In her gripping and sharply observed second novel, arts and fashion journalist Vanessa Lawrence (Ellipses) offers an insider's view of the power dynamics within the beauty industry through a brilliant but flawed protagonist whose secrets threaten to destroy her career.
The novel begins when Maxine "Max" Thomas learns that the board of Reveal, the successful cosmetics company she founded, is planning to remove her after an explosive allegation. Holing up in her luxury NYC apartment over the next few days, Max looks back over her life. Max has always known that she was attracted to women and wanted to use her talent with makeup to make them beautiful. Rejected by her loveless parents, she left home while still a teenager, doing makeup for wealthy women and depending on referrals to survive. With a client's investment and her own single-minded drive, Max created a bestselling brand. The trade-off was keeping her sexuality a secret and looking away from misogyny and homophobia in the industry. But the suppression of her sexual identity, the grind of corporate politics, and her own ambition has come at a personal cost. When Max embarked on an affair with her much-younger assistant, Amanda, she was too blinkered to see the lines she was crossing. Now, as she prepares for a showdown with Reveal's board, Max stands to lose everything she has worked so hard to achieve.
Lawrence lends thoughtful insight into the cosmetics trade, including the development and marketing of products. Sheer is a smart, provocative examination of how women in business are forced to juggle competing loyalties to themselves and one another at the intersection of exploitation and empowerment. --Debra Ginsberg, author and freelance editor