorithm and builds to a culmination of multiple reckless, explosive episodes. A racy Gen. Z take on female friendships bearing the influences of My Brilliant Friend.”—Electric Literature
“I appreciated the bird’s eye view into the younger set’s trials and tribulations which at their core, are actually ageless and universal.”—SRQ Magazine
“The Other Profile delivers a thought-provoking commentary on influencer culture and the prevalent facade within the realms of social media, offering a short yet sombre and Black Mirror-esque reading.”—India Munday, BUZZ Magazine
“A solid and succinct novel that’s focus on social media proves darkly illuminating.”—Chris Haigh, Set the Tape
“A true gem.”—Grazia
“Addresses body image, wealth, education, consumerism and mental health all while keeping me riveted to the plot...an edgy, dark commentary.”—Ravalli Republic
“Social media's hall of mirrors, and its gained and lost followers, amplify the surreality of Maia's gritty, youthful struggle, which will resonate with readers.”—Booklist
“As a character study it has bite.”—On the Seawall
“Sharp, intelligent… A hypnotic debut.”—Corriere della Sera
“A writer able to render in minute detail the contrast of light and dark in the ties that bind us to each other.”—Nadeesha Uyangoda, Internazionale
“Great writing, three-dimensional characters, and a plot that reveals the soft underbelly of Instagram’s branded activism.”—Vice
“Only a writer of Graziosi’s generation could have been able to tell us from the inside the ways in which we are changing and what, day after day, we risk losing forever.”—Nicola Lagioia, Strega Prize-winning author of Ferocity
“At a time when women characters are often brilliant but rarely reckless, Graziosi has crafted a narrator that is not only unpleasant, but truly, unapologetically bad.”—Natalia Aspesi, La Repubblica
“The Other Profile sheds light on the distortions and eccentricities of life in the era of social media.”—Rivista Studio
“Razor-sharp and magnetic.”—Wired
Kirkus Reviews
2023-11-04
In a world where what people are selling is themselves, this novel asks whether there’s any self left.
At 26, Maia Gatti is treading water; she’s dropped out of her competitive master's degree program in Paris and is living in Milan with an older boyfriend while picking up shifts at the local bar. Her biggest pleasure is buying gummy crocodiles and eating just one handful before dousing the rest in dishwashing detergent. There is a heart underneath all her apathy; she’s drowning out her sister’s recent death with Law & Order reruns. Her life changes when she gets a job as an image consultant to a pretty 18-year-old influencer named Gloria Linares. Maia can't stand Gloria until she sees the sadness beneath the girl’s photo-ready exterior. As the two become intertwined, the boundaries between them start to fall away, and Gloria becomes the sun around which Maia turns. That is, until Gloria copies something that Maia can't bear to give away—her grief. An act of revenge severs the tie between the two and sets Gloria free from her manicured image. A cross between Ingmar Bergman’sPersona and Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, this book shows what happens when an influencer is influenced—by someone with nothing left to lose.
Graziosi tackles the question of what, in the digital age, is really ours.
