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Beauty Sleep
When beauty columnist Amy Martin and endocrinologist David Copeland investigate a miraculous beauty cream called "Makeover," they uncover an insidious plot that threatens the lives of the world's most beautiful women
Paperback
First published June 1, 1990
5 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Klein
87 books238 followersDaniel Klein is the co-author of the international bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar. He is a Harvard graduate in philosophy and an acclaimed writer of both fiction and nonfiction. When not enjoying the slow life on Greek islands, he lives in Massachusetts with his wife. He is seventy-five years old.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 28, 2025
It started out okay, but literally by the end of the second page, it was already headed straight into melodrama territory. As soon as any woman is called "my beauty," especially by a man she just met, I know I'm in for some eye-rolling. And that's mostly what I was doing, rather than the "steadily turning the pages and chewing (my) nails," as promised by the NY Times Book Review.
What seemed to be a reasonably routine thriller wound up being a weird combination of something by Mary Higgins Clark (of whom I've never been a fan) and some way-out-there conspiracy story complete with a villain whose only lack was a mustache to twirl. We have our female protagonist who makes stupid decisions but winds up in a Happily Ever After at the end, some really farfetched scientific and medical situations that we're supposed to accept as plausible, and some awkward writing as well. The emphasis on "beauty" as a goal for everyone involved is a bit much (that whole maxim about beauty being in the eye in the beholder and all that is never touched on, because looking like a supermodel is apparently the only thing that matters or that they're good for, nor does it occur to anyone that the appearances of all of these women referred to as "beauties," for whom it seemed to be their whole identity, was bound to fade and change with age, even with all this magical treatment). In fact it got to the point that if I read the word "beauty" one more time, I was going to start tearing out the pages on which it appeared; I wondered how many pages I would have left if I yielded to that temptation.
I had never heard of this author before I happened to find this book. Apparently he has written other "medical thrillers," as they're called. I admit that I might read another one if I happen to come across a copy; I'm merely curious as to whether his other books are as preposterous as this one.
What seemed to be a reasonably routine thriller wound up being a weird combination of something by Mary Higgins Clark (of whom I've never been a fan) and some way-out-there conspiracy story complete with a villain whose only lack was a mustache to twirl. We have our female protagonist who makes stupid decisions but winds up in a Happily Ever After at the end, some really farfetched scientific and medical situations that we're supposed to accept as plausible, and some awkward writing as well. The emphasis on "beauty" as a goal for everyone involved is a bit much (that whole maxim about beauty being in the eye in the beholder and all that is never touched on, because looking like a supermodel is apparently the only thing that matters or that they're good for, nor does it occur to anyone that the appearances of all of these women referred to as "beauties," for whom it seemed to be their whole identity, was bound to fade and change with age, even with all this magical treatment). In fact it got to the point that if I read the word "beauty" one more time, I was going to start tearing out the pages on which it appeared; I wondered how many pages I would have left if I yielded to that temptation.
I had never heard of this author before I happened to find this book. Apparently he has written other "medical thrillers," as they're called. I admit that I might read another one if I happen to come across a copy; I'm merely curious as to whether his other books are as preposterous as this one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review