Other People’s Bodies by Megan Nicol Reed

When does self-care become self-destruction? When does a supportive community turn into something darker? Megan Nicol Reed's Other People's Bodies strips bare the wellness culture, exploring the blurred lines between empowerment and control. She exposes how quickly ‘getting healthy’ can become something more sinister.

Verity, Flick, Min, Sally and Kat join a boutique gym run by the charismatic Lars and his wife Priya. They are five very different women and they think they’ve found something special. Each woman has real vulnerabilities that make them open to Lars’s influence. He’s disturbingly believable, blending some legitimate advice with increasingly coercive control. But Lars isn’t working alone! Each of the women also play an unsettling part.Meanwhile Priya, watching from the margins, provides the perspective we need. Her arc is genuinely satisfying, someone who's been silent for so long in her husband's shadow, finally making choices that matter, at real cost.

Megan expertly captures groupthink, the psychological phenomena where a group prioritises consensus over critical thinking. These friends ignore the warning signs, pressure each other to conform and make increasingly questionable decisions because they’re all in it together. They rely on each other to confirm their experiences, creating this closed loop where doubt feels like disloyalty and asking questions becomes betrayal.

The topical threads Megan weaves together are spot-on. The pick-and-mix nature of modern wellness: a bit of cold plunge therapy here (backed by centuries of Scandinavian tradition!), some dietary restrictions there (supported by the latest study!). Cardio versus strength training. Carbs versus fats. We've all seen these debates and watched friends disappear down wellness rabbit holes. Why? Because when you desire answers, control and belonging, the echo chamber is so inviting.

Megan draws sharp connections between wellness trends and more coercive dynamics including the manosphere and trad wife culture. She clearly shows how charismatic leaders may appear to offer simple solutions, promising belonging in exchange for supporting their worldview. Whether it's a wellness guru with the perfect diet, a manosphere influencer dictating masculine identity or trad wife content creators romanticising women’s return to domesticity, they share a similar pattern of control presented as liberation.

Other People's Bodies will make you reconsider every wellness trend in your feed, every confident voice telling you how to optimise yourself. It's sharp, honest and so current it feels like Megan has been reading our collective anxiety. Who gets to define what ‘your best self’ even means?

Highly recommended for anyone who's ever felt the desire to be better, healthier or stronger!

Reviewer: Andrea Molloy

Allen & Unwin