How Does 'Wellness' Critique Self-Help Culture?

Victoria, "Tori", a young lady fresh out of nursing school landed her dream job at the prestigious Hidden Falls Medical Center. Her boss asks her if she would work at a home with a young man injured in a house fire. When she learns he is the next Alpha to the Hidden Falls Pack and all of her fears and anxiety returns. Memories of her mother taking her away from her father, an Alpha himself, due to infidelities and growing up with twisted horror stories of werewolves told by her mother just to keep her away from her father. Learning at a young age that she has a Genesis wolf, or healer wolf, but unable to shift, she decided to use her abilities to help others. Little does she know that her father has been searching for his little girl for seventeen years. After looking for her in every town, city, and even a few other packs, his Beta, Victor, and his Gamma, Eric, have stumbled upon her by sheer chance. Having known Tori when she was a little girl, Victor is excited and impatient to find her and bring her home. He is so close until he learns from Eric, who happens to be Tori's best friend's fiancé and mate, that she will be going to another pack, just out of reach. As her friend comes along to the pack as her assistant, she works with the injured Alpha, who turns out to be her fated mate, but later rejects her, she learns more about her abilities, and the power she possesses, and desired by the greedy Alpha who will stop at nothing to have her, even after rejecting her. But a second chance mate is ultimately her savior and has been with her all along.

My adoptive parents' long-lost daughter came back. She's a wellness influencer. She eats from crystal bowls she "cleansed." Sleeps with a white noise machine. She will only ride in a custom, climate-controlled car. That's not all. She filled our family's Manhattan law firm with Himalayan salt lamps and energy crystals. The espresso in the conference room? Replaced with gluten-free, organic dandelion root tea. "The energy here is so murky," she'd say. "We need to cleanse the world with love and light!" My guilt-ridden parents gave her everything she wanted. Even my fiancé told me, "Ava, you stole twenty years of her Upper East Side life. Can't you cut her some slack?" The day of the final hearing for our firm's biggest case, the entire court had to wait for her to finish her "emotional cleansing meditation." The judge was furious. I stood up. Delivered a flawless closing argument. I won our client $500 million and secured the future of the firm. But at the party, she had a drunken breakdown, fell into the pool, and drowned. My parents and my fiancé blamed me for everything. "You always have to win, don't you? It was a simple, open-and-shut case. You couldn't even let her have that?" They had me committed to a psychiatric hospital. They destroyed my law license and my reputation. They even had me injected with a fatal overdose of sedatives. I died full of hate. The next time I opened my eyes, I was back. Back to the day she was crying on her Instagram Live, begging for the case. This time, I walked straight into our rival's law firm. This "sure-win" case? I'm going to make you lose everything.

Those words defined Claire Reid's entire life—and her death. At twenty-eight, she dies in a hospital bed surrounded by the family she sacrificed everything for: the father who forced her to quit school, the sister who took everything she had, the husband who treated her like an inconvenience, and the mother who demanded endless gratitude for their abuse. As her heart stops, Claire sees their relief and realizes the devastating truth: she wasted her life loving people who never loved her back. Then she wakes up. One year earlier. One month before her family frames her for theft. This time, Claire refuses. Refuses to give money. Refuses to stay silent. Refuses to be grateful for crumbs. Armed with knowledge of their betrayals and a fury born from her wasted first life, she systematically dismantles their manipulations, exposes their schemes, and reclaims her identity. But when she tries to leave her cold, arranged marriage, something unexpected happens.

The novel consists of several mini-stories about therapy sessions at a therapy clinic named "Soulmate", but the letters "m-a-t-e" were broken in a storm. Each mini-story is narrated by both the psychologists and the patients, describe the patients' worldview, why they do what seems "mentally ill" to us. We often say that the patients' head is abnormal, that their way of thinking is so weird. But is there any possibility that it's because they received different (whether right or wrong) information, so they react differently? Is that just because we "normal people" haven't got enough understanding about this world? Throughout the story, we could see that therapy sessions are a two-way arrow. While the experts are affecting the patient, the patient is also influencing them,“When you look deeply into the darkness, the deep darkness is also looking into you". The story does not make any conclusion about who is right or which world is real, maybe all of them are real, maybe they are all virtual, or maybe, it all doesn't matter. Isn't the world where we live? Wherever you live, that's your world.

As the third-generation heir of the Oakenfeld Medical Group, 33-year-old Frost bears the weight of being the Chosen Son. However, having witnessed the cruelty and hypocrisy embedded in family feuds, he finds himself profoundly exhausted by family love and anything that stirs his emotions and prompts love. A solitary panther, he discovers solace and fulfillment in one place alone: the operating table. On the other hand, Bianca, a dedicated yoga instructor, grapples with severe allergies that can lead to fainting spells triggered by the scent of spring flowers or even someone else's cooking. Committed to a life of celibacy, her primary goal is to purchase a house. Bianca harbours a significant secret despite being labelled a "rich client harvester" by her peers due to her hard work in accumulating wealth. Their paths cross dramatically during a commercial shoot that takes a tragic turn, where Bianca sacrifices her life to save Frost. Despite this courageous act, animosity brews between them. Surprisingly, Frost, determined to express his gratitude, decides to buy an entire neighbourhood for Bianca. Rejecting his offer, Bianca is left stunned when she stumbles upon Frost's deepest secret. Unveiling a chilling revelation, the secrets of these two individuals converge toward a distant, mysterious, and sinister direction.

On our third wedding anniversary, Kent gave me a gift. A black metal wristband. Cold. Sleek. He called it a new product from his company—a pain-sharing system. The other user was Violet. His "girl bro." The person he was closer to than his own sister. Kent brushed a hand over my cheek, his gaze soft. "Clara, you're too coddled. You should learn from Violet. She's tough." Then he snapped the wristband onto my wrist. So while Violet got a full-back tattoo and an entire sleeve, I felt every single needle. When Violet went wingsuit flying, I collapsed at home. Every bone in my body felt shattered. I threw up blood. While she soaked up attention online as the "extreme sports queen," I was drowning in nonstop pain. Kent sat beside me, holding my hand as he cared. "Just hang in there. Violet's just being herself. As my wife, you should be more understanding." To finally push me over the edge, Violet decided to livestream herself jumping into the ocean to make me die in her place. Their friends couldn't wait to watch. Later, I watched calmly from a hospital room as the system slowly drained the life out of her. Kent looked deranged as he demanded to know why I wasn't dead. Because I had already reversed the system. All her vitality had become the nourishment that sustained me.