A fallen influencer reluctantly reinvents herself as a cult leader in this surreal, satirical debut.
Sasha Marcus's profile as a skincare and wellness guru was skyrocketing when a confrontation with an online harasser brought it crashing down, getting her fired from her day job and dumped in the process. She seems to be alone in the world until her childhood friend Dyson appears, asking her to join him in his new business venture: a cult to reform problematic men.
From early in the story as she tells it, it's apparent that something major came of their enterprise and that something went wrong. She refers to being asked about Dyson in a way that makes it clear he is no longer available to ask directly. There is a slightly ominous tone along with an absurdist bite; men have been spontaneously coming together in "man hordes" that may perform mundane tasks like washing all the windows at a nursing home or may break into a house and strangle a dog. Dyson describes the cult he names the Atmosphere as a solution for depressed white men who are a danger to themselves, whom he convinces to join with a false promise of job training. But Sasha is less certain about his motives, and about being the lone woman at a camp for desperate men.
Suspenseful and bitingly funny, The Atmospherians by Alex McElroy is a sharp satire of self-help and influencer culture. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library